When the Philadelphia Eagles take the field for the Super Bowl Feb. 9 in New Orleans, it will serve as the latest reminder of that franchise's historical ties to an initial owner who loved Saratoga Race Course and horse racing.
The Eagles trace their history to 1933, when Bert Bell, who was plenty familiar with days of betting horses at Saratoga and nights on the town in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., led a group of investors to purchase the dormant Frankford, Pa., franchise in the National Football League and rename it the Philadelphia Eagles. (Frankford is now considered a neighborhood of Philadelphia.)
As documented in the 2019 book, The League, by John Eisenberg, they paid a $2,500 franchise fee and $11,000 owed to other teams to gain entry. The book notes that on the day the deal was finalized in 1933, Bell was walking in Center City Philadelphia and saw a billboard promoting President Franklin Roosevelt's National Recovery Act that featured a bald eagle. The team would have its name.
The League is a terrific work describing how five men largely shaped the early days of the NFL and left their mark on the game today. As it turns out and possibly pointing to the gamble that was the early days of the NFL, three of those men were plenty familiar with horse racing—specifically gambling on the races. I'd been reading the book over this fall and thought I'd highlight some of these ties ahead of this year's Super Bowl.
Bell, who would later invent the NFL Draft and become commissioner; Tim Mara, a bookmaker in New York City and Saratoga Springs who spent either $500 or $2,500 to purchase the New York Giants in 1925; and Art Rooney Sr., who purchased the Pittsburgh franchise from winnings at the track, are that trio.
Born into a wealthy Philadelphia family, Bell had been a standout football player at the University of Pennsylvania and served in a U.S. Army mobile hospital unit during World War I. According to the book, he would prove to be a bit of a Black Sheep of the family; at one point losing at the Saratoga betting windows a portion of $100,000 his father had promised him for an arranged marriage.
That venture caused his father to cut him off from family funds but on those trips to Saratoga he met Tim Mara and his son Jack, as well as Rooney.
Tim Mara and Rooney's horse racing ties ran deeper than Bell's. As a bookmaker, Mara had made considerable money while forging connections with Vanderbilts, Astors, and Whitneys. His family continues to own the Giants.
According to the book, Rooney ran bets for customers at his father's saloon and once he turned his attention to betting, he quickly enjoyed success. He turned down a contract to play minor league baseball, telling the club, "I can make more money at the racetrack."
The book notes that after eloping, Rooney won $10,000 on the Belmont Stakes and the couple then traveled the country by train, stopping at every track from New York to Tijuana. The book later covers a heater that Rooney started with some Thoroughbred plays recommended by Mara at Empire City racetrack and carried all the way to Saratoga where Rooney would make close to $100,000 on a single card—equivalent to $2.27 million today. In 1933 he purchased the Steelers.
The Rooney family still owns the Steelers and continues to be involved in racing. Empire City, which would shift to Standardbreds exclusively and become Yonkers Raceway, was purchased by the Rooney family in the 1970s before eventually being sold to MGM, which took ownership in 2019. Tom Rooney, a former Congressman and grandson of Rooney Sr., breeds and races horses and is president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
