Leo Carlin, longtime Eagles ticket manager and popular hall of famer, has died at 86
His visibility and helpful nature made him a friendly face of the franchise. It never bothered him when people asked for tickets. “But it is always difficult to have to say no,” he said.
Leo Carlin, 86, formerly of Bala Cynwyd, longtime Eagles ticket manager, member of the team’s hall of fame, and acknowledged fan favorite, died Wednesday, Jan. 17, of age-associated decline at his home in Wayne.
Mr. Carlin grew up in North Philadelphia in the 1940s and ‘50s and enjoyed playing football more than almost anything else. But he wasn’t very big, and he wasn’t very fast.
So he did the next best thing when he grew up. He got a job in the Eagles ticket office in 1960 and spent the next five decades working with fans and the front office, solving knotty problems of all sorts, and pioneering new ways to sell tickets and manage the business of pro football.
“The Philadelphia Eagles became my second home. My playground. My job, which I love, and my personal attachment to the great game of football,” Mr. Carlin wrote in an early draft of a memoir he shared with the Daily News in 2015.
From 1964 until his retirement in 2015, Mr. Carlin worked as the team’s ticket manger, business manager, and director of tickets and client services. He ushered computer data processing and later digital innovations into his ticketing systems, and oversaw the team’s relocations from Franklin Field to Veterans Stadium to Lincoln Financial Field.
He also became a face of the franchise. Personable and dedicated to customer service, he knew fans by name, escorted many of them to their seats before and during games, and dealt graciously with countless ticket problems, complaints, and five-figure waiting lists.
He was usually so busy dealing with ticket issues on game days, he once lamented, that he never got to watch a complete home game. “He was able to keep the Eagles and our customers and our community as one, and that’s pretty special,” Jeffrey Lurie, Eagles chairman and chief executive officer, said in a tribute.
Mr. Carlin served the Eagles during five ownerships, was nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, and inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2012. He was so respected by his colleagues that they awarded him a Super Bowl ring in 2018 even though he had been retired for nearly three years.
He left the Eagles in 1977 as ownership transitioned and, among other things, owned a ticket office in Center City, and worked for the 76ers and other local sports teams. He rejoined the Eagles when Norman Braman acquired the team from Leonard Tose in 1984.
He was quoted often in The Inquirer and Daily News, and published A Bird’s-Eye View: My Mostly Wonderful, Always Unforgettable Half-Century with the Philadelphia Eagles with coauthor Paul Domowitch in 2020.
His family said Mr. Carlin’s legendary work ethic was matched only by “his kindness and ability to connect with people from all walks of life.” In an online tribute, former Eagles executive Joe Banner said Mr. Carlin was “one of the best, maybe even the best person, I met in my entire life.”
Leo Joseph Carlin was born Sept. 16, 1937, in Atlantic City. He was the youngest of six children and told stories later of playing baseball in Hunting Park and hanging with his buddies at Broad and Pike Streets in North Philly.
He played football and graduated from St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in 1955, and earned a bachelor’s degree at St. Joseph’s College, now St. Joseph’s University, in 1959. He enlisted in the Marines but served only briefly due to a medical issue with his back.
He married Kay Schofield in 1959, and they had daughters Lizanne, Corinne, and Carrie, and sons Leo Jr., Clayton, Christopher, and Laurence. They lived in Narberth at first and moved to Bala Cynwyd, Rosemont, and Newtown Square.
» READ MORE: Here is an excerpt from Leo Carlin's book about the Eagles.
His father and two older brothers were ticket sales entrepreneurs, and Mr. Carlin worked for a time at the Walnut Street Theatre and other entertainment venues. He liked to run and play racquetball as a young man, and, ever the football enthusiast, coached his sons on youth teams.
He was an adventurer, his family said, who ziplined from the top of Lincoln Financial Field but made sure to be home for dinner nearly every night. He punctuated many of his humorous stories with a memorable lopsided grin, and his 22 grandchildren called him Daddy-O.
“He was a family man and knew how to light up a room,” said his son Leo. “Everyone was a friend to him, and he made every one of his children feel like they were the most important.”
In addition to his wife, children, and grandchildren, Mr. Carlin is survived by other relatives. Three brothers and two sisters died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, at D’Anjollel Memorial Home of Broomall, 2811 West Chester Pike, Broomall, Pa., 19008; and from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 26, at St. John Neumann Church, 380 Highland Lane, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010. A funeral Mass is to follow.
Donations in his name may be made to the Eagles Autism Foundation, 1 NovaCare Way, Philadelphia, Pa. 19145.