The Cardinals are the oldest continuous professional American football club in the
United States.
[1][2][3] The team was formed in 1898 as the
Morgan Athletic Club in
Chicago. The club was then called the
Racine Normal since they were originally located in
Normal Park on Chicago's Racine Avenue (not
Racine, Wisconsin, as mistaken by many). They then changed their name to the
Racine Cardinals after they started wearing red uniforms, inherited from the
collegiate Chicago Maroons.
After becoming a charter member of the NFL in
1920, the club was renamed the
Chicago Cardinals. In 1944, during the lean years of
World War II, it temporarily merged into the
Pittsburgh Steelers and became one franchise, usually referred to as
Card-Pitt, for that one season. The Cardinals moved to
St. Louis, Missouri in
1960 becoming the
St. Louis Cardinals. The club then relocated to the Phoenix metropolitan area in
1988, first playing at
Sun Devil Stadium in the suburb of
Tempe. The team was known as the
Phoenix Cardinals before it started using "Arizona" in its name in
1994.
