Bert Bell
November 12, 1933
1926 NFL Champions, The Frankford Yellow Jackets, failed to complete their 1931 season and left Philadelphia without a professional football team for the next two years. Existing laws would take new franchise owner Bert Bell straight to the Governor and Pennsylvania legislature for a Philly first.
At that time the Pennsylvania Blue Laws, those laws that enforced Sunday observances of worship or rest, restricted Sunday shopping and prohibited sports games. As a prerequisite to franchise ownership, the laws required Bell to go to then Governor Gifford Pinchot and have him issue a bill to the Pennsylvania Legislature. Passed at the state level, a referendum on the Blue Laws later passed in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Eagles went on to tie their first Sunday game against the Chicago Bears 3-3 on this day in 1933.
