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Meet the Arizona Cardinals: History, legends, titles, achievements...

The Arizona Cardinals will face the San Francisco 49ers at the Azteca Stadium for the 2022 NFL Mexico Game. Here’s a brief history of the franchise.

Gustavo García
Gustavo García
Estados Unidos
The Arizona Cardinals will face the San Francisco 49ers at the Azteca Stadium for the 2022 NFL Mexico Game. Here’s a brief history of the franchise.
Sean M. HaffeyAFP

The Arizona Cardinals will face the San Francisco 49ers at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City as part of the NFL Mexico Game of 2022. Here at AS USA, we invite you to learn about the history of the franchise.

The Cardinals were founded in 1898 as the Morgan Athletic Club in Chicago’s South Side where there was a strong Irish presence. The team was later acquired by Chris O’Brien and the Cardinals’ nickname arose in 1901 when O’Brien declared that the uniform they wore was not brown like the University of Chicago, but cardinal red.

In 1920 they became members of the American Professional Football Association, the predecessor of the NFL. Along with the Chicago Bears- then the Decatur Staleys- they are the only remaining active teams of the 11 founding members of the NFL. The first NFL championship they won was in 1925, when they achieved the best record of the season.

The Cardinals’ owners

The Bidwill family has owned the Cardinals since 1932, when they still played in Chicago. Under their management the team captured the 1947 NFL championship with Jimmy Conzelman as head coach. From 1960 to 1987 they were the St. Louis team and since 1988 they have been in Phoenix. Six years later, the Bidwills petitioned to change the franchise’s name to the Arizona Cardinals to increase representation from the area.

One of the most successful periods of the franchise was between 1974 and 1976. In that period they won the NFC East title twice, but were eliminated by the Minnesota Vikings in 1974 and by the Los Angeles Rams in 1975.

Following the 2002 realignment, the Cards have won three division titles (2008, 2009 and 2016). In addition, they had their only appearance in the Super Bowl in XLIII, when they were defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers. During the 103 seasons in which they have participated, the Cards have gone 581-783-41 in the regular season and 7-10 in the playoffs.

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Records of the Cardinals

The all-time passing yards leader is Jim Hart, who racked up 34,639 and 209 touchdown passes after completing 2,590 of the 5,069 throws he attempted. Larry Fitzgerald holds every major record for a wide receiver in Cards history. The future Hall of Famer caught 1,432 passes for 17,492 yards and 121 touchdowns. Five years were enough for Otis Anderson to become the all-time leader of the Cardinals in terms of running attack. The running back had 7,999 rushing yards and 46 visits to the end zone.

Retired jerseys

Multiple Pro Football Hall of Fame players have passed through the ranks of the Cardinals including quarterback Kurt Warner, safety Larry Wilson and defensive back Aeneas Williams, but the only ones with retired numbers are Wilson (8), Pat Tillman (40), Stan Mauldin (77), J.V. Cain (88) and Marshall Goldberg (99).