Frankford Yellow Jackets

The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, though its origin goes back perhaps as far as 1899. Its home was Yellow Jacket Field in Frankford, a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, located in the northeastern part of the city, noted chiefly for the elevated subway line that terminates there. The Yellow Jackets won the NFL title in 1926, and were co-founded — and co-owned throughout their existence — by Bert Bell and Lud Wray.

The team often played a grueling schedule of 15 to 20 games a season. Frequently, they would schedule two games on the same weekend, typically one at home on Saturday and, because of Pennsylvania blue laws, an away game on Sunday.

The team failed to complete its final season, due mainly to financial hardships brought on by the Great Depression. On October 26, 1931, the franchise suspended operations the day after the team defeated the Chicago Bears 13-12 at Wrigley Field — a result that ultimately took on some historical significance as the last time a Philadelphia-based NFL team would win an away game over the Bears until October 17, 1999, when the Eagles won 20-16 at Soldier Field (Philadelphia also went 51 years without a road victory over the Green Bay Packers, the Eagles' 1979 win at Green Bay being the first since the Yellow Jackets had won there in 1928).

Bell and Wray reactivated the franchise on July 9, 1933 under the name "Philadelphia Eagles." However, because of the time gap since the Yellow Jackets' demise (and the fact that virtually no players from their 1931 roster played for the 1933 Eagles), the NFL officially treats the two franchises as separate entities despite the commonality and continuity of their ownership.

[edit] Season-by-season

(Record of NFL play only)

[edit] External link

• Ghosts of the Gridiron: The Frankford Yellow Jackets