In 1947, Chicago Cardinals owner
Charles Bidwill died, leaving the team to his wife
Violet. Two years later, she married St. Louis businessman Walter Wolfner. The Cardinals won the NFL championship in 1947, and narrowly missed defending it in 1948. However, they would have only two more winning seasons in the next 11 years. By the end of the 1959 season, the Cardinals barely even registered on Chicago's sports scene, and were seemingly on an irreversible slide toward bankruptcy. The Wolfners reluctantly decided to cede Chicago to their
bitter rivals, the
Bears, and move elsewhere. A move to Walter's hometown of St. Louis appeared to make sense. The NFL examined St. Louis, and concluded that it could support a team. However, it insisted that the Wolfners pay a stiff relocation fee. Needing cash for the fee, and additional capital in any event, the Wolfners considered offers from various out-of-town investors. Among the suitors were Texas oil magnates
Lamar Hunt and
Bud Adams,
Denver minor league baseball owner
Bob Howsam, and
Minneapolis Lakers part-owner
Max Winter. In every case, negotiations foundered when the Wolfners insisted on maintaining controlling interest. In response, Hunt and Adams joined forces with
several other businessmen, including Howsam and Winter, to found the
American Football League. Suddenly faced with a serious rival, the NFL quickly came to terms with the Wolfners, engineering a deal that allowed them to move to St. Louis for the 1960 season. This not only avoided the embarrassment of losing one of the NFL's oldest franchises, but locked the upstart league out of St. Louis.
1960s On March 13, 1960, the league's 12 owners unanimously approved the Cardinals' move to St. Louis, ending the team's 62-year history and 40
NFL seasons in Chicago. In addition to the NFL's blessing, the Bidwills sought permission from the
long-established baseball team in their new city to share the "Cardinals" nickname. Other cities had hosted football teams that copied the local baseball team's name, but the Cardinals were (and remain) the only American team with a long-established nickname that moved to a city where another major sports franchise coincidentally had the same long-established name and kept it. (The
Cincinnati Royals moved to Kansas City twelve years later, but altered the name to avoid confusion in their new home.) During the Cardinals' tenure in St. Louis, they were locally called the "Big Red", the "Football Cardinals", or "the Gridbirds" in order to avoid confusion with the baseball team. The Cardinals played in the original
Busch Stadium as tenants of the baseball team. St. Louis had not had a professional football team since the early days of the NFL. For decades, the NFL had demanded a modern stadium as a condition for returning to the city. Busch Stadium had been built in its final form in 1909, and had not been well maintained from the 1930s until the baseball Cardinals bought it in 1953. However, the prospect of competition with the AFL compelled them to approve the Cardinals' move in exchange for a pledge to eventually build a new venue. In the meantime, the football Cardinals would be playing for at least a few years in a stadium that was barely suitable even for temporary use. Busch Stadium was not designed for football, and had poor and outdated infrastructure. In particular, parking was virtually nonexistent. It was also located in a neighborhood that had already gone to seed. Moreover, the baseball team had priority for scheduling. Under these circumstances, tickets proved difficult to sell. The Cardinals initially held practices in the city park. In 1961, they finished .500 at 7–7, but after the NFL had expanded to a 14-game season to compete with the upstart AFL, the team fell to 4–9–1 in 1962. Although improving to 9–5–0 in 1963, the Cardinals failed to reach the playoffs, a loss to the Giants kept them out of the NFL title game. The Cardinals were competitive for much of the 1960s. New stars emerged in
Larry Wilson,
Charley Johnson,
Jim Bakken,
Sonny Randle, and
Jim Hart. Violet Bidwill Wolfner died in 1962, and her sons, Bill and Charles, Jr. took control. Although the Cardinals made a good account of themselves in their first decade in St. Louis, they never won their conference, a prerequisite for playing in the NFL championship game during this decade. In those days, the conference champions advanced directly to the championship game, with no playoff round. In 1964, the Cardinals got off to a good start, going undefeated in their first four games (all on the road), their only blemish being a 33-33 tie against the Cleveland Browns. However, the Cardinals were then forced to play what was supposed to be their home opener against the Baltimore Colts at
