One of the things you’ll hear and read this week is that the Eagles’ current collapse is the worst in Philly sports since the 1964 Phillies.

1964 was a long time ago. If you were born in 1961, you were alive for the collapse, but you were three years old and probably finishing up potty training. How old would you have to be to craft and retain a real sports memory? Let’s pick a random number and say you’d have to be 12 years old for this to register. Therefore, we’re talking birth year 1952 or earlier, which means you’re now in your early 70s.

So for those of you who are not in your 70s or 80s, which is most Philadelphia sports fans and probably 95% of Crossing Broad readers, here’s what happened in 1964:

  1. the Phillies started 8-2 and were 1st place in the National League for much of the season
  2. Jim Bunning threw a perfect game while Dick Allen and Johnny Callison raked
  3. September began with a 5.5 game lead over the Reds
  4. they increased the lead to 6.5 on Labor Day
  5. a string of injuries occurred and the pitchers began to fade
  6. they lost 10 in a row between September 21st and September 30th
  7. they finished 92-70, one game behind the Cardinals, who went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series

There were no divisions back then, and MLB didn’t use the modern playoff system we have now, so the pennant winners played each other in the World Series. The Phils could have won 2 of 10 of 3 of 10 and they would have claimed the pennant, but instead they lost 10 in a row during that stretch.

Another note is that the Phils were shit in the late 50s and didn’t turn it around until Gene Mauch took over, so a season like this was a long time in the making. They went 81-80 in 1962, then 87-75 in 1963, and after the 1964 season they didn’t reach that level again until 1976, when Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski and all of those guys came around. So a modern parallel would be like watching the Eagles collapse in 2024, then they don’t become a Super Bowl contender again until 2036.


That’s the brief history lesson. It’s a really fascinating story to read up on, but it’s also funny to hear all of these people say “oh man this is the worst collapse since the 1964 Phillies!” Most of us were not even alive for that. Our parents were not alive, or they were teenagers getting into this relatively new band called The Beatles.