Pottstown Revisited

<p>Minor league football is – and always has been – so far off the radar in this country that it’s impossible to speak of there being any iconic teams.&nbsp;The sport offers nothing like the Hershey Bears hockey team or Rochester Red Wings baseball club that have entertained locals for upwards of a century. To the extent that minor and semi-pro football at least has a cult favorite team – the sport’s answer to the Durham Bulls – it’s likely the short-lived Pottstown Firebirds of the defunct <a href="https://funwhileitlasted.net//category/atlantic-coast-football-league/">Atlantic Coast Football League</a>.</p> <p>The Firebirds were a colorful and talented bunch. They played at the local high school football stadium in Pottstown, 40 miles north of Philadelphia. The team was backed by a local underwear manufacturer named Ed Gruber and took their name and team color from a loose affiliation with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. Though the club lasted only three seasons, they won two minor league titles.</p> <p>The team’s 15 minutes of fame came thanks to Steve Sabol’s NFL Films. The young company documented&nbsp;the Firebirds’ final championship season in 1970. More than a year after the team’s demise, the documentary&nbsp;<em>Pro Football Pottstown PA</em> aired prior to the national broadcast of Super Bowl VI in January 1972. The following year, the author&nbsp;Jay Acton published&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Forgettables-Minor-League-Odyssey/dp/1940059232" rel="nofollow external noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Forgettables</em></a>, a book that chronicled the Firebirds behind the scenes during that same 1970 season. (Acton later became a <a href="https://funwhileitlasted.net//tag/jay-acton/">serial minor league baseball investor</a> himself).</p>