Sports
Jim Williams » Who knew? The Car-Pitts made it to the Super Bowl
By: Jim Williams
Examiner Sports Columnist
January 25, 2009
In a week, the Pittsburgh Steelers will face the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII down in Tampa — but the two teams actually merged to play together for one season.
The year was 1944 and the country was at war. Sporting teams in all the major leagues were attempting to entertain America, while at the same time most of this country’s top athletes were serving in the military. The NFL was not the top-ranked league that we know today and they were very affected by the war.
The late Art Rooney, founder and owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, did not have enough players to field a team. He looked into working with the Cleveland Browns, but they had already chosen to sit out the 1944 season.
Rooney was approached by NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden to merge with the Chicago Cardinals, who had been winless in 1943, and reluctantly Rooney agreed to merge his team. So, for the 1944 season, the team was known as the Car-Pitts.
The team had co-head coaches, splitting their home games between Chicago’s Comiskey Park, and Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. They would finish the season a perfect 0-11.
Rooney once told me during an interview in 1979, “I can say that it was the worst football team that I have ever seen.
“I loved those guys that played for us at that time, but it was an awful team. The players were guys who were 4-F and could not fight. I am not sure that we provided much entertainment to our fans, but those were tough times for the country and for football fans.”
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on dcexaminer.com.
The year was 1944 and the country was at war. Sporting teams in all the major leagues were attempting to entertain America, while at the same time most of this country’s top athletes were serving in the military. The NFL was not the top-ranked league that we know today and they were very affected by the war.
The late Art Rooney, founder and owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, did not have enough players to field a team. He looked into working with the Cleveland Browns, but they had already chosen to sit out the 1944 season.
Rooney was approached by NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden to merge with the Chicago Cardinals, who had been winless in 1943, and reluctantly Rooney agreed to merge his team. So, for the 1944 season, the team was known as the Car-Pitts.
The team had co-head coaches, splitting their home games between Chicago’s Comiskey Park, and Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. They would finish the season a perfect 0-11.
Rooney once told me during an interview in 1979, “I can say that it was the worst football team that I have ever seen.
“I loved those guys that played for us at that time, but it was an awful team. The players were guys who were 4-F and could not fight. I am not sure that we provided much entertainment to our fans, but those were tough times for the country and for football fans.”
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on dcexaminer.com.
