We get down on ourselves and our teams a lot here in Philly, but if the city kept a trophy case for all time championships in all major sports, we’d have more hardware than you might think.
Yes, some of those teams have left the city, and yeah, some leagues in which we won championships are no longer leagues or have been absorbed into other leagues, but the players who wore those uniforms and won those games fought for the pride of their organizations and the city they represented. Past generations of Philadelphians were filled up with unbelievable joy and frustration over these teams. I don’t think we or the ’08 Phillies would ever want their victory to be forgotten by Philadelphians for any reason. And we can’t. So add these to your list of reasons to be proud to be a Philly sports fan:
Point of Order: Conference championships count for something in my book. Division wins are points of pride but not the same.
To start, the ones you know.
The Philadelphia Flyers, the most decorated and youngest of the big four sports teams in Philly, have won sixteen division championships, eight conference chips, and yet somehow have only landed two teams on Lord Stanley‘s Cup.
Our Phillies have won the Eastern Division title of the National League eleven times, with seven National League Championship titles and two World Series victories.
Next, here they come…the 10-9-8-76ers. Aside from boasting Wilt, the Sixers have to their name five division titles, nine conference championships, and three NBA Championship titles, for a slightly better win percentage in championships than the Flyers or Phillies.
Finally the Birds. The Eagles have won eleven division titles, two NFC Championships, but no Superbowls. However, before the Superbowl existed, the Philadelphia Eagles did win one Eastern Conference Championship and three NFL championships, the first two being won before the advent of eastern and western conferences. I don’t know how to score that so lets say the Sixers are the champion-est.
Now for the fun stuff, the teams some Philadelphians have never heard of, but you’ll all be better sports fans for reading this.
First, lets keep going with football. Remember when the Eagles yellow and blue throwback jerseys from a few years ago?
They were actually not Eagles jerseys, but the jersey of the Frankford Yellow Jackets, who represented the city of Philly from 1924 to 1931, and won one NFL championship for the city in 1926. After the team collapsed in the 1931 season, it was bought and turned into the new Philadelphia Eagles.
We’re closing in on the end…
More basketball! You know how the Oakland A’s packed up and left Philadelphia for (eventually) Oakland, CA? Well the Philadelphia Warriors did that too, and took the city’s beloved young star Wilt Chamberlain with them. Luckily, when the Syracuse Nationals left New York in 1963 and became the Philadelphia 76ers, they were able to bring Wilt back to his hometown. Thank god for that one. Anyway, the Philadelphia Warriors won three conference titles while here, and were champions two times.
Oh and this was their logo:
Okay, here’s the end of our history lesson. The Oakland A’s. Let’s not forget that our city has nine American League Championships. Of those, five led to World Series titles. They were straight up dominant. One hundred years ago they were lighting up baseball and playing for Philadelphia fans that had come to expect championships.
So feel the pride of fifty-six championships, and if anyone tries to tell you that Philadelphians threw snowballs at Santa Claus, tell them this.
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