We were in Pittsburgh this weekend. On a football weekend. It was an interesting sight to see.
Pittsbugh is a city of contrasts. Calling its people a hardscrabble lot is justifiable. At the same time, the populace is decidedly unique and different from who you see in New York, San Francisco or LA. No one tag can be placed on the types and differences within the Pittsburgh populace other than to say that diversity is common and relentless.
The aforementioned description of Pittsburgh's inhabitants is in accord with the variance in its architecture. Still dominating the skyline is the U.S. Steel building, in its grandeur of steel and glass. Except that it is no longer the U. S. Steel building, as UPMC in large letter adorns the higher floor of the edifice, advertising who is dominant in business in the city--the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and its stable of hospitals and physicians in its insurance web. Except that UPMC fight an unending and sometimes bitter war for patients with the Allegheny Health Network and its lineup of competing hospitals and doctors. Within the facades and monuments to business in eras present and bygone, competition and conflict and is always present--whether by the dominating titans like the Mellons and the Carnegies or the unions representing the workers.
That ever-growing, new order of skyscrapers is part of the revitalization of Pittsburgh. From Downtown to the Point, on the South Side, in Bloomfield, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and around Bakery Square, new residences and retail shops and technical companies are rising fast. Older row houses are being revitalized. Suburban areas are becoming more and more upscale and even luxurious.
Yet there remains an older, unprivileged population that lives in a preponderance of the buildings which go back to near the turn of the century. Businesses which stay in neighborhoods rather than expand outside of the city are aplenty, unlike the signature sandwich place, Primanti Bros., whose large meat and potatoes sandwiches belong to a bygone Pittsburgh and which housed so many factories and workers needing food at all hours of the day was legendary and endemic of a Pittsburgh that was the epicenter of the steel industry.
Pittsburgh has hills and three rivers. It has tunnels and bridges. Buses carry many to their destination. The old PRR logo for the long gone Pennsylvania Railroad still is on the outside of a brick and glass station which saw its glory evaporate so many years ago. It is a transportation city of all kinds--cars older and newer; trucks of all sizes and shapes; bicycles and Ubers--the latter with its fleet of Volvo SUV's with the spinning lasers on top that guide the driver and passenger(s) to a destination.
Pittsburgh is the home to the repeat Stanley Cup champion Penguins. In winter time, but much less so at this time of the year, Penguins jerseys saluting heroes Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury, the goaltender lost to the Las Vegas NHL franchise in the recent expansion draft are vibrant in the old light blue colors or the current black,yellow and white which the Steelers and Pirates wear. Penguins fans seem to be Steelers fans and they are Pirates fans, too.
Looking at the vacant PNC Park while the Pirates were in Cincinnati losing an unimportant series to the lowly Reds, caused me to look for those wearing any Pirates gear as the Bucs play out the season. I looked hard and found very little. Which tells me that the crowds for the remaining home games will be sparse. The Pirates faithful have moved on.
So what did I see in Pittsburgh this weekend? Well, the masses descended upon the city for the two games to be played at Heinz Field on Saturday and Sunday. Two teams dominated the viewing at the hotels, on the streets, in the bars and restaurants and in the shopping centers.
College football has a proud history in the Steel City. Carnegie-Mellon University, a very well known technological and liberal arts college, was a dominant football school into World War II. Now they play Division III football, a deemphasized, non-scholarship brand of the sport which is far different than its football alums played.
Thus the mantle of college football in Pittsburgh is with the University of Pittsburgh. Pitt produced such legends from Western Pennsylvania as Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino. It won National Championships. Huge crowds went to Pitt Stadium, which has been since razed and the shiny new basketball arena with all the bells and whistles that an NBA arena might have, sits in its place.
Young men and women wore Pitt shirts, sweatpants and cars had some Panthers flags on them. But for all of those which I viewed, there was a fair amount of orange and black representing the visiting ninth-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys who were in town to play the second of a home and home series which did not end well for Pitt last year in Stillwater.
Those Cowboys fans were eerily polite and unabashedly reserved as they roundly enjoyed their road trip to Pittsburgh. They ate in the nicest of eateries and they walked the streets comfortably.
As for the game itself, the Cowboys demolished the Panthers, just like they did a year ago. On a very nice, 80 degree late summer day at Heinz Field, an announced crowd of almost 39,000 featured a lot of old line Pitt faithful and the wild and crazy students who were asked to stay to the end to receive a "beverage," and those happy, orange-clad OK State fans. It felt like this was the real good preliminary bout on a fight card, with the main event to come.
