Longtime Eagles' employee Leo Carlin, a member of the team's Hall of Fame, dies
The Eagles announced the death of Leo Carlin, a pioneer in the sports ticketing industry and a member of the team's Hall of Fame. Carlin, who died Wednesday, was 86.
Carlin worked for the Eagles for 55 years.
He joined the Eagles as a part-time member of the 1960 NFL championship team's ticketing department and became a full-time employee of the front office in 1964. Carlin played a large role in the team's transitions from Franklin Field to Veterans Stadium in 1971 and then from Veterans Stadium to Lincoln Financial Field for the 2003 season.
Carlin, a nominee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, helped the Eagles become the first NFL team to merge ticketing with computer data processing.
The Eagles remembered "his kind manner, his incredibly positive energy and his likeability" with season ticket holders, and owner Jeffrey Lurie called Carlin "an incredible ambassador for the Philadelphia Eagles."
"Two of the main factors that allowed Leo to have such a special career and to have an incredible relationship with all of us, I would say, is that we have 70,000 customers," Lurie said in a statement, "and in most businesses, when you have 70,000 customers, it's hard to maintain it on a personal basis. What struck me about Leo and what made him valuable in so many ways is that he was able to humanize that process.
"He was so passionate about trying to please and service 70,000 customers multiple times a year and he kept the 'personal' in the ticketing world, as opposed to simply a business transaction. He was able to keep the Eagles and our customers and our community as one, and that's pretty special. That's how he dealt with his large extended family, that's how he dealt with his fellow employees, and he was always on a personal basis and a relational basis."