Memorial Stadium when their landlords reached the
World Series. Under the terms of their lease, the football Cardinals could not use Busch Stadium until the baseball Cardinals' season was finished. They lost to the Colts 47-27 in Baltimore. The defeat in the extra road game proved painfully decisive as while St. Louis finished 9–4–1 and second in the Eastern Conference (enough to qualify for a postseason game) a victory by the Browns over the New York Giants denied them a championship berth by a mere half game. The team finished the year with a
Playoff Bowl win over the Packers by a score of 24-17 to finish third place. At the time, it was the franchise's only postseason win in St. Louis; it has since been retconned as an exhibition game. By 1964, the Bidwills were disappointed with the progress of the new downtown stadium and considered moving the team to Atlanta. St. Louis city leaders provided some incentives, which combined with groundbreaking at a new stadium later that year persuaded them to stay. While the football team would continue to be tenants in the new facility, they received better lease terms. Furthermore, the new venue was a "cookie-cutter"
multipurpose stadium, considered state-of-the-art at the time and designed from the outset to readily accommodate both baseball and football. The new stadium would eventually be completed in 1966 and be named
Busch Memorial Stadium after
the owner of the baseball team. A new expansion team, the
Falcons of the NFL, was eventually created for Atlanta and began play in 1966, while a different St. Louis team would move to Atlanta: the
NBA Hawks in
1968. A 4–1–0 start to the 1965 season evaporated into a 5–9–0 finish. Starting quarterback
Charley Johnson struggled most of the season with a shoulder injury and defensive leader
Larry Wilson missed games with broken hands. In
1966 (the team's first in the newly opened Busch Memorial Stadium), the
Cardinals had a new head coach in
Charley Winner. They were in first place in the Eastern Conference with a 7-1–1 record, but Johnson suffered a season-ending injury against the Giants and the Cardinals lost four of their last five games leaving them out of the playoffs. The 1966 season saw the debut of first-round draft pick
Johnny Roland who gained 908 yards from scrimmage and was named NFL Rookie of the Year. In
1967, Johnson was summoned to active duty in the Army. This opened the door for
Jim Hart who was signed as an undrafted free agent out of
Southern Illinois University the previous season. Hart threw for over 3000 yards and 19 touchdowns in 1967, but the team finished with six wins, seven losses, and one tie. Meanwhile, the NFL expanded to four divisions. It also eschewed
one-game playoffs as tiebreakers in favor of pro football's first guaranteed multi-game postseason scheme. Under the
second season of the new format, the
Cardinals won on the road against the
Cleveland Browns to give them a critical advantage under the newly-devised
tiebreakers. However, a tie against the woeful
Pittsburgh Steelers eventually ensured the Cardinals would miss the
playoffs. St. Louis still beat Cleveland at home to complete the season sweep and end the year with a 9–4–1 mark, which was better than two other NFL playoff teams but a half game behind the Browns.
St. Louis fell back to 4–9–1 in
1969, but that season saw the debut of
Roger Wehrli, a star safety at the
University of Missouri who played 14 seasons for the Cardinals and was elected to the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in
2007.
Early 1970s In
1970, the NFL and AFL
completed their merger, and the
Cardinals were placed in the new NFC East division. They posted three consecutive shutouts in November, blanking the
Oilers,
Patriots, and the
Cowboys, the latter a 38–0 victory on
Monday Night Football in the
Cotton Bowl. But St. Louis collapsed down the stretch, losing December games to the
New York Giants,
Detroit Lions, and
Washington Redskins to finish 8–5–1 and out of the
playoffs. The Cardinals then regressed to three consecutive 4–9–1 seasons from 1971 to 1973.
Bill Bidwill became sole owner in 1972; he would own the team until his death in 2019. Only the
New York Giants and Chicago Bears have been in the hands of one family longer than the Cardinals. Head Coach Bob Hollway was fired after consecutive 4-9-1 seasons in 1971 and 1972.
1972 season; he was replaced
the following year by
Don Coryell, who had built a powerhouse program at
San Diego State. ==1974–1977==