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Steelers history

[edit]

In 1916, Art Rooney founded the Hope Harvey semi-pro football team.[1] "In a way, I guess that was the start of the Steelers. It grew from that," Rooney said.[1] Rooney, who was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area, was an "exceptional all-around athlete".[2] Rooney was recruited to play football for Notre Dame, baseball for the Boston Red Sox;[2] and named to the 1920 Olympic boxing team.[3] His love of sports would lead to him becoming organizer and promoter of sports, which played a role in his founding of the Harveys.[4] The Harveys, who would later change names to the J.P. Rooneys and then again to the Rooney Reds[5] played at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.[1] These Steeler precursors were comprised primarily of players from Pitt, Duquesne and Carnegie Tech.[5]

Due to Pennsylvania's blue laws, which prohibited athletic competition on Sundays because it was the Sabbath, the team did not join the NFL.[1] However, in 1933 some of the restrictive laws were repealed, allowing the team to join the league.[1] Rooney founded his new NFL team under the name the Pittsburgh Pirates, on July 8, 1933, for US$2,500.[6][7] Since the laws were not repealed until November, the team played its first four games at Forbes Field on Wednesday nights.[5]

Treat everybody the way you'd like to be treated. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But never let anyone mistake kindness for weakness.

Art Rooney(Men1)

Over the course of the next four decades, the team was a study in frustration. They posted a winning record only eight times in their first 39 NFL seasons and never sniffed a championship.[5]

Despite his new football team, Art Rooney's concentration remained on placing bets on horse racing. A life long hobby, Rooney once won an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 in a single 1936 day of betting.[7] It would later become legend that Art Rooney won the Steelers while betting on a horse race,[8] however, this is not true.[1][9] What can be said is that Rooney's gambling winnings did help keep the franchise afloat[5] — while Rooney faired well off the field, the Pirates struggled on it. Rooney hired Forrest Douds to be the team's first head coach;[1] he lasted for one season.[10] Pittsburgh's first game, against the New York Giants was a 23–2 defeat[11] in front of a crowd of about 20,000.[5] Rooney wrote of the game, "The Giants won. Our team looks terrible. The fans didn't get their money's worth."[12] The Pirates rebounded to gain their first franchise vicory a week later, by a single point, against the Chicago Cardinals[11], this time with about 5,000 fans in the stadium.[5] The team finished their inaugural season with a 3–6–2 record.(Men23)

Instead of striving to win, Rooney simply attempted to keep the franchise in business through its early seasons.(Men8) During the 1930s, while America was recovering from the Great Depression, the Pirates included players John McNally and future Supreme Court of the United States Byron White. They were led by coaches Luby DiMeolo and Joe Bach. The team played home games at Forbes Field, despite its oft frozen surface.(Men22) Though the franchise would trade their first round pick multiple times in their first 30 years, their first overall draft pick was William Shakespeare–he never played in the NFL.(Men22) In order to avoid confusion with the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball franchise,[13] Rooney's franchise became the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1941 at the suggestion of wife of the franchise's ticketmaster Margaret Carr.(Men29) The term was to represent the city's heritage of producing steel.[3] Bert Bell, Aldo Donelli, and Walt Kiesling—in his second of three terms as head coach—combined to coach the team to one win over the ensuing season.(Men 29–30)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g O'Brien 2001, p.33.
  2. ^ a b O'Brien 2001, p.14.
  3. ^ a b "Steelers History: 1933 - 2007" (PDF). Steelers.com. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  4. ^ O'Brien 2001, p.32.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Wexell, Jim (18 August 2007). "Part One: The Birth of the Franchise" (PDF fee required). Steelers Digest: Official Publication of the Pittsburgh Steelers. 20 (3). Pittsburgh, PA: Steelers Digest, J.V.: 15–17. ISSN 1044-2855. OCLC 19732505. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
  6. ^ "Pittsburgh Steelers: Firsts, Records, Odds & Ends". ProFootballhof.com. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  7. ^ a b O'Brien 2001, p.16.
  8. ^ McNulty, Timothy (2008-07-10). "Professional football has longtime gambling ties". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
  9. ^ Dan Rooney. The Complete History of the Pittsburgh Steelers (DVD Documentary). NFL Films. {{cite AV media}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  10. ^ "74 Years with the Steelers" (PDF). Steelers.com. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  11. ^ a b Wiebusch 2002, p. 95.
  12. ^ O'Brien 2001, p.17.
  13. ^ O'Brien 2001, p.33.
  • O'Brien, Jim (2001). The Chief: Art Rooney and his Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: James P. O'Brien - Publishing. ISBN 1-886348-06-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Steelers: The Complete History (DVD documentary). NFL Films. {{cite AV media}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month2=, |year2=, and |date2= (help)
  • Wiebusch, John (2002). House of Steel: Heinz Field and the Dawn of a New Era in Pittsburgh. China: NFL Creative. ISBN 0-9721664-0-8. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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