- 1988
-
Cardinals Relocate to Phoenix
Not long after the 1987 season, Bidwill agreed to move to the Phoenix area on a handshake deal with state and local officials, and the team became the Phoenix Cardinals. They planned to play at Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe on a temporary basis while a new stadium was being built. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the savings ...
History of the Cardinals
The Phoenix Cardinals are a professional American football franchise based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West division.
The team was established in 1898 as the Morgan Athletic Club, an amateur football team in Chicago, and joined the NFL as a charter member on September 17, 1920. The Cardinals are one of the oldest continuously run professional football teams in the United States, as well as one of two NFL charter member franchises still in operation since the league's founding, along with the Chicago Bears (the Green Bay Packers were an independent team until they joined the NFL a year after its creation in 1921). The team moved to St. Louis in 1960 and played there until 1987. The team in St. Louis was commonly referred to as the "Football Cardinals", the "Gridbirds" or the "Big Red" to avoid confusion with the Major League Baseball (MLB) team of the same name. Before the 1988 season, the team moved west to Tempe, Arizona, a college suburb east of Phoenix, and played their home games for the next 18 seasons at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University. In 2006, the team moved to their current home field in Glendale, although their executive offices and training facility remains in Tempe. From 1988 to 2012 (except in 2005, when they trained in Prescott), the Cardinals conducted their annual summer training camp at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The Cardinals moved their training camp to State Farm Stadium (then University of Phoenix Stadium) in 2013.
Established
1920
City
Chicago - St. Louis - Phoenix
League History
1920 – Present / National Football League
Team History
1994 - Present / Arizona Cardinals
1988 - 1993 / Phoenix Cardinals
1960 - 1987 / St. Louis Cardinals
1945 - 1959 / Chicago Cardinals
1944 / Card-Pitt
1920 - 1943 / Chicago Cardinals
Nickname
Cardinals - The "Cardinals" began play in Chicago in 1898 before moving to St. Louis in 1960 and Arizona in 1988.. See the nickname description of the Chicago Cardinals.
Championship
Super Bowl 0
NFL Championship 0
1947, 1925
Stadium
2019 - Present / State Farm Stadium
2006 - 2018 / University of Phoenix Stadium
1988 - 2005 / Sun Devil Stadium
*St. Louis*
1966 - 1987 / Busch Memorial Stadium
1960 - 1965 / Busch Stadium
*Chicago*
1959 / Soldier Field & Metropolitan Stadium
1922 - 1925, 1929 - 1958 / Comiskey Park
1920 - 1921, 1926 - 1928 / Normal Park
Owner
2019 - Present / Michael Bidwill
1972 - 2019 / Bill Bidwill
1962 - 1972 / Bill Bidwill and Charles Bidwill, Jr.
1947 - 1962 / Violet Bidwill Wolfner
1933 - 1947 / Charles Bidwill
1929 - 1933 / Dr. David Jones
1898 - 1929 / Chris O'Brien
To qualify as the greatest player for this team, the player must have played one season for this team. If not, we will remove the player.
* verifies that player has played for this team as an added player by a fan.
Retired Number
8 / Larry Wilson
40 / Pat Tillman
77 / Stan Mauldin
88 / J. V. Cain
99 / Marshall Goldberg
*Blue is this team’s history