The reason so many people were excited in Pittsburgh this weekend was simple--the Steelers' home opener with visiting Minnesota Vikings was set for Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at Heinz Field. As much as the Pitt youth wore the school's colors, there was no mistaking the Steelers fans. Seemingly everywhere, people were wearing Steelers' garb--a virtual sea of black, white and yellow. Talk about a love affair between a city and its NFL team--this is legit.
For many years, the Steelers were treated like a doormat in the NFL. They shuttled between Forbes Field, the old home of the Pirates and Pitt Stadium. Crowds were small and the excitement was pitiful. But in the glory years of the 1970's, led by the Immaculate Reception that Franco Harris somehow hauled in versus Oakland to win an AFC title, the subsequent Super Bowl wins turned a city which was depressed and almost broken and a World Championship by the Willie Stargell "We are Family" Pirates, into a city that felt like it could win and coincided with the start of the transformation of the city from a factory town to a more urbane place.
The spirit of the "Terrible Towel" continues from its gimmick origin in 1975 by radio station WTAE and Steelers' broadcaster Myron Cope to this day; the Terrible Towel has been seen on the International Space Station, Dancing with the Stars, and even the Vatican. Steelers' fans treat the Terrible Towel with the symbolic reverence it has accumulated. It is waved with impunity at games by the zealous true believers who think that there is a hex contained in a cloth that is shaken furiously at Steelers opponents.
The towel and the legion of Steelers' fans festooned in anything that remotely says Steelers on it have carried successful teams thru the years. Ben Roetlithsberger and Hines Ward bridge the gap in time from Terry Bradshaw and Lynn Swann. Even when the Steelers dressed lesser teams than the 6 Super Bowl sinning squads, the fans were more than ever entwined with their Steelers.
Stability in ownership and coaching has been a hallmark of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Rooney family has owned the team from its founding in 1933. Three head coaches have given the Steelers longevity and productivity on the field--Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and currently Mike Tomlin. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, Pittsburgh has a 480-305-2 record including playoffs. The Steelers have reached the playoffs 30 times, won the division 22 times, played in 16 AFC Championships and won 6 of 8 Super Bowls that they were in. Furthermore, once the NFL went to a 16 game schedule, the Steelers are the only team to not have had a season with twelve or more losses.
So it is not surprising that the affair that the Steelers began in the cookie cutter dual purpose Three Rivers Stadium, shared with the Pirates on unforgiving AstroTurf, has continued unabated for now over 40 years. Fans make weekends to come to the games. Hotels fill up early, and on game day, Steelers brethren, adorned in face paint, beads, hats, shirts, pajamas and stretch pants are seemingly headed out to the game or a local bar. I actually saw a black woman in her white Steelers' jersey speak with 2 oversized white men she had never met before and make plans to tailgate in the Heinz Field parking lot. Race is of no consequence when cheering for the Steelers; Jack Lambert was as beloved as Polynesian Troy Palomalu; Jack Ham was the equal of Tony Dungy. Mean Joe Greene meant as much as Mike Webster. White road jerseys are the equal of black home uniforms.
All of Pittsburgh pulled for the entire team. The city united with its Steelers heroes who worked hard like they understood from the days of steel furnaces and hourly wage earners. That bond is even greater today.
I saw a smattering of Vikings fans today in their purple togs. penetrating the veil of black and gold enveloping downtown before game time. While they peaceably interacted with the throng of Steelers fans, I knew that they were so vastly outnumbered that politeness was what they must show, even if dressed like Broomhilda in a outlandish outfit that Leif Erickson might shade his eyes from in sheer embarrassment.
For today, football Sunday in Pittsburgh, Steeler Nation was awake and hungry for the smell of another victory.They played against the backdrop of the city that has transformed itself into a new and vibrant place where the older parts are coming into the new age, and where a younger group of citizens ais on the verge of claiming the city for its generation. Alas, this nouveau sector, still having ties to a legacy of football that is ingrained deep into the roots of Pittsburghers far and wide, understands and appreciates what 16 Sundays into January and February mean when the weather turns cold and the wind howls.
This Jets fan in his team polo shirt, among the legion of black in the hotel, felt a pang of empathy with lots of envy. I get what they have. Something unique only to Pittsburgh.
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