(WHTM) — McDonald's is currently selling its famous Shamrock Shakes for a limited time, and many may not know that the Philadelphia Eagles worked with McDonald's and used the famous shakes to help create the very first Ronald McDonald House.

According to the Eagles website, in 1969, Eagles tight end Fred Hill injured his knee in a game against the Detroit Lions. After returning to his home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Hill learned that his leg needed to be put in a full cast, but he would receive worse news that day.

The site says Hill received a call from his wife, Fran, who said their 3-year-old daughter, Kim, was hospitalized and diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia. She was given mere months to live, the site said.

"It was really hard, so I kind of just forgot about football," Fred told the Eagles. "We started chemotherapy at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and they just left her on chemotherapy every single day for three and a half years because they didn't want to take her off because the kids were all dying, but she went right into remission."

Although Kim's condition seemed grave, the support from her family and the Eagles never wavered, even after Fred retired from football in 1971 to take care of her.

"When [then-Eagles owner] Leonard Tose took over the team, he called me into his office and he really felt bad, because Kim used to come to Training Camp at Albright College, so the ball players knew her and everything," Hill said. "She was kind of the catalyst or inspiration for what took place later on, because everybody could relate to this cute little 3-year-old that wasn't supposed to make it."

Hill and his former teammates and their wives began raising money by hosting a fashion show at a restaurant in Cherry Hill, with the benefits going to the Leukemia Society of America. The event raised $10,000, but the Eagles wanted to raise even more, offering to help in any way they could.

According to the Eagles, Hill and the team's then-GM Jimmy Murray went to Dr. Audrey Evans, the head of oncology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who gave them a list of how they could use the money they were raising. What came next made history.

"[Dr. Evans] filled out this list that she wanted to finish off the hematology wings and she had a bunch of other things, but on it, she had a house. We had people coming from 100 miles away and there's no place for them to stay. They have to stay at a hotel, it's very expensive, and we need a little house by the hospital where the parents can stay," Hill explained.

According to the Eagles, Murray went to McDonald's asking them to donate 25 cents of every Shamrock Shake they sold around St. Patrick’s Day. McDonald's countered with a bigger idea: donate all the money if they could name it the Ronald McDonald House.

Fifty years later, Ronald McDonald Houses exist worldwide, and multiple McDonald's locations have collection boxes for donations to the organization. The tradition of the Shamrock Shake donations also continues for a week in March as Philadelphia-area McDonald's donates a portion of the proceeds from the shakes to the Ronald McDonald House.

"I've been able to experience the loving people that volunteer all over the world. I've been to probably over 100 Ronald McDonald Houses, and the people that volunteer bring in and prepare meals, help clean the place, drive to hospitals, they have hundreds of volunteers – that's why these things can run because you wouldn't be able to afford it all," Hill said.