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The Eagles fan club in St. Louis has been growing over the years.
Daniel Murphy spent 31 years of his life in Philadelphia, “born and bred” to support Philly sports. He grew up pronouncing water as “wuder,” eating real cheesesteaks on that Philly hoagie roll, reciting the Eagles fight song and watching the Eagles, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.
Then he moved to St. Louis, and something was missing.
“St. Louis pizza sucks,” he says. “There’s no rolls, like people don’t know what rolls means in St. Louis. The pizza is horrible,” he repeats. “That kind of stuff.”
About a year into his move, around 2016, he realized his problem.
“I need some Philly,” he says.
So he did what any Philadelphian would do. He turned to the Philadelphia Eagles. He started a Facebook page, “Philadelphia Eagles Fans in Saint Louis,” in an effort to bring Eagles fans together.
At first, the page didn’t blow up. But when the Eagles made a Super Bowl run in 2017, FOX2 reached out. The network had found Murphy’s page and wanted to know if Eagles fans ever met up. The group didn’t have an Eagles bar at the time, but Murphy said “hold my beer.” He brought together some Eagles fans for the game, and FOX2 published a story on the party. After that, the fan page grew, jumping from around 50 followers to hundreds, Murphy says.
Now, the page has over 1,300 followers.
“I met so many people from all walks of life from Philly through this group,” he says. “This guy I met [through the group] was actually a friend of my cousin.”
Murphy wanted more than a Facebook page, though. Every sports fan knows the reputation of the Eagles faithful: Loud, relentless, fiercely loyal and ready to cheer or boo at a second’s notice. “Totally different breed of watching sports, man,” he says of Philly fans.
Over the years, the group has searched for a bar to call home. They’ve jumped from place to place, but this year, they laid claim to The Post Sports Bar & Grill in Maplewood. For every game, about 25 to 30 people pack into the backroom decked out in Eagles gear. Murphy says he thinks The Post will be the “legit home going forward.”
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Eagles fans pack into The Post for this year’s playoff games.
Inside The Post, Murphy says, it feels like Philly. Eagles flags hang on the wall, a cheesesteak is on the menu and the owner hands out green Eagles shots. The fans sing the Eagles fight song, “Fly Eagles Fly,” after every touchdown. During the playoffs, they have started singing the iconic Philly song: “no one likes us, we don’t care.” When someone walks in wearing another team’s jersey, well, “we give them shit,” Murphy says.
After the Eagles won the 2017 Super Bowl over the New England Patriots, Murphy returned to Philadelphia to celebrate.
But this year, Murphy won’t be going back to Philly. He won’t be going to The Post, either, which is having its own Super Bowl event, separate from the Eagles fan club. Murphy will be in Phoenix to watch the Super Bowl in-person, with his lucky Jerome Brown jersey on his back and his Eagles gnome in hand.
Murphy’s wife, Christina, a Kansas City native, is a die-hard Chiefs fan. They promised each other if the Chiefs ever faced the Eagles in the Super Bowl, they would drop everything and go to the game — with some parameters.
“We have a deal that neither of us can talk to each other for one hour after the game,” he says. “You just gotta let it go after that.”
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These lucky Eagles and Chiefs gnomes belong to Murphy and his wife Christina.
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