The Philadelphia Eagles have reached the Super Bowl for the fifth time and are looking for their first Vince Lombardi Trophy. The franchise has deep roots in the NFL and was a powerhouse during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Eagles will be playing the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons.

This year’s game is a rematch of Super Bowl LVII, when Kansas City defeated Philadelphia 38-35. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes rallied the Chiefs from a 10-point halftime deficit to top the Eagles.

Here are 10 things to know about the Eagles franchise, past and present.

Beginnings

The team now known as the Eagles was originally known as the Frankford Yellow Jackets and was formed in 1924. The team was based in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia and won an NFL championship in 1926. That season, the squad coached by Hall of Famer Guy Chamberlain went 14-1-2 in the 22-team league and posted 10 shutouts.

The team disbanded during the 1931 season, but two months later a syndicate headed by future NFL commissioner Bert Bell and Lud Wray bought the rights to the franchise for $2,500 and renamed it the Eagles.

A TV pioneer

On Oct. 22, 1939, the Eagles lost to the defunct Brooklyn Football Dodgers 23-14. What made the game significant is that it was the first NFL contest to be broadcast on television, the Pro Football Hall of Fame said.

According to the Federal Judicial Center, experimental television station W2XBS, an NBC affiliate, aired the game from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, using an eight-man crew. Approximately 1,000 television sets were tuned into the broadcast, which lasted 2 hours, 33 minutes -- and had no commercial interruptions. On a cloudy day with no stadium lights, the broadcast’s viewing quality was hampered by a dim picture.

The Steagles

World War II sapped the rosters of NFL teams, as able-bodied men left to fight overseas against Germany and Japan. The rosters of the Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers were so depleted that the two teams merged in 1943 for one season, USA Today reported. The team was officially called the Phil-Pitt Eagles-Steelers Combine, but an editor at a Pittsburgh newspaper tabbed the squad with the nickname “Steagles,” the newspaper reported.

The 25-man roster combined players from both teams and was coached by Earl “Greasy” Neale of the Eagles and Walt Kiesling of the Steelers. The team managed a respectable 5-4-1 record.

The experiment ended in 1944, as the Eagles had enough players to field a full squad. The Steelers, meanwhile, decided to merge with the Chicago Cardinals for the ‘44 season. The Eagles finished second in the NFL’s Eastern Division with a 7-1-2 record.

Glory days ... and snowy days

The Eagles reached the NFL title game after winning a division title in 1947 but lost 28-21 to the Chicago Cardinals. But Philadelphia won the NFL crown over the next two seasons; the Eagles’ 20-3-1 regular-season mark over that span included an 11-1 record in 1949. The Eagles avenged their loss to the Cardinals with a 7-0 victory in 1948 and blanked the Los Angeles Rams 14-0 in 1949.

The 1948 victory was a snowy affair. A blizzard dumped more than 18 inches of snow at Shibe Park, the site of the championship game. Fans were told that if they brought a shovel and helped clear the field, they would not be charged admission. Shibe Park’s groundskeepers, a large group of shovel-wielding spectators and players from both teams combined to make the field playable for the game.

1960 squad bested Lombardi’s Packers

Vince Lombardi had only one playoff defeat while coaching the Green Bay Packers. That was to the Philadelphia in the 1960 NFL Championship Game. The Eagles prevailed 17-13 at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field on Dec. 26, 1960. The game was moved from Sunday to Monday because -- at the time -- the NFL believed that games should not be played on Christmas Day, The New York Times reported.

A capacity crowd of 67,325 watched as Ted Dean scored on a 5-yard run in the fourth quarter to rally the Eagles past the upstart Packers. With 1:20 to go, Green Bay attempted a final drive, but running back Jim Taylor was tackled at the Philadelphia 8 by Chuck Bednarik as time ran out to preserve the victory.

Booing Santa Claus

Sure, Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love, but its fans are tough -- really tough.

On Dec. 15, 1968, the Eagles lost their final game of the season to end a miserable 2-12 year. The team’s owners had booked a Santa Claus to perform at halftime, but the actor -- perhaps warily looking at the blizzard that blanketed Franklin Field -- decided not to attend.

A 19-year-old in the stands wearing a homemade Santa suit -- Frank Olivo -- was recruited to perform.

That did not sit well with Philadelphians, who were irked that the Eagles -- who began the season with 11 straight losses -- botched their chance at the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft by winning their next two games. The prize would have been O.J. Simpson.

When Oliva ran downfield past a row of elf-costumed “Eaglettes” and the team’s 50-person brass band playing “Here Comes Santa Claus,” boos erupted from the crowd. Jolly Old St. Nick was not spared the fans’ wrath, as they pelted the hapless Oliva with snowballs. But the teen took it in stride.

“They’re not booing me,” Oliva said years later. “They’re not just booing Santa Claus; they’re booing everything.”

Olivo would become a barber and later spent decades in the casino industry in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He later sold cars and worked in the mortgage industry. He died in May 2015 at the age of 66.

“It was his 15 minutes of fame,” Oliva’s cousin, Richard Monastra, told The Associated Press. “He kind of liked it, actually.”

“For as long as there is professional football,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who attended the game, told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “the story of the Eagles fans pelting Santa Claus will always be told.”

Miracle at the Meadowlands

On Nov. 19, 1978, the Eagles snatched victory away from the New York Giants on a play that led to the victory formation being inserted into the playbook of every NFL team.

The Eagles were trailing 17-12 with less than a minute to play and were out of timeouts. New York had the ball, but instead of kneeling, quarterback Joe Pisarcik tried handing off to fullback Larry Csonka.

The exchange was botched and the ball fell to the ground. It bounced right into the hands of Eagles defensive back Herman Edwards, who grabbed the loose ball and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown to stun the crowd at Giants Stadium.

The shocking turnaround was the Eagles’ third straight victory and allowed them to keep their playoff hopes alive. Philadelphia would return to the postseason for the first time since 1961.

Famous players

The Eagles have had 25 players inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with 49 inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame.

Inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame include Bert Bell, who was inducted into the shrine’s inaugural class in 1963. Dick Vermeil, who led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance after the 1980 season, is also a Hall of Famer. Other Eagles enshrined in Canton include Reggie White, Chuck Bednarik, Harold Carmichael, Chris Carter, Norm Van Brocklin and Alex Wojciechowicz.

There are 17 members from the Eagles in both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Eagles Hall of Fame.

Neutralizing the blitz

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts excelled the last time Philadelphia met the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

He threw for 304 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for 70 yards and scored three times.

Hurts is particularly adept at avoiding the blitz. During the 2024 season, he completed 66.1% of his passes (74 of 112) for 945 yards with nine touchdowns when the defense stepped up the pressure, CBS Sports reported. He was only intercepted once.

During the playoffs, Hurts has completed 64% of his passes when blitzed. He has thrown for 210 yards and has not been intercepted.

In Super Bowl LIX, Hurts will have to contend with Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who has been effective in dialing up blitzes this season.

Super Bowl results

Here is how the Eagles have fared in their four previous Super Bowls. The season in which they competed is in parentheses, but the game was played in January or February of the next calendar year.

• Super Bowl XV (1980): Lost 27-10 to the Oakland Raiders.
• Super Bowl XXXIX (2004): Lost 24-21 to the New England Patriots.
• Super Bowl LII (2017): Defeated the New England Patriots 41-33.
• Super Bowl LVII (2022): Lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 38-35.

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