Richard America with his daughter, Amy. (Courtesy Richard America)

The emails arrived in rapid succession after I suggested that, for Redskins fans, choosing the lesser of two evils in Sunday’s Super Bowl means rooting for the Patriots. For every response from someone who agreed it would be best, for Burgundy and Gold supporters, to see Philadelphia’s title drought extended, there were four nasty missives from Eagles fans, further proving my point.

I almost didn’t bother opening one particular email with an all-caps subject line — THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES – I LOVE MY HOMETOWN TEAM — but I was sure glad I did.

“‘The Eagles are not America’s sweethearts or America’s team,'” the email began, referencing a line from my piece. “Actually, they are exactly that, and have been — for many decades. America grew up in North Philly, and has been an Iggles fan since he was just a kid, rooting for Steve Van Buren, then Chuck Bednarik, and on and on.”

Initially confused, I could only laugh when I saw the signature:

Richard F. America
Professor of the Practice, Emeritus
School of Business
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.

I called Mr. America a few days later.

Dick America was born in 1938 and raised in North Philadelphia on Eagles football, a tradition passed down from his father Richard Sr., a World War I veteran. Two of his earliest memories as a fan are of listening to the Eagles win the 1948 and 1949 NFL championship games on the radio. “That’s when I became football conscious,” America said.

In September 1954, America was working as an usher at Franklin Field when a sophomore quarterback named Sonny Jurgensen led Duke to a 52-0 rout of Penn. Many years later, America went up to Jurgensen in a D.C. restaurant and confessed that he’d never quite gotten over the 1964 trade that sent Jurgensen, an eventual Hall of Famer, from the Eagles to Washington in exchange for Norm Snead. “He said he heard that a lot,” said America, who was also at Franklin Field for Philadelphia’s 17-13 triumph over the Green Bay Packers in the 1960 NFL Championship Game, the last time the Eagles won a title.

The self-described slowest hurdler on the Central High track and field team, which included Bill Cosby, America went on to graduate from Penn State, where he majored in economics. In 1961, he was one of four African Americans to enroll at Harvard Business School. Robert Kraft, who could win his sixth Super Bowl title as the owner of the Patriots on Sunday, was in his graduating class. “I never knew him, I’ve never met him,” America said. “He’s done a great job with that investment and building a culture there.”

After finishing his degree in Boston, America headed to California to work for the Stanford Research Institute. He taught at the UC-Berkeley and Stanford business schools during the early days of Silicon Valley and adopted the Raiders and 49ers as his secondary teams. America lived in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, which was walking distance from Kezar Stadium, the 49ers’ old home.

America then took a job at Bank of America in San Francisco. Yes, really. “Is this your bank?” people would ask him. “No, it’s not, I just work here,” he would reply. “Kids teased me growing up, but it was friendly,” America said of his relatively uncommon surname. “It’s never been a problem and it’s always been kind of fun. I went to ROTC and got commissioned in the Army, so I was Lieutenant America.” (America said he’s traced his family history back to 1820 and suspects he’s related to a runaway slave named George America, who, according to a newspaper advertisement in the Virginia Runaways archives, escaped from Newport News in 1766.)

Family issues brought America back to Philadelphia in the early 1970s. He moved to D.C. shortly after accepting a position in President Jimmy Carter’s administration and spent 20 years doing economic development work for the federal government, first with the Commerce Department and then with the Small Business Administration. After retiring in 1997, America became a full-time professor at Georgetown’s business school, teaching classes on community development and investing in Africa. America hasn’t taught since 2012, but he continues to work toward advancing the development of business schools and universities to train future managers in Africa.

All the while, the Eagles have remained America’s team. He doesn’t consider himself a fanatical fan, and he only watches the Eagles when they’re on national TV. America has yet to attend a game at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, but he once took his daughter, Amy, a Georgetown graduate who works in D.C., to an Eagles game in Baltimore. “The Eagles fans in our section were so obnoxious, I was embarrassed,” he recalled.

I asked America about the Eagles fanbase’s notorious reputation.

“I’m not a sociologist, but there’s an edginess to the town still,” said America, who lives in Reston but still owns the house where he grew up in Philadelphia, for sentimental reasons. “They can be a bit . . . Philly. I love the city in many ways, but even as a teenager, there were some neighborhoods that you knew, just don’t go there, and they weren’t too far away.”

As for Sunday’s game, America said he thinks Doug Pederson is “turning out to be a terrific coach” and that Philadelphia “just might win.” If the Eagles do pull off the upset against the Patriots, America — and a majority of fans in the United States, apparently — will be happy, but he already considers this season a success.

“I don’t worry about championships,” he said. “I just ask the teams I root for to be consistently playoff quality, year in and year out.”

In that case, I don’t feel guilty repeating myself: Go Patriots.


Richard America Sr. (Courtesy Richard America)

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Why, Eagles? Why? Redskins fans shouldn’t root for Philly in the Super Bowl

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