December 21, 1947: A Pennsylvania Playoff in the NFL

Program from a game between the teams,

earlier in the season

December 21, 1947: For the 1st time, an NFL team from Philadelphia plays a Playoff game. For the 1st time, an NFL team from Pittsburgh plays a Playoff game. And they play it against each other.

Both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers had been founded in 1933, in anticipation of the Pennsylvania legislature legalizing the playing of professional sports on Sunday within the State. It did so, making both teams viable. (The Philadelphia-based Frankford Yellow Jackets, forced to compete with high school and college teams for Saturday viewing, folded in 1931.)

In 1947, the Eagles and the Steelers both finished at 8-4, to tie for 1st place in the NFL Eastern Division. There was no tiebreaker: If either team had swept the other in the regular season, this Playoff game would still have to be played. For the record, though: On October 19, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, the Steelers won, 35-24; then, on November 30, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, the Eagles won, 21-0. Point spread, or "aggregate" as they would say in English soccer, didn't matter, either, so the fact that the Eagles would have won overall, 45-35, was meaningless.

The Playoff was played at Forbes Field. Having the home-field advantage did the Steelers no good: The Eagles won, 21-0, scoring a touchdown in each of the 1st 3 quarters. Tommy Thompson threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Steve Van Buren, then he threw a 28-yard pass to Jack Ferrante (Number 83 in the photo above), and finally Bosh Pritchard returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown.

Winning the game didn't do the Eagles much good: In their 1st NFL Championship game, a week later, coach Earle "Greasy" Neale's team lost to the Chicago Cardinals, 28-21. They reversed that result in 1948, and won another title in 1949.

The Steelers were coached by a dying man: Dr. John "Jock" Sutherland, a dentist, had a brain tumor, and died the following April. The team never recovered. It would be 1972 before they made the Playoffs again. By that point, realignment had put them in the AFC Central Division, and now the AFC North; while the Eagles were put in the NFC East, where they remain. They have never faced each other in the postseason again, and can only do so in the Super Bowl. Although they have been to 12 Super Bowls between them, they have never played each other in one.

So while Penn State vs. the University of Pittsburgh remains a big rivalry in college football, Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh is big in the NHL, less so in baseball, and barely even exists in the NFL.

*

December 21, 1947 was a Sunday. No other football games were played. Baseball was out of season. No NHL games were scheduled. There was 1 game played in the league that would become the NBA: The Chicago Stags beat the Baltimore Bullets, 93-83 at the Chicago Stadium.