Radnor High School, Tunnell’s prep alma mater, is one of the best public high schools in the country and one that has been integrated for a long time, apparently including Tunnell’s time there in the early 1940s. Hart, Congressman and diplomat Richard Swett, and none other than President Woodrow Wilson. Other Bryn Mawr natives or one-time residents are everyone from entertainers like Katharine Hepburn, Teddy Pendergrass, Jim Croce, Jayne Mansfield, Kat Dennings (hubba hubba!) and one of my absolute fave musicians, Warren Zevon, to politicians like longtime Michigan Senator Philip A. The “Main Line” communities include Lower Merion Township, Radnor Township, Gladwyne and Villanova, which apparently are among the wealthiest communities not only in Philly but in the entire country.Įncompassing parts of some of those townships along the Main Line is the census-designated place of Bryn Mawr, Tunnell’s native community - and one featuring average family incomes well over $100,000 and home values approaching $900,000 on average. I haven’t had a chance to do extensive research and reading about the Main Line community in Philadelphia and the social context in which the Tigers played, nor Tunnell’s youth and background, but a cursory search shows that the “Main Line” string of communities in suburban Philly earned its name from the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which shoots in a northwest direction from downtown Philadelphia. I couldn’t find any more references in the Tribune’s archives to Tunnell playing for the Main Line Tigers, but the fact that he was a good enough baseball player to compete for a semipro team reflects the kind of superb, all-around athlete Tunnell was.
In addition to eventually being a superb defensive back for the New York football Giants, Tunnell also excelled in baseball for Radnor High and the Coast Guard. Among the stars for the Tigers that day was … Pro Football Hall of Famer Emlen Tunnell!
In June 1946, the Philadelphia Tribune reported on the Tigers’ 7-6 win over the Havorford Cubs on the Bryn Mawr Polo Grounds on Memorial Day. While doing research on an upcoming article for Pennsylvania Magazine, I came across a semipro team called the Main Line Tigers, who appear to have existed in various forms in the Philadelphia area for at least a couple decades spanning the 1920s to the 1940s. In honor of Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, I thought I’d put up a little football-related post …
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