Arizona Cardinals Milestones

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Order these Arizona Cardinals franchise moments by the year they happened. Drag or tap it onto the line

Arizona Cardinals

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How the Arizona Cardinals history timeline works

This deck follows the Cardinals from their beginnings as an athletic club in Chicago, with each milestone card carrying a short description, and you sort them by year. The line opens with a single card and its year. Read every new card and drop it into a gap. Correct gaps reveal the year; wrong ones still place the card correctly but take one of your three lives.

The Cardinals are the oldest continuously run franchise in pro football, and the deck reaches a very long way back. They have also lived in several cities, so the location in each description narrows things down a lot. Long stretches without playoff success make the middle of the deck tricky, with stadium moves, coaching hires and draft picks as the main landmarks.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 29 cards you might be dealt, with 1 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Founded as the Morgan Athletic Club Chris O'Brien's South Side Chicago neighborhood team began what is now the oldest continuously run franchise in pro football
The 'Cardinal red' name is born O'Brien bought faded hand-me-down maroon jerseys from the University of Chicago and declared their color cardinal
NFL charter member As the Racine Cardinals, the club joined the brand-new American Professional Football Association at its founding
Became the Chicago Cardinals Dropped 'Racine', which came from a Chicago avenue rather than the Wisconsin city, to represent the whole town
Claimed an NFL championship Awarded the league title after the Pottsville Maroons were suspended, a crown Pottsville partisans still dispute
Ernie Nevers scored 40 points His six touchdowns and four extra points in one game against the Bears remain the NFL's oldest standing record
Merged into Card-Pitt Wartime player shortages forced a one-season combination with Pittsburgh so winless it was mocked as the 'Car-Pitts'
Won the NFL Championship Charley Trippi and the 'Million Dollar Backfield' beat the Eagles on an icy field at Comiskey Park for the franchise's last title
Blizzard title-game loss A championship rematch with Philadelphia was decided 7-0 in a snowstorm so thick the yard lines vanished
Moved to St. Louis Left Chicago, where the club had long played second fiddle to the Bears, for Missouri
Moved into Busch Memorial Stadium The 'Big Red' left old Sportsman's Park for a new downtown multipurpose bowl they shared with baseball
Hired Don Coryell An offensive innovator arrived from San Diego State and soon had the 'Cardiac Cards' flying
First division title in decades Jim Hart and Terry Metcalf clinched the NFC East for the club's first postseason trip since the Truman administration
Drafted Ottis Anderson A Miami runner taken eighth overall who immediately rushed for more than 1,600 yards as a rookie
Moved to Phoenix Bill Bidwill took the franchise to the desert, where it played at Sun Devil Stadium under the city's name
Drafted Aeneas Williams A third-round cornerback from Southern University began a Hall of Fame career
Renamed the Arizona Cardinals The state, not the city, went on the letterhead the same offseason Buddy Ryan arrived declaring 'You've got a winner in town'
Snapped the playoff drought Jake Plummer's 9-7 club reached the postseason for the first time since the strike-shortened tournament year
First playoff win in half a century Upset the Cowboys in Dallas for the franchise's first postseason victory since its championship season
Pat Tillman left for the Army The starting safety turned down a lucrative new contract and enlisted with his brother in the wake of September 11th
Drafted Larry Fitzgerald New coach Dennis Green took a Pitt receiver he had known as a Vikings ball boy with the third overall pick
Opened their Glendale stadium Moved off Arizona State's campus into a domed venue with a roll-out natural grass field
Hired Ken Whisenhunt The Steelers' offensive coordinator took over and had the team in a Super Bowl within two seasons
Played in Super Bowl XLIII Larry Fitzgerald's late go-ahead touchdown was answered by Santonio Holmes's toe-tap catch with 35 seconds left
Kurt Warner retired The resurrected star called it a career days after a playoff loss in New Orleans
Hired Bruce Arians The veteran 'quarterback whisperer' arrived and paired with Carson Palmer for the franchise's best stretch in Arizona
Franchise-best 13-3 season Carson Palmer's finest year carried the club to its most regular-season wins ever and an NFC title game trip soon after
Drafted Kyler Murray first overall New coach Kliff Kingsbury landed a Heisman Trophy winner who chose football over the Oakland A's