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Art Rooney Stories · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_10: Hi, everybody.
0:01
SPEAKER_10: Welcome to the Pittsburgh Sports Memories Podcast.
0:03
SPEAKER_10: I'm Tim Hannon.
0:05
SPEAKER_09: I'm Steve Wart.
0:07
SPEAKER_10: And on this episode, we're going to talk about the Chief, Art Rooney.
0:26
SPEAKER_10: Art Rooney, of course, a mythical figure in Pittsburgh.
0:29
SPEAKER_10: And over the course of doing this podcast, we've uncovered a lot of just great stories about the Chief.
0:35
SPEAKER_10: So we wanted to compile those into an episode.
0:38
SPEAKER_10: Let's kick this off with a story from our last audio episode concerning the hated Oakland Raiders.
0:48
SPEAKER_10: We talked about Art Rooney earlier.
0:50
SPEAKER_10: Here is Lynn Swan interviewing Raiders owner Al Davis at the Chief's funeral in 1988.
0:57
SPEAKER_09: Now Al Davis can't wow.
0:59
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, I was just going to say, keep in mind, if you're too young to remember, the Raiders and Steelers at one point really hated each other.
1:07
SPEAKER_10: Al Davis wonce submarine an entire Steelers season by filing bogus defamation lawsuits against the Steelers.
1:13
SPEAKER_10: The Raiders thought they got cheated in the Immaculate Reception.
1:16
SPEAKER_10: The Steelers thought the Raiders played dirty.
1:19
SPEAKER_10: And Lynn Swan was kind of at the center of all that, remember?
1:22
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
1:23
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, he was definitely the brunt, the guy they picked on.
1:26
SPEAKER_09: The guy they thought they could pick on and get away with it, especially um what's his name, the one uh George Atkinson.
1:32
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
1:32
SPEAKER_10: And Jack Tatum, I think, both those guys.
1:36
SPEAKER_10: So so what does Al Davis have to say here to Lynn Swan, a guy that the Ra the Raiders again literal quite literally tried to murder at Art Rooney's funeral?
1:46
SPEAKER_10: Let's let's hear that.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: And Art Rooney was someone who called and basically was by your side emotionally the whole time, wasn't he?
1:55
SPEAKER_02: Yes, he was that kind of guy.
1:57
SPEAKER_02: He had just human compassion for everything.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: Carol Davis Marwan was in a coma for approximately 15 days.
2:03
SPEAKER_02: I had the entire strength of the National Football League and the whole country behind me, and particularly Mr.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: Rooney, who would call regularly and uh just keep the vigil with me, although he was in Pittsburgh.
2:15
SPEAKER_09: Goodness, boy, they don't make him like the chief anymore, do they?
2:19
SPEAKER_10: No.
2:19
SPEAKER_09: Talk about practicing what you preach.
2:22
SPEAKER_09: Oh man, what a what a sh we uh boy.
2:25
SPEAKER_09: I mean that's that's impressive.
2:26
SPEAKER_10: That incident that Davis is referring to there, where his wife suffered a massive heart attack and was in a coma for weeks, that happened in 1979.
2:34
SPEAKER_10: So that was literally right at the height of all this Steelers Raiders hatred.
2:38
SPEAKER_10: That was right after Al Davis had sued the Steelers.
2:42
SPEAKER_10: Right?
2:42
SPEAKER_10: And the chief is just it's not like he's just you know doing like a token phone call or sending like a letter or something.
2:49
SPEAKER_10: He's literally staying on the phone with them in the hospital room just so Al Davis has somebody to process all that with.
2:56
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
2:57
SPEAKER_09: They don't make them like like that anymore.
2:59
SPEAKER_09: They really don't.
3:00
SPEAKER_09: We we all could learn a lot from that.
3:03
SPEAKER_10: Absolutely.
3:04
SPEAKER_10: Uh side note there, Carol Davis.
3:06
SPEAKER_09: Did she pass away after all that?
3:08
SPEAKER_10: Or I I No, she com not only could she completely recover, Steve, but at as of the time of this recording, she's still living today.
3:15
SPEAKER_09: Oh my goodness, I didn't know that.
3:17
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
3:20
SPEAKER_10: Art Rooney, of course, the founder of the Steelers, but did you know that he was also instrumental in the founding of another major franchise here in Pittsburgh?
3:29
SPEAKER_10: Here is that story from our Crazy Stories episode.
3:34
SPEAKER_10: So um in 1967, the NHL has six teams.
