Firebirds’ repeat feat turns 50
Dec. 12 marked 50 years since iconic team’s back-to-back ACFL championships
While area football fans are agonizing over a problematic season for the Philadelphia Eagles, those in the Pottstown community are heartened by a significant milestone for a team affiliated with the NFL franchise.
The Pottstown Firebirds, a minor-league “feeder” program for the Eagles based in Pottstown in the late 1960s, is marking the 50th anniversary of its victory in the 1970 Atlantic Coast Football League championship game. The Firebirds capped an 11-1 regular season by blanking the Hartford Knights, 31-0, on Dec. 12, 1970. They remained ACFL champions a second straight year, having won the title in a 1969 season that was the second of their three based in Pottstown.
“To be part of the game, tackling and knocking balls down ... I feel blessed to be part of the team,” Bryan Marshall, a defensive back and special-teams player that year, said. “The great times we had were part of my life.”
The Firebirds were dominant in the 1970 regular season. Racking up an 11-1 record — their lone loss coming at the hands of the Norfolk Neptunes, 22-7, on Nov. 29 — the ‘Birds outscored the opposition 309165. It posted two shutouts and held six other teams to 13 points or less.
Marshall, who hails from Cleveland, Ohio, credited the players with fueling the D’s contribution to that point differential.
“The defense took great pride in itself,” the 72-yearold Marshall, who ultimately became the first strength coach for a National Basketball Association franchise, said. “We wanted to make a name for ourselves.
Though he never played football in high school or college — basketball was his sport in his early days — Marshall cited his motivation and inspiration as keys to making the Firebirds.
“I had good speed and was a hard worker,” he said. “I knew how to work out and get in condition.”
The 1970 championship game was played at Dillon Stadium in Hartford, Conn. It was remembered for being conducted during a blizzard that required plowing of the field pre-game and at halftime.
John Katch, a Pottstown native who was a Firebirds ballboy during its entire tenure in the borough, recalled how brutal the conditions were.
“I can tell you, the championship game in the cold and snow was horrible for the ball boys,” Katch said. “To fill the water bottles, you actually had ice on your hands. And changing cleats ... you needed to take your gloves off, you couldn’t even hold the cleat changer.”
In spite of the conditions, the Firebirds went on to shut out the Knights.
“The team rolled up and down the field,” Dave Musser, another team ballboy, recalled. “Everything was perfect: Offense, defense, special teams.”
Jerry DiPhillippo, a linebacker who played for Monsignor Bonner and then-Cheney College (1964-1967), was a Firebird all three years the team was based in Pottstown. He saw the 1970 title as the result of the molding process initiated during the 1969 season that also produced an ACFL championship.
“The first (championship) was most special,” he said. “The second was deservable. The expectation was there.
“The team was treated special, and in retrospect played hard. There were a lot of excellent players who should have been in the pros.”
Enhancing the community’s connection to the Birds was Robert “Chuz” Calvario, who served as the organization’s president. A local businessman known as a sports enthusiast and for his involvement in the founding of the former St. Pius X High School, Calvario, who died in 2015, was also instrumental in bringing the Firebirds — originally a team based in Wilmington, Del. — to Pottstown.
Another community connection was also a “family affair.” Al Cavallo, an organization stockholder who penned an “It’s A Fact” column for the Firebirds’ program book and son Steve, one of the ballboys, were involved with the team during its time in Pottstown.
The Cavallos dealt with the packing of player equipment for games. Steve’s duties also included bringing “dummy” bags out for practices and running on the field during games to pick up the kicking tee ... often, he recalled, while play on the field was still in action.
“One game, I tripped and fell while getting the tee,” he recalled. “The players coming in my direction sounded like a freight train.”
Through his capacity as a pharmaceutical salesman for Parke-Davis, Al Cavallo was able to supply the team with necessary medical items.
The Firebirds’ most flamboyant player was the late Jim ‘The King’ Corcoran, the team’s quarterback. A 1964 product of the University of Maryland, “The King” was dubbed the “Poor Man’s Joe Namath” for his flashy appearance and lifestyle.
“He was something else,” Musser recalled. “One of a kind. He drove around town in a Lincoln. I found him to be a very nice guy.”
Corcoran’s connection to the region continued years later, as a member of the World Football League’s Philadelphia Bell franchise in 1974 and 1975. He appeared in two games for the NFL’s then-Boston Patriots in 1968, while on the roster of the ACFL’s Bridgeport Jets.
