Days of Eagles and Giants

For a handful of Augusts, Saranac Lake was the summer home of professional football in the Northeast. Between 1946 and 1951, the Philadelphia Eagles and then the New York Football Giants held their training camps in the village. The National Hockey League’s New York Rangers also prepared for their 1949–1953 seasons in Saranac Lake.

Saranac Lake had long been a home away from home for people struggling with the devastation of tuberculosis. Philadelphia Eagles owner Alexis Thompson, too, found the crisp air of the Adirondacks invigorating. Thompson, a one-time Olympic hopeful in the bobsled who represented the US in field hockey at the 1936 Olympics,