3:38
SPEAKER_10: They decide they're going to expand to 12 teams.
3:40
SPEAKER_10: And if you really want to point to like the most significant sort of moment in NHL history, it's it had to be this expansion because the NHL was such a small league.
3:51
SPEAKER_10: I mean, six teams.
3:52
SPEAKER_10: Like that's that's not a major league.
3:54
SPEAKER_10: And they wanted to be a major North American sports league.
3:57
SPEAKER_10: And so expanding to 12 teams got them there, and then of course they expanded from there, and and now they're up to 30 or whatever.
4:05
SPEAKER_10: Uh and so um a lot of teams, a lot of cities put in bids, right?
4:10
SPEAKER_10: They want to be part of this NHL expansion.
4:12
SPEAKER_10: Pittsburgh's one of the cities that puts in bid, that puts in a bid.
4:16
SPEAKER_10: And um the the six, uh, the original six existing teams, they're the ones that are gonna vote on who to award the expansion teams to.
4:25
SPEAKER_10: And the Norris Brothers uh owned two of the teams, the the Blackhawks and the Red Wings.
4:30
SPEAKER_10: And they're gonna vote for Buffalo um over Pittsburgh.
4:34
SPEAKER_10: They think Buffalo has a has a better chance of having a successful hockey franchise or successful hockey market.
4:42
SPEAKER_10: And uh Art Rooney apparently knew the Norris Brothers.
4:45
SPEAKER_10: I I don't I I think it was from horse racing.
4:48
SPEAKER_10: They were all three of them were into horse racing, so he knows these guys.
4:52
SPEAKER_10: And uh Jack McGregor, we mentioned him earlier, the the guy that eventually became the owner of the Penguins, he he reaches out to Art Rooney and says, Hey, I I heard you're friends with them.
5:02
SPEAKER_10: Can you can you call them?
5:05
SPEAKER_10: Because apparently they're gonna vote against Pittsburgh.
5:06
SPEAKER_10: So Art Rooney gets on the phone with them and he tells the Norris Brothers that it would be personally embarrassing to him if Buffalo was selected over Pittsburgh.
5:14
SPEAKER_10: Like he said that would personally hurt me.
5:17
SPEAKER_10: And the the Norris Brothers apparently like they're so convinced by that that they vote they vote for Pittsburgh.
5:24
SPEAKER_10: And that's how the Penguins are created, is because Art Rooney got on the phone with the Norris Brothers and and said I'd be personally, you know, personally embarrassed.
5:33
SPEAKER_10: And because they people respected Art Rooney that much, they switched their vote and gave this franchise to Pittsburgh.
5:40
SPEAKER_09: But at least the Norse brothers got a division named after him for a couple years out of the whole thing.
5:44
SPEAKER_09: They did.
5:45
SPEAKER_10: I think that was named after their father, but you know, family.
5:49
SPEAKER_10: Nevertheless.
5:50
SPEAKER_09: But yeah, and but like you said, Buffalo did get a franchise that's been pretty successful.
5:54
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
5:55
SPEAKER_09: So it all kind of worked out for everybody, but that's odd that like the Norse would think that much of Art Rooney.
6:01
SPEAKER_10: Aaron Powell Well, and it's it's kind of like the Tom Brady Sidney Crosby thing where it's one of those cross sports stories, right?
6:07
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
6:07
SPEAKER_10: You know, where football a football figure and a hockey figure, you don't wouldn't even think they would even run in the same circles, but the Norris brothers and and Art Rooney did, and obviously um it was pretty convincing.
6:20
SPEAKER_10: So and you're right, Buffalo gets a team eventually.
6:22
SPEAKER_10: I think it was only like three years later.
6:24
SPEAKER_10: So they called the Sabres, which who still play there today.
6:27
SPEAKER_10: So they they did get a team, so don't feel too bad for Buffalo.
6:30
SPEAKER_10: And Pittsburgh, who knows?
6:31
SPEAKER_10: If Buffalo would have got the team in 67, who knows if Pittsburgh would have submitted a bit three years later, or if they just would have been like, okay, this isn't gonna work.
6:38
SPEAKER_09: We still had the minor league, the Hornets.
6:41
SPEAKER_09: So the Hornets were kind of a very, very successful minor league team.
6:45
SPEAKER_09: So Right.
6:46
SPEAKER_09: But but yeah, you just don't know what happens.
6:48
SPEAKER_10: Is there a Penguins franchise today if they don't?
