The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a team in the National Football League. Frankford is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, located in the northeastern part of the city, noted chiefly for the elevated subway line that originates there. The Yellow Jackets played in the NFL from 1924 until 1931, failing to complete their schedule in the last year, mainly due to financial hardships brought on by the Great Depression. They 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 an away game on Saturday and a home game on Sunday of the same weekend.

On October 26, 1931, the franchise suspended operations one day after the team defeated the Chicago Bears 13-12 at Wrigley Field — a result that ultimately took on some historical significance because it would be the last time the Philadelphia-based NFL team won an away game over the Bears until October 17, 1999, when the Philadelphia 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). Indeed, Bell and Wray reactivated the franchise on July 9, 1933 under the name "Philadelphia Eagles;" however, due to the gap in time between the Yellow Jackets' demise and the Eagles' birth (and the fact that virtually no players who were on the 1931 Yellow Jackets' roster also played for the 1933 Eagles), the NFL officially treats the two franchises as separate entities despite the commonality and continuity of their ownership.

External link

Ghosts of the Gridiron: The Frankford Yellow Jackets