Yellow Jackets

Frankford was still a working-class district on the edge of Philadelphia when its athletic association put together a football side in 1899. The Yellow Jackets did not join the league until 1924, and within two years they were champions: the 1926 title came down to a scoreless tie with the Chicago Cardinals, settled on the standings rather than the scoreboard, an odd way to win a championship but the only one Frankford ever got.

Guy Chamberlin ran the team from the sideline as well as playing on it, and it was under him that Frankford built the roster good enough to win in 1926; Hall of Fame tackle Link Lyman anchored the line through those years. The club's fiercest rival was up the road in Pottsville, a feud that turned bitter in 1925 when the Maroons were suspended by the league for playing an exhibition on Frankford's own turf.

Home games were played at Frankford Stadium, built for about 10,000 but regularly holding half again as many when the crowd was big enough. A fire tore through the stadium on 27 July 1931, and with the Depression already squeezing the gate receipts, Frankford had nowhere left to play and no money to rebuild. The team folded before the year was out.

What survived was the NFL slot itself. Bert Bell and Lud Wray took on the Yellow Jackets' outstanding debts to acquire that franchise position, and in 1933 turned it into the Philadelphia Eagles, the team that has represented the city in the league ever since.