6:51
SPEAKER_10: Um if Art Rooney doesn't step in in the middle of that.
6:55
SPEAKER_10: So I think that's a good story that again, I didn't know about that until very recently.
7:01
SPEAKER_10: We did an episode on Gabriel Rivera, the defensive lineman who the Steelers drafted over Dan Marino, and we talked about the impact that his car accident had on him and on the franchise.
7:14
SPEAKER_10: It was definitely a horrible moment in Steeler history.
7:18
SPEAKER_10: But sometimes genuine acts of kindness can come out of tragedy.
7:22
SPEAKER_10: Take a listen.
7:24
SPEAKER_10: And then comes the fateful evening of Thursday, October twentieth.
7:29
SPEAKER_10: Uh that evening Gabe leaves practice.
7:31
SPEAKER_10: He goes to a place called Julian's on the north side, and he has a few drinks.
7:37
SPEAKER_10: He's driving home inebriated.
7:39
SPEAKER_10: He swarves into the wrong lane and hits another car head on.
7:43
SPEAKER_10: The other driver somehow isn't too injured, but Rivera is thrown from his car by about thirty feet.
7:50
SPEAKER_10: The injuries are severe, nerve damage to the right arm, a bruised heart, fractured ribs on both sides, a punctured right lung, serious contusion to both lungs, and a fractured vertebrae in the upper back.
8:06
SPEAKER_10: At first there are concerns about whether or not he will survive.
8:09
SPEAKER_10: Within 72 hours of the accident, doctors inform the Steelers that he'll never play football again.
8:15
SPEAKER_10: And a couple of days after that, it's clear that Rivera has lost the use of his legs and will not walk again.
8:22
SPEAKER_10: Doctors say it's a long road ahead too.
8:24
SPEAKER_10: They say many, many basic functions will have to be learned all all over again.
8:29
SPEAKER_10: Uh, for example, he'll have to learn to feed himself.
8:32
SPEAKER_10: Uh man.
8:34
SPEAKER_10: Could you imagine, Steve?
8:36
SPEAKER_10: Like this isn't, you know, this isn't a guy who like made one dis bad decision after another, or like an Antonio Brown who kind of like kept going from team to team to team and getting himself kicked out.
8:49
SPEAKER_10: This is a guy that went out for dinner a kid.
8:51
SPEAKER_10: I mean, he's still really young at this point.
8:53
SPEAKER_10: Goes out for dinner, has too many drinks, makes one bad decision to drive home, and it literally cost him everything.
9:00
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, that's that's tough.
9:02
SPEAKER_09: And I mean, I remember hearing like, you know, about the news conference, I guess, when they said that he was paralyzed about because Stan Saver and said how how upset, you know, it was he said he was shocked, shocked at a person so young, you know.
9:18
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, I mean he he he was just starting to to become this standout player, and uh and again it it's all over on that in that one moment.
9:30
SPEAKER_10: Uh for their part, the Sears are supportive financially and emotionally.
9:35
SPEAKER_10: Uh Gabe's mother, Maria Antonia, who doesn't speak a lot of English, uh she comes to Pittsburgh as soon as she hears about the accident, and the chief uh puts her and the family up at the downtown Hilton, and he takes her to morning mass and breakfast pretty much every day she's there.
9:52
SPEAKER_10: Uh the chief even sends her handwritten letters for the next two years to keep giving her updates on how her son is doing.
9:58
SPEAKER_10: I mean, like, could you imagine an SL owner doing that today?
10:02
SPEAKER_09: I I I the more I hear about the chief, the more you you know, he makes you want to be a better person.
10:08
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
10:09
SPEAKER_09: You know what I mean?
10:10
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
10:11
unknown: Yeah.
10:11
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
10:12
SPEAKER_10: Like I I can see, you know, putting the family up at a hotel and stuff like that, but he like goes and takes her to mass every morning while he's you know, yeah, it's yeah.
10:22
SPEAKER_09: Wow.
10:23
SPEAKER_10: Like personally, not like sends like somebody from the team to do it or something.
10:27
SPEAKER_09: So he probably was going anyway, so might as well bring that along.
10:30
SPEAKER_10: I mean, yeah, it it just it's wild.
10:33
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, that that's that's it you're right.
10:36
SPEAKER_10: It's it you're right.
10:37
SPEAKER_10: It's just the more you hear, the more you're just amazed.
10:39
SPEAKER_10: That this that's why Art Rooney's a mythical figure in this town.
