If you ask a football fan today about the Cardinals, they probably picture desert heat, State Farm Stadium, and maybe a Kyler Murray highlight. But for nearly three decades, the bird on the helmet belonged to the Gateway Arch. From 1960 to 1987, the St. Louis football Cardinals were the heart of Sunday afternoons in Missouri, providing a brand of football that was equal parts thrilling and heartbreaking.
Most people assume the team just vanished because they weren't winning. That’s a massive oversimplification. Honestly, the story of the "Big Red" is a messy saga of stadium politics, family ownership quirks, and a legendary offensive line that deserved a better ending than a midnight flight to Phoenix.
The Weird Logic of the 1960 Move
The Cardinals didn't start in St. Louis. They moved there from Chicago because they were essentially being bullied by the Bears. In the late 1950s, the NFL had a "television problem." You couldn't broadcast a road game if the other local team was playing at home. Since the Bears and Cardinals shared Chicago, they were both losing massive amounts of TV revenue.
Violet Bidwill Wolfner, who owned the team at the time, was famously stubborn. She didn't want to leave. But the league basically forced her hand. The NFL wanted to block the upstart American Football League (AFL) from planting a flag in St. Louis, so they greased the wheels for the Cardinals to head south.
Interestingly, they are the only team in American sports history to move to a city that already had a team with the exact same name and keep it. Imagine the confusion at the local newspaper. To solve it, fans just started calling them the "Big Red" or the "Gridbirds" to separate them from the baseball Cardinals.
Why the "Cardiac Cards" Era Still Matters
If you want to understand why older St. Louis fans still have a soft spot for this team, you have to look at the mid-70s. Specifically, the Don Coryell years. Before he became the architect of "Air Coryell" in San Diego, he turned St. Louis into the most explosive team in the league.
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They weren't just good; they were dramatic. Between 1974 and 1976, they went 31-11. They earned the nickname "Cardiac Cardinals" because they had this habit of winning games in the final seconds.
The Roster of Legends
- Jim Hart: An undrafted free agent who ended up throwing for over 34,000 yards. He wasn't always pretty, but he was tough as nails.
- Terry Metcalf: A human joystick before video games existed. He was the first player to record 2,000 all-purpose yards in a season.
- The Offensive Line: This is arguably the best unit in NFL history. Dan Dierdorf, Conrad Dobler, Tom Banks, and Bob Young. In 1975, they allowed only 8 sacks the entire season. That’s a stat that feels fake by modern standards.
- Roger Wehrli: A shutdown corner so good that Roger Staubach once called him the best he ever played against.
But here is the kicker: despite all that talent, they never hosted a playoff game. Not one. They played four playoff games in 28 years and lost all of them (excluding the weird 1964 Playoff Bowl, which was basically a third-place exhibition).
The Stadium War That Killed the Team
The real reason the St. Louis football Cardinals left Missouri wasn't just about the record on the field. It was about concrete and luxury boxes. Bill Bidwill, who took full control in 1972, was obsessed with getting a football-only stadium.
Busch Memorial Stadium was a "cookie-cutter" multipurpose venue. It was great for baseball, but for football, it was a nightmare. The sightlines were weird. More importantly, the baseball Cardinals were the landlords. The football team was the "second tenant," meaning they couldn't even practice there if a baseball game was scheduled.
There are stories of the NFL Cardinals practicing in Forest Park—a public park—because they had nowhere else to go. Imagine pro athletes running drills while people walked their dogs ten feet away. It was embarrassing for a professional franchise.
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By the mid-80s, the relationship between Bidwill and the city of St. Louis had turned toxic. Bidwill wanted the city to build him a stadium; the city wanted him to pay for it. When the 1985 team collapsed and fans stopped showing up, Bidwill started shopping the team around. Phoenix offered a shiny new (at the time) deal, and the rest is history.
The Misconception of "Cheap" Ownership
You’ll often hear that Bill Bidwill was "cheap." That’s the prevailing narrative. While it’s true the Cardinals often had one of the lowest payrolls, it’s a bit more nuanced. The Bidwills weren't "corporate" owners with outside businesses like shipping or oil. The team was the family business.
Every dollar spent came directly out of the family pocket. In the pre-salary cap era, they simply couldn't compete with the massive checkbooks of owners like Jack Kent Cooke in Washington. This financial gap is what led to the "incompetence" fans often complained about. They weren't necessarily trying to lose; they were just playing a different financial game.
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What St. Louis Lost (and Gained)
When the team left after the 1987 season, it left a massive hole in the city's identity. St. Louis became a "baseball town" by default, though the arrival of the Rams in 1995 briefly changed that.
But look at the irony. The Cardinals left St. Louis because they couldn't get a stadium. They moved to Arizona and played in a college stadium (Sun Devil Stadium) for eighteen years before finally getting their own place. St. Louis eventually built the Dome for the Rams, only for the Rams to leave for—you guessed it—stadium reasons.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs
If you're looking to dive deeper into this era, don't just look at the stats. The soul of this team is in the stories.
- Watch old "NFL 67" or "NFL 75" films. The footage of the Cardiac Cards at Busch Stadium captures an atmosphere that modern, sterilized domes can't replicate.
- Research the 1975 NFC East race. It was one of the most competitive divisions in history, featuring the Cowboys, Redskins, and Cardinals all fighting for supremacy.
- Visit the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. They have dedicated sections to the Big Red that explain the technical brilliance of Don Coryell's system before it went mainstream.
- Listen to local St. Louis sports radio archives. There are hours of interviews with former players like Dan Dierdorf that provide a much more sympathetic view of the St. Louis years than national media usually offers.
The St. Louis football Cardinals weren't a footnote. They were a powerhouse that lacked the postseason luck to become a dynasty. They represent a specific, gritty era of the NFL where an offensive line could be more famous than the quarterback, and where a team's survival depended more on city council meetings than on-field performance.