PITTSBURGH (AP) – One of the biggest Eagles-Steelers games since their long-ago days as conference rivals is reviving memories of the year two of pro football’s best cities shared a single team.

The merged Steelers-Eagles played in 1943, when nearly all the nation’s top athletes were fighting a war and college football reigned as the premier fall sport. It was an entertaining diversion from the hardships of the day, to be sure. Yet nobody in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is calling for the return of the Steagles.

Yes, the Steagles.

Because both Cleveland Rams owners were in the military and couldn’t run their team, the NFL slimmed down to eight teams during the United States’ second full year of involvement in World War II. As a result, Eagles owner Alexis Thompson and Steelers co-owners Art Rooney and Bert Bell – an ex-Eagles owner who would later become the NFL commissioner – chose to merge their teams. Officially, the name was the Phil-Pit Eagles-Steelers, but everyone called the team the Steagles – probably because it sounded much better than Eaglers.

“The main purpose then was to keep the sport going,” said Bucko Kilroy, an offensive tackle who, with five former teammates, attended a 60th anniversary Steagles reunion last year.

“It was fun, a lot of fun. We played for the sport, not the money. The salaries were $1,300, $1,500 a year.”

Still, that wasn’t bad for seasonal work during a time when many workers labored for $25 a week. Player agents were nonexistent; the War Department set all salaries and was the ultimate contract arbitrator.

The NFL’s problem at the time wasn’t attracting players but quality ones, as most men healthy enough to be playing football wore a military uniform, not a football uniform. About 400 players from the 1940-42 seasons were in the service.

But numerous NFL players in 1943 had medical problems that kept them out of the military. Tony Bova, the Steagles’ leading receiver with 17 receptions, was blind in one eye and partially blind in the other. Steagles guard Eddie Michaels was nearly deaf and center Ray Graves had only one ear.

Because of wartime rationing, equipment was difficult to procure and was handed down from season to season; rubber football cleats were as scarce as triple-threat players and were safeguarded between games in Rooney’s basement.

There was no scarcity of coaches. Earl “Greasy” Neale, Philadelphia’s coach, and Walt Kiesling, Pittsburgh’s coach, never did get along, partly because Neale favored the new T-formation offense that was modernizing the game and Kiesling preferred the traditional single wing.

To keep the two future Hall of Fame coaches from feuding, Neale was given the offense and Kiesling the defense, a first-of-its-kind system that led to the current-day concept of offensive and defensive coordinators.

Think Eagles coach Andy Reid and Steelers coach Bill Cowher would enjoy sharing the same sideline as co-coaches, even though their teams are a combined 13-1 going into Sunday’s interconference game at Heinz Field?

The teams played four games in Philadelphia’s Shibe Park and two in Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, with some crowds of more than 30,000 – excellent for the time, considering some Americans were angry that athletes were healthy enough for football but not for the war.

It didn’t hurt the NFL that many Americans were starved for entertainment in the days before television, with all 20,000 horse racing and auto racing tracks shut and golf courses virtually deserted for lack of equipment.

“The fans really liked it. Attendance picked up,” said Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, then a student who sometimes did his homework on the team train as he accompanied father Art to games. “People were looking for things to do and it worked out pretty well.”

Philadelphia was so happy with the franchise’s first winning record (5-4-1) that it returned to fielding its own team in 1944. The Steelers merged with the Chicago Cardinals, resulting in a forgettable 0-10 team called the Card-Pitts. With the war over when the 1945 season started, the Steelers went back to being the Steelers and have stayed that way since.

AP-ES-11-05-04 1644EST