Meet Eloise Brown, a 102-year-old Eagles fan who doesn’t miss a snap, and watches games with a stress ball
The great-great North Philly grandmother has been around longer than the Eagles franchise and a fan since the 1960s. Her prediction: a win on Sunday.
Two Sundays ago, Eloise Brown sat quietly in her wheelchair inside the tunnel at Lincoln Financial Field. It was about an hour before game time. She was dressed in a black Eagles jacket, an Eagles sweatshirt, and an Eagles hat, with A.J. Brown earrings dangling from her ears.
She held up a sign.
“102 years old and still cheering for the Birds!”, it said, in big green font.
The players took note. Brandon Graham ran over, gave her a hug, kissed her on the cheek, and took a quick photo. A few moments later, C.J. Gardner-Johnson walked toward Brown, and gently put his hands on her shoulders.
“Thank you for coming today,” he said. “Have a great day.”
She did. Sitting in her South Philadelphia apartment on Wednesday afternoon, wearing a Jerome Brown jersey and those same Brown earrings, the great-great grandmother smiled. She has been alive since 1922, and an Eagles fan since the 1960s, but had only attended four games.
The Eagles’ Dec. 29 win against the Cowboys — a belated 102nd birthday celebration with her granddaughter, Sabrina Hall, and her great-grandson, Josiah Morris — was her fifth. Hall, who works as a communications director for state senator Anthony Williams, got tickets from the legislator.
But Williams’ gift meant much more than seats at a division-clinching win. The centenarian was praised from the moment she entered the building. Team president Don Smolenski greeted her with a custom-made jersey that featured her surname — “Brown” — and age —”102″ — on the back.
By the end of the night, it had been signed by Jordan Mailata, Brett Toth, and Landon Dickerson. Toth’s wife, Thereasa, met Brown in the tunnel, and invited her onto the field after the game, where she shook hands with head coach Nick Sirianni and posed for a photo with the game ball.
“It almost broke my arm,” Brown said. “That thing is heavy. I was like, ‘Oh, my poor hand!’ I had no idea it was that heavy. Heavy, and I do mean heavy.”
It was a pretty good day, maybe one of the best of her life. Hall said the Eagles players and staff treated Brown “like she was their grandmother,” calling her “Ms. Brown,” and “Mom-mom Brown.”
“They showed so much care and love,” Hall said. “And I just appreciated all of them, including the senator, for doing this.”
But one thing, above all, made the 102-year-old particularly happy.
“They won,” Brown said. “And they’re gonna win Sunday (against the Packers in a wild-card playoff game).”
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Eloise (pronounced ee-lois) Brown was born in North Philadelphia on Nov. 22, 1922. She worked a number of jobs: First, as a housekeeper, then, as a social worker, and then, in the arts, with civil rights activist and politician Delores Tucker.
In the 1960s, she’d watch the Eagles on television with her children, which is how she became a fan. Brown’s 27 grandkids, over 50 great-grandkids, and over 20 great-great grandkids, say she has never missed a game.
“Never,” said Hall. “It’s a part of who she is.”
In 2022, she celebrated her 100th birthday by attending the Commanders-Eagles game on Sept. 25 in Landover, Md. Neither team scored in the first quarter, and Brown began to get nervous.
So, she worked her magic.
“I closed my eyes, and said a little something,” Brown said. “I told the big man upstairs. And that was it.”
(The Eagles won, 24-8).
In her 102 years — 11 years longer than the Eagles have existed — Brown has witnessed 17 division titles and one Super Bowl win. But she’s also witnessed plenty of 10-, 11-, and 12-loss seasons.
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It’s why she carries a small, football-shaped stress ball in her hand.
“Plenty of times [they frustrate me],” Brown said. “But I keep that stress ball. When they right there, and don’t score, and they right there, and they let it go … I’m not happy. But I’m gonna be happy Sunday.”
As is the case with most Eagles fans, her stress runs deep. Brown’s granddaughter, Sakina Johnson, said her grandmother took last season’s playoff collapse particularly hard.
“She literally cried,” Johnson said. “It was almost like she was one of the guys on the field. When they lose, she loses, too.”
Added Hall: “She and my son [Josiah] both get upset about it. They’re just … true fans. The highs, the lows.”
There haven’t been many lows lately, with one big exception. A few weeks ago when Jalen Hurts suffered a concussion in the first quarter of the Eagles’ Dec. 22 loss to the Commanders, Brown called her granddaughter.
“Sabrina,” she said. “The quarterback …”
“Hurts,” Hall said.
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“I just want to hug him,” Brown said. “I just want him to heal.”
She was disappointed when she learned that Hurts was a limited participant in practice on Wednesday.
“I don’t want him to play anymore,” Brown said. “Once they fall on their head, they could do damage forever. So, no. They say he’s OK for this weekend, practicing. But if I was near him, I would say, ‘Please, for your sake, don’t go again. You done enough. No.’”
Some might disagree. But regardless, Brown will be tuning in on Sunday, and depending on the outcome, the games after that. She says she is “confident” that the Eagles will win their second Super Bowl this season.
“I was happy [last time they won],” she said. “I was jumping up and down. And I hope I live to see it again. I’ll be jumping up and down. By myself. Right in here.”