The two franchises were compelled to field a single combined team because both had lost many players to military service during World War II.

The league's official record book refers to the team as the "Phil-Pitt Combine",[1] but the unofficial and portmanteau variation of the "Steagles", despite never being registered by the NFL, has become the enduring moniker.

League officials rejected the plan, though it resulted in a convoluted ownership "two-step" that left Eagles owner Bert Bell with a share in the Steelers franchise.

The Steagles players were either unfit for military service for physical or dependency reasons, age, or were active servicemen who had obtained leave to play.

If a man had persons dependent upon him for support, such as a wife, parent, grandparent, brother, or sister, the draft board would not make him a priority until other possible candidates had been taken.

In late 1943, with increasing manpower requirements, the government defined a man classified as III-A as a married father whose child or children was born or conceived prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The second group of draft deferments, II-As, II-Bs, and II-Cs, consisted of those men who worked in critical civilian occupations, war industries producing and preparing ammunition, weapons and materials, or agriculture.

The third group (IV-Fs), were those men deemed unfit for military service due to ailments such as chronic ulcers, improperly-healed injuries, defects of the extremities, bad hearing, and partial blindness.

The Steagles tailback John Butler made his first start one day after being classified IV-F by his draft board for poor eyesight and bad knees.

[11] By the time Keisling arrived, Neale already had the offense learning the T-formation, which was all the rage in those days because of its success in college football that was used by Frank Leahy at Notre Dame and by Red Blaik at Army.

According to defensive back Ernie Steele, the situation between the two coaches got so bad that Kiesling and Neale walked off the field after a heated argument during practice before a game.

Another difficult issue at the time was that the Steelers and Eagles were bitter intrastate rivals (much like the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers rivalry of today) and usually both teams ended up near the bottom of the standings each year.

[14] Slowly, the team began to come together, and jumped out to a 2–0 start after defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants at Shibe Park.

Going into the season's final week, the 5-3-1 Steagles, with still a shot at the division championship, met Don Hutson and the Green Bay Packers in front of 35,000 fans at Shibe Park.

[16] The war ended by the time the 1945 NFL season started, and with the Brooklyn Tigers and the aforementioned Boston franchise permanently merging, there was an even number of ten teams to the delight of owners.

The Eagles, now having enough players back from the war, resumed their traditional operation and continued under Neale, who took home back-to-back coach of the year awards as Philadelphia won consecutive NFL championships in 1948 and 1949.

In the opening scene, the protagonist of the film, a bookish college professor, explains the history and meaning of the term to a pair of loudly arguing sports fans on a commuter train, and draws an admiring look from an Asian woman who is a fellow passenger.

[18] In addition the Steelers recreated the Steagles era in their "Turn Back the Clock" ceremonies, including broadcasting in black and white on the Jumbotron and airing World War II footage during the national anthem.

The Steelers later kept the "plain" design in the south end zone for future years, mainly during the portion of the season Heinz/Acrisure Field is shared with college's Pitt Panthers.

Steagles substitutions: Bova, Miller, Doyle, Kilroy, Paschka, Conti, Frank, Graves, Masters, Gauer, Steele, Thurbon, McCullough and Sherman.

Dodgers substitutions: Kowalski, Webb, Sergienko, Davis, Mooney, Grandinette, Owens, Gutknecht, Svendsen, Martin, McAdams, Bill Brown and Marek.

Giants substitutions: Dubzinski, Hein, Marone, Leemans, Roberts, Carroll, Pritko, Brown, Karcis, Kinscherf and Liebel.

Despite setting a league record by fumbling the ball ten times, the Steagles overcame the Giants on the strength of three fourth-quarter touchdowns.

Bears substitutions: Berry, Pool, Sigillo, Babartsky, Digris, Logan, Ippolito, Matuza, Mundee, Famighetti, Nolting, McEnulty, Vodicka, Luckman and McLean.

Giants substitutions: Pritko, Liebel, V. Adams, Carroll, Visnick, Marone, Roberts, Dubzinski, Hein, Leemans, Brown, Trocolor, Kinscherf, Sulaitis, Barker and Karcis.

Cardinals substitutions: Wager, Rexer, Robnett, Albrecht, Clarence Booth, Ghersanich, Cahill, Stokes, Puplis, Morrow, Smith, Martin.

Packers substitutions: Mason, Evans, Berezney, Goldenberg, Flowers, Falkenstein, Laws, Starret, Uram, Lankas, Kahler and Comp.