On the defensive side, the late Joe Blake was popular with several of the Firebird ballboys. The defensive end from the University of Tulsa, a ninth-round pick of the New Orleans Saints in 1968, referred to Musser as his “good luck charm,” figuring in him becoming a member of the team.
Katch’s most vivid memory of Blake pertained to a Sept. 17 bus trip the Firebirds took for a game with Bridgeport. It was the day after Jimi Hendrix, the rock musician renowned for his mastery of the electric guitar, died.
“I was sitting in the back of the bus in front of Joe Blake and Bill Stetz,” Katch recalled. “I was 15 years old, and the whole trip to the game I had to listen to Joe Blake tell me what an icon Hendrix was and I should really listen to the message in his music, and what a great guy he was, etc.
“After the game, Joe Blake gave me my first beer. I am now 65, and I will never ever forget that day.”
One local player of note was Greg Berger, a free safety who hailed from Phoenixville and was a 1969 graduate of then-Bloomsburg State College. Berger landed with the Firebirds through the influence of college classmate Bob Tucker, who used his time in Pottstown as a springboard to the NFL by joining the New York Giants.
“The coach used his players as recruiters,” Berger recalled. “There were a lot of great players there. A lot had been up and down.”
Berger, a 22-year-old rookie at the time, remembered how the Firebirds had players come in for tryouts all through the season, up to the time of the championship game. Some had been NFL draft picks looking to catch on after being cut from their teams.
“These guys would come in, but they’d be gone,” he said. “It took me a while to think I was here to stay.”
Like Marshall, Berger saw the Firebird defense as being a group of players who all worked equally to produce its successful results.
“There wasn’t a leader on the defense,” he said. “We all did our jobs.”
The coaching staff, headed by Dave diFilippo (1916-1983), had assistants who were key to the Firebirds’ championship posture. Ron Waller (19332018), the head offensive coach, was a 1954 Maryland graduate and second-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 1955; and Andy Nelson, a 1956 graduate of Memphis and lateround draft pick of the Baltimore Colts in 1957, brought their expertise at the sport’s highest level to Pottstown.
“He (Nelson) spearheaded a lot with the defense,” Marshall said. “We’d grind things out.”
Waller later advanced to the NFL, joining the San Diego Chargers. He was their special-teams coach in 1972 and 1973, and became interim head coach for the last six games of 1973.
The lone blemish on the Firebirds’ 1970 season was a 22-7 loss to the Norfolk Neptunes Nov. 29. It was a rematch of the teams’ meeting at Norfolk Halloween Day (Oct. 31), one the Firebirds won 35-24 but was marred by a fight between the opponents.
“There was talk of revenge,” Musser noted.
One play in the second go-round proved crucial to the final outcome.
The Firebirds had the ball on the Neptunes’ oneyard line and a call to run the ball came from the sidelines. Corcoran, however, opted to pass; the ball was intercepted and run back to the locals’ one, from where Norfolk scored.
“I got mad about that (loss),” Musser said. “The coach had put a big thing on going undefeated.”
The 1970 championship finish became a bittersweet moment for the Firebirds.
For much of the season, they knew their affiliation with Pottstown was going to end.
In 1971, the Firebirds merged with the Norfolk Neptunes and left Pottstown. The AFCL eventually folded in 1973, with the World Football League coming into existence in 1974.
“There was the joy of winning the championship,” Musser said, “and the knowledge we might not see each other again.”
The Firebirds were the subject of a 1970 NFL Films documentary “Pro Football, Pottstown, Pa.” which documented the ties between the club, its players, and Pottstown.
In 2000 NFL Films returned to Pottstown for an episode of their Lost Treasures series. “Pottstown Revisited” covered some surviving players reminiscing about their days on the team, remembered the town’s relationship with the long-gone football team, and filmed a 30-year player reunion.
The Firebirds were also the subject of two books. Author Jay Acton, known as James Baldwin’s literary agent, chronicled the team’s last season in “The Forgettables.” More recently, “The Timeless Victors,” a 224-page account focusing on the Firebirds’ memorable championship seasons in Pottstown, was compiled by author Bruno Baltazar. It features a collage of photos, personal interviews with team personnel and details on the Firebirds’ games.
A half-century later, acknowledgement of Pottstown as the Firebirds’ onetime home exists. Musser, for his part, would like to see something — the signs at the intersection of Pa. Route 100 and King Street, commemorating the Pottstown High state-champion boys basketball and boys track and field teams as an example.
“I’d like to see them put something in town,” Musser said. “It would be great to let people know the team was there. it’d be nice to see something permanent.”