A Season of Necessity
In the spring of 1943 the United States was still wrestling with the demands of World War II, and professional football was no exception. With many players drafted into the military, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers found themselves short of manpower. Rather than suspend operations, the two clubs agreed to merge for the season, forming a temporary squad that would become known colloquially as the Steagles.
The new franchise was officially registered as the Phil‑Pitt Combine, but newspaper readers quickly dubbed it the Steagles, a portmanteau that captured the hybrid identity of the two schools. Coached by future Hall of Famers Walt Kiesling of the Steelers and Earl Neale of the Eagles, the team assembled a roster of roughly thirty players that blended veterans, rookie prospects and men classified as draft exemptions.
On the Field and in the Record Books
Despite the wartime constraints, the Steagles posted a 5‑4‑1 record, a winning season that surprised many observers. Bill Hewitt, a future Hall of Famer who earned the highest salary at $400 per game, anchored the offense, while the defense benefitted from the experience of players who had previously worn both Eagles and Steelers colors. The experiment demonstrated that the league could adapt creatively when faced with logistical crises.
The merger was part of a broader series of player and franchise exchanges that locals later called the Pennsylvania Polka. The arrangement involved swapping territories with Boston owner Alexis Thompson, a maneuver that saw the Rooney‑Bell Eagles shift to Pittsburgh while Thompson’s Ironmen moved to Philadelphia. Although the Polka was short‑lived, its legacy persisted; the 1944 Card‑Pitts merger built upon the same spirit of flexibility, and the Steelers’ later reputation for stability under Chuck Noll can be traced back to the organizational lessons learned in these early wartime years.