Arizona Cardinals History and Information
The Cardinals are the oldest existing football club in the United States, beginning as an amateur athletic club team in Chicago, IL. named the Morgan Athletic Club. They began to field a pro team even before the founding of the National Football League. The team was located on Racine Avenue in Chicagoand became known for a while as the Racine Cardinals.
The team became a charter member of the American Professional Football League (which became the NFL in 1922) in 1920, for the franchise fee of $100. The team was renamed the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 after a team from Racine, Wisconsin entered the league. That season the team moved into Comiskey Park.
The Cardinals won their first NFL championship in 1925, finishing the season with a record of 11-2-1 (until the 1933 season, the league champion was determined solely by win-loss percentage). The team posted a winning record only twice in the twenty years (1931 and 1935) after their championship.
In 1960 the team moved to St. Louis. During this period, two big-league teams of that name existed in the city. Sports fans and local news broadcasters got into the habit of calling them "the football Cardinals" or "the baseball Cardinals" to distinguish the two. The change in scenery did little to alter the team's fortunes. During the Cardinals' stay in St. Louis, they advanced to the playoffs just four times; and one of those was in a season-ending consolation game. The team left St. Louis in 1987 when city would not build a new stadium.
In 1988 the Cardinals moved to Arizona, became the Phoenix Cardinals, and started playing home games in Sun Devil Stadium, also home to the Arizona State University football team. They became the Arizona Cardinals in 1994. The Arizona Cardinals will move into their new state-of-the-art stadium in Glendale, AZ for the 2006 NFL Season.
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