Eagles bid goodbye to Lehigh, will stay home for summer

The Philadelphia Eagles are ending an era, moving their summer training camp from Lehigh University back to the club’s NovaCare Complex.

The Eagles trained at Lehigh for the last 17 summers but have elected to use their year-round facility beginning this summer, the club announced this morning.

The plan is for some of the training camp practices to be open to the public at nearby Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles become the 21st NFL club to move home for training camp, a trend that continues to grow around the league.

“The interaction with our fans during the training camp period remains a huge priority,” Eagles president Don Smolenski said in a statement. “As such, we are currently planning to utilize the opportunities available to us at Lincoln Financial Field to have a number of open practices (which will be free) available to all of our fans. We’ll announce those specific plans in the coming weeks.”

The Eagles have not stayed home for the summer since 1943 when they trained at St. Joseph’s University.

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Brad Biggs covers the Bears for the Chicago Tribune