10:44
SPEAKER_10: Art Rooney was a really kind man who did a lot of nice things for people, but he also wasn't one to back down from a confrontation.
10:52
SPEAKER_10: Here's a good story from our chief episode about Rooney having a showdown with his head coach.
11:01
SPEAKER_09: In 1933, once again, he has these interpersonal connections and relationships with politicians and other people, and he he buys into the NFL because he realizes that um from his political connections that they're going to repeal the blue law, so they'll be able to play football on Sundays.
11:19
SPEAKER_09: Um, which starts his uh relationship with the NFL and the Steelers.
11:23
SPEAKER_09: And um boy, at first it was a rocky relationship for uh all involved.
11:30
SPEAKER_09: He he um he got into fights with his coaches over, I don't know what, but they they got mad at him.
11:37
SPEAKER_09: And so they I know in his one the one coach they pushed the furniture to the edges of the office.
11:43
SPEAKER_09: And I guess uh the these Joe Bach was a tough guy.
11:46
SPEAKER_09: He wasn't like you know, pushover, but uh Rooney drawing on his uh barnstorming days of boxing totally just beat the heck out of uh uh the coach so bad that the uh players didn't respect Joe Bach anymore because he got beat up by the chief.
12:03
SPEAKER_09: I mean, I just can't imagine stuff like this.
12:06
SPEAKER_09: I mean, only back then in that generation.
12:09
SPEAKER_09: I mean, it's I could just never uh imagine that a player and a coach and an owner would literally have just like a boxing match in there.
12:19
SPEAKER_09: You know, could you imagine that?
12:20
SPEAKER_10: Some there was a time when you were sort of more accountable for your words, right?
12:27
SPEAKER_10: You couldn't just go on Twitter and call somebody names like you can today.
12:30
SPEAKER_10: I think back then that that got you into into fights, into physical fights, and uh just a just a different time.
12:38
SPEAKER_10: Hard to hard to like criticize or or whatever that because it's just a different time, right?
12:44
SPEAKER_10: Very different.
12:46
SPEAKER_09: It wasn't like a total fist fight either.
12:48
SPEAKER_09: They they actually got like boxing gloves and set up like an area to do it.
12:52
SPEAKER_09: It wasn't like they just like, okay, we're just going at it.
12:54
SPEAKER_09: They jumped over the desk.
12:56
SPEAKER_09: They actually had like for real, like like barring match, I guess.
13:00
SPEAKER_10: And uh kind of like like telling him to a duel kind of like that, only without the pistols.
13:05
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
13:08
SPEAKER_09: Uh my honor has been assuaged, I guess.
13:11
SPEAKER_09: Uh Joe Joe's wasn't too much because I guess he didn't last too much longer with the Steelers after that.
13:18
SPEAKER_10: Our Rooney, of course, had a lot of losing seasons as Steelers owner.
13:22
SPEAKER_10: But finally in 1972, the team not only makes the playoffs, but they staged the greatest ending in the history of the NFL via the Immaculate Reception.
13:32
SPEAKER_10: Ironically, Rooney misses that play because he's trying to do something nice.
13:37
SPEAKER_10: Here's that story.
13:38
SPEAKER_10: Plus, we also talk here about the Chiefs' influence on a legendary Steeler from that team.
13:46
SPEAKER_09: Of course, the infamous story um at the end of the playoff game in Oakland, the final payoff, the Chief finally gets a gets his playoff point.
13:53
SPEAKER_09: He's in he's in the elevator and he misses the immaculate reception.
13:59
SPEAKER_09: Which uh, you know, was enough, but uh he did he did find out when he uh I mean, could you imagine going in the difference in his attitude probably from when he went in that elevator to when he came out down in the basement at Three River Stadium?
14:12
SPEAKER_09: He was definitely shocked when he came out and they won.
14:15
SPEAKER_10: And I and I think the reason he went down early was because he wanted to be in the locker room for when the team came in to sort of you know tell them, hey, you know, good season, don't be disappointed, you guys did great.
14:26
SPEAKER_10: Like I think he went down there to encourage the players.
14:30
SPEAKER_10: So like that was the reason he was in the elevator.
14:32
SPEAKER_10: He wasn't just like going to get a drink or something.
14:34
SPEAKER_10: Yes, he wanted to get down there ahead of time so he could be there when the players got in the locker room.
14:39
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah.
14:40
SPEAKER_09: And no, he didn't meddle with the team like, you know, oh, like you know, your owners call this play or you know, cut this player.
14:47
SPEAKER_09: He would, you know, he would just kind of let the coaches handle that, which is probably smart on his part once he got the right coach.
14:55
SPEAKER_09: But uh he definitely um was a personable owner.
14:59
SPEAKER_09: And uh the players, like I said, the uh one of the more enigmatic players to ever play for the Steelers, Terry Bradshaw, loved the Chief.
15:08
SPEAKER_09: And you know, the Chief called him the blonde bomber.
15:12
SPEAKER_09: And um after uh the first Super Bowl when the chief called Terry and Terry Bradshaw and said, You made me a big shot.
15:19
SPEAKER_09: I can't go anywhere.
15:20
SPEAKER_09: Everybody's recognizing me now.
15:22
SPEAKER_09: I guess he he liked to keep it in his anonymity anonymity there, and he lost a little bit that with some success.
15:31
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, yeah.
15:32
SPEAKER_10: It says a lot about the chief that Terry Bradshaw is one of those guys who's very he says different things at different times.
15:40
SPEAKER_10: He's all over the map when he talks about different things.
15:44
SPEAKER_10: He's anytime I've ever heard him talk about our Rooney, including his Hall of Fame induction, it's just with just complete reverence and admiration and love for this guy that was the owner.
15:56
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, and that's that that that's the type of influence type of person that he was.
16:02
SPEAKER_10: Prior to the Immaculate Reception, Rooney definitely had some missteps.
16:06
SPEAKER_10: One of the biggest mistakes he ever made, of course, was signing off on the Seowers cutting a young Johnny Unitis.
16:14
SPEAKER_10: Here is a little known story about what happened after that.
16:20
SPEAKER_09: Um just another example of the chief and like his great, I have a great quote, you know, he has at the end here.
16:27
SPEAKER_09: Um one one day after uh Walt Keisling, I think it cut Johnny Unitis.
16:31
SPEAKER_09: They ran into Johnny Unidas.
16:33
SPEAKER_09: Um he was, you know, he was still in town, but he hadn't gone down to Baltimore to, you know, get signed and become the rest is history kind of moment.
16:42
SPEAKER_09: But they ran into Johnny Unitis.
16:44
SPEAKER_09: It was in the car, and uh the chief rolled down the window and just said, Oh, hey, Johnny, uh, you know, sorry didn't work out, and you know, good luck.
16:52
SPEAKER_09: You know, I hope you you know have good luck wherever you end up.
16:55
SPEAKER_09: And I mean that's that's just like you know, one of those things that you know you just got cut by an employer, but you know, at least they're like human about it, you know.
17:07
SPEAKER_10: We did an episode called Acts of Kindness, and we included this story about the chief and Steelers linebacker Greg Lloyd.
17:15
SPEAKER_10: Take a listen.
17:18
SPEAKER_10: All right, let's talk about another stealer who people will remember, linebacker Greg Lloyd.
17:24
SPEAKER_10: And that's probably not the person you think of immediately when you think of kindness, because Greg Lloyd probably stealed one of the fiercest defenders ever.
17:34
SPEAKER_10: Didn't he used to wear a shirt or something that said like not known for my disposition or something like that?
17:40
SPEAKER_09: I don't know, I don't remember that, but he was not a uh very nice guy.
17:45
SPEAKER_10: Jim Harbaugh says that in fifteen years of playing in the NFL, Greg Lloyd was the only player who ever scared him.
17:52
SPEAKER_09: That's Jim Harbaugh.
17:54
SPEAKER_10: Yep.
17:55
SPEAKER_10: He made him soil his khaki pants.
18:00
SPEAKER_10: You just imagine Jim Harbaugh wearing khaki pants when he was playing for the Colts.
18:05
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
18:05
SPEAKER_09: I can't imagine him in anything else.
18:10
SPEAKER_10: Uh Greg Lloyd wasn't always the scary dominant force though that he became because uh back in 1987, he's a six-round draft pick out of tiny Fort Valley State, and he threads his knee in training camp that year, and he's gonna miss his entire rookie season.
18:26
SPEAKER_10: And at this point, he's lying in a hospital bed, he knows he has tons of rehab ahead of him, and he figures the Steelers probably are done with him.
18:35
SPEAKER_10: Because he's a liability, and and really, you know, you don't make roster room for late-round picks who played at small-time college football programs, right?
18:47
SPEAKER_10: So as Greg Lloyd is lying there pretty depressed, uh, here's what happens next.
18:52
SPEAKER_03: I was at Divine Providence Hospital.
18:55
SPEAKER_03: I don't even think Divine Providence probably even exists anymore in Pittsburgh, but it's right there on the north side.
19:01
SPEAKER_03: I was at Divine Providence Hospital.
19:03
SPEAKER_03: I was laying up there, they don't cut my knee open and did whatever they're gonna do to it.
19:08
SPEAKER_03: Nobody came to see me, nobody was coming to see me.
19:12
SPEAKER_03: First person to come in my room to see me was uh the chief.
19:18
SPEAKER_03: And he came over, and I didn't think the chief knew me or the chief came in my room, called me by my name, and said, you know what, Laura, you're gonna be okay.
19:28
SPEAKER_03: He said, Give well, you're gonna be okay.
19:30
SPEAKER_03: And he turned around and walks up, and I was just like, That was the chief.
19:35
SPEAKER_03: Nobody else came.
19:36
SPEAKER_03: The only other people that came to see me were doctors, and you know, that was it.
19:40
SPEAKER_09: That's wild.
19:42
SPEAKER_09: That is so the chief, too.
19:44
SPEAKER_09: And he's right, Divine Providence doesn't exist anywhere.
19:46
SPEAKER_09: I don't even know if the building's still there.
19:48
SPEAKER_09: It was over there by the aviary.
19:50
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
19:51
SPEAKER_10: Oh, is that where that was?
19:53
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
19:53
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
19:55
SPEAKER_09: It was like it was like the little hospital next to Allegheny General.
19:59
unknown: Okay.
19:59
SPEAKER_09: Yes, Allegheny General put them out of business.
20:02
SPEAKER_09: That's It's right across the street.
20:05
SPEAKER_09: But yeah, wow, that's crazy.
20:08
SPEAKER_09: I mean, wow, the chief.
20:10
SPEAKER_09: You go, Chief.
20:11
SPEAKER_09: See, the chief's a class act, man.
20:13
SPEAKER_09: Talk about like we've we've told so many chiefs stories, it's unbelievable.
20:18
SPEAKER_09: What a what a life.
20:19
SPEAKER_09: What a what a legacy.
20:21
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
20:21
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
20:23
SPEAKER_10: I mean, at this point, he was at the very end of his life there, 1987.
20:27
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, he died in 88, right?
20:29
SPEAKER_10: Right.
20:30
SPEAKER_10: I mean, he he would have been, you know, uh at that point in his life, you know, just just doing stuff like that probably wasn't as easy as it would have been, you know, 10, 20 years before that.
20:41
unknown: Yeah.
20:41
SPEAKER_10: And uh he made it a point to do and and again, like that that's a guy that six-round draft pick, right?
20:49
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, I mean it's not like a a key member of the team.
20:52
SPEAKER_10: I mean, he would become one later, but yeah, he didn't know that.
20:55
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
20:56
SPEAKER_10: Yep.
20:57
SPEAKER_10: So pretty cool.
20:58
SPEAKER_10: Like I said, we could do a whole episode on just Art Rooney kindness stories.
21:03
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
21:03
SPEAKER_10: But I wanted to at least get one in there.
21:06
SPEAKER_10: Art Rooney was definitely a man of principle, and he had a specific role he lived by in terms of how he interacted with other people.
21:15
SPEAKER_10: We talked about that here.
21:18
SPEAKER_09: We'll get into it too here, which yeah, I've been kind of teasing it, is um Art and Art Rooney, I've all heard the golden rule, treat everybody as you want to be treated.
21:27
SPEAKER_09: Well, Art kind of put his own little spin on it there.
21:29
SPEAKER_09: He said, 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.
21:37
SPEAKER_09: So he kind of took like you know a little bit of the golden rule and put a little north side on it there.
21:42
SPEAKER_09: Like, you know, it's okay, you know, treat everybody how you want it.
21:45
SPEAKER_09: And he would.
21:46
SPEAKER_09: He would like he'd greet everybody from the groundskeepers to Pete Rosell, exactly the same.
21:51
SPEAKER_09: He talked to everybody on the team.
21:53
SPEAKER_09: If you know you're just a little person to you know the most important person in the league, it was Pete Rizzelle.
22:00
SPEAKER_09: Probably at that time.
22:01
SPEAKER_09: So that was definitely something that uh benefited him well and made nice one.
22:06
SPEAKER_09: And Dan, Dan, too, kind of saw that and took those lessons from his father and incorporated with his football skills.
22:13
SPEAKER_09: And that definitely has made for a very successful organization.
22:17
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, there's stories.
22:18
SPEAKER_10: There's stories of him talking to like the cleaning people at the offices of the Steelers and things of that nature.
22:25
SPEAKER_10: He was just that kind of guy.
22:26
SPEAKER_10: Like it didn't matter.
22:28
SPEAKER_10: Um it didn't matter, you know, who you were.
22:30
SPEAKER_10: Like it wasn't like, hey, I'm the owner.
22:32
SPEAKER_10: It was just you're another you're a human being.
22:34
SPEAKER_10: I'm a human being.
22:35
SPEAKER_10: Let's have a just a conversation.
22:37
SPEAKER_10: He never never really saw himself apparently as above anybody else.
22:41
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, and um he definitely rubbed off on Dan that way.
22:45
SPEAKER_09: Because remember, Dan used to let uh Ike Taylor sleep in his office.
22:50
SPEAKER_09: And they used to say that, but you could go into Dan's office or she, and you couldn't do that.
22:55
SPEAKER_09: Like in other organizations, you weren't gonna walk into Al Davis' office or you know, whoever Carl Rosenblum or whoever owns the Colts back, you know.
23:04
SPEAKER_09: You weren't gonna do that in other organizations, yeah.
23:10
SPEAKER_10: So since Rooney believed in treating people the same, there was one thing that he couldn't quite make sense of.
23:16
SPEAKER_10: We dug up some rare audio where he talked about that.
23:21
SPEAKER_10: And this is Art Rooney speaking, this is pretty late in his life, talking about the one thing in his lifetime that he could never quite figure out.
23:31
SPEAKER_04: One thing in my lifetime that uh I could never figure out was uh why a person disliked another person because of his color, whether he was red, yellow, black, or white, or whether he was a Jew or a Christian, or whether he was a Protestant or a Catholic, that you disliked him because of the way he believed in God.
23:58
SPEAKER_04: I often said that I wondered what God would think.
24:02
SPEAKER_10: That's pretty profound.
24:06
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
24:07
SPEAKER_09: I like the way he said yellow.
24:09
SPEAKER_09: He said yellow.
24:09
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, like a turkey.
24:12
SPEAKER_10: He did.
24:13
SPEAKER_09: He did beyond that.
24:15
SPEAKER_09: That's like that's such uh that's that old school Northsiders stuff generation.
24:23
SPEAKER_09: I I miss that generation, I do.
24:26
SPEAKER_09: Although he's really a generated like he reminds me of my wife's grandmother, and but she was more Dan Rooney's generation than the Chief.
24:35
SPEAKER_09: So but still they were they were good people.
24:38
SPEAKER_09: There aren't enough of them around, unfortunately.
24:41
SPEAKER_09: This left is us uh filthy Gen Xers anymore.
24:47
SPEAKER_09: We're running the world into the ground pretty good.
24:50
SPEAKER_09: Though I don't know, we kind of sled under the radar there, huh, Tim?
24:54
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:55
SPEAKER_10: I think so.
24:56
SPEAKER_09: It seems like it's always boomers and millennials.
24:58
SPEAKER_09: We're like the silent generation of.
25:01
SPEAKER_10: We've got that sweet spot.
25:02
SPEAKER_10: Nobody nobody worries about us.
25:05
SPEAKER_09: It's just like when we were growing up.
25:07
SPEAKER_09: Like, here's dinner, eat it up in the microwave, I'll see you when I get home at 11 o'clock tonight.
25:15
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
25:16
SPEAKER_10: I I love um I love kind of like his just common sense approach to that.
25:20
SPEAKER_10: I think like if you made a statement like that today on Twitter, it would be like uh standing on a pedestal, you know, look how um, I don't know, socially aware I am kind of a thing, right?
25:32
SPEAKER_10: He's just like, I don't I don't get it.
25:34
SPEAKER_10: Like why wouldn't you why would you hate somebody just because their skin color is different?
25:38
SPEAKER_09: It's a sense of humility there.
25:40
SPEAKER_09: It's just he it's uh you know, um, what would I call it?
25:44
SPEAKER_09: A sincerely held belief with like with I think sometimes a lot of people like the you know they call it virtual s virtue signaling.
25:52
SPEAKER_09: Like you just you don't you don't really even believe that, you're just doing it to look good in front of other people.
26:00
SPEAKER_10: Very yeah, no no uh no sense of um virtue signaling or pride there, just just very, you know, speaking plainly.
26:11
SPEAKER_10: I I just just cool, just cool words from the chief years later.
26:17
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, the chief not only believed that bigotry was wrong, he also didn't tolerate it when other people practiced it.
26:23
SPEAKER_10: Here's a good story of him messing with some folks who weren't as kind as he was to people who were different than them.
26:32
SPEAKER_09: Um, uh just another funny story.
26:34
SPEAKER_09: Uh one time when he was in a hotel, the chief was at a hotel in New York, a drunken party was next door to his room and they were like real loud all night.
26:43
SPEAKER_09: And like I said, his routine was to get up at 5 a.m.
26:46
SPEAKER_09: and go and you know, get clock the horses to set up his day at the track.
26:51
SPEAKER_09: Well, they kept him up, and I guess they were yelling anti-Semitic comments about like, you know, about Jewish people all night.
26:57
SPEAKER_09: And so like when they finally went to bed at like three or four, the chiefs started like calling their room like every five minutes and asking for like Mr.
27:06
SPEAKER_09: Schwartz or Mr.
27:07
SPEAKER_09: Goldfarb, like obviously like Jewish-sounding names just to mess with them.
27:11
SPEAKER_09: And so he did that for a while until he had to go to the track, and then he paid like the switchboard operator to to keep doing it for like the next couple hours.
27:21
SPEAKER_09: Like I said, the chief the chief uh definitely liked to mess with people.
27:25
SPEAKER_10: It was uh there was that's a side of them that you probably never hear about, right?
27:31
SPEAKER_10: Because it's just those aren't the things that were reported back then, or people would only know that from first hand accounts.
27:39
SPEAKER_10: We have a lot of stories of the Chief's benevolence, but it's also worth remembering that he was pretty instrumental in making the NFL what it is today.
27:49
SPEAKER_10: Here's a story detailing how he helped create something that is a staple of the league today.
27:56
SPEAKER_09: Another great thing, he he formed allies.
27:59
SPEAKER_09: We talk about the Maras, but another person he he knew he came into the league with was uh Burt Bell, who uh was one of the owners and then commissioners of the league.
28:08
SPEAKER_09: He owned uh the Eagles.
28:09
SPEAKER_09: And um, one of the things Burt Bell did was realized was, and I think Rooney kind of got on board with this, was like in baseball, the Yankees see the Pirates as their competition, or the Yankees see the Red Sox as their competition, which they are on the field, but when you're looking at the overall sports landscape and getting people to spend their money to see your product, the Yankees aren't competing against the Red Sox.
28:36
SPEAKER_09: The Yankees are competing against the Giants and the Jets.
28:40
SPEAKER_09: And I don't think sometimes bigger market teams realize that.
28:44
SPEAKER_09: And I think that was something that maybe uh that that was revolutionary, and that was part of the reason the NFL has seen his success go far above other sports.
28:56
SPEAKER_09: And um so one of the big things that Burt Bell and him did was they set up the the the current draft, which I guess teams didn't do that, like the best team would just kind of sign whoever the best players were available, and if you had enough money to sign them, you would sign them.
29:13
SPEAKER_09: Whereas now there was a draft system and the team that finished last would get the best the first pick of a player coming into the league, so they would get more talent.
29:25
SPEAKER_09: And it I mean it it really was a revolutionary thing, and um you know you see that other leagues that don't don't necessarily that finally you know caught on to that, that you know, you're only really it's kind of like a chain, you're only really as strong as your weakest link.
29:39
SPEAKER_09: You know, if if you if you don't have fans in Pittsburgh and Tampa and other places, your league just isn't gonna thrive as well as it could.
29:48
SPEAKER_10: Yeah, could you imagine what the NFL would look like if if you didn't have a draft where the worst team got to pick first?
29:55
SPEAKER_09: Well, I think it would look it would look like the Premier League.
29:58
SPEAKER_09: I don't know if I know you're not a big soccer fan, but it would look like the Premier League, like soccer leagues do.
30:03
SPEAKER_09: Whereas the soccer teams just you know, you have like in the English, you have six teams that have all the money.
30:09
SPEAKER_09: And in Spain you have like two or three.
30:11
SPEAKER_09: And that that those teams have all these money and they just they just sign whoever they want.
30:16
SPEAKER_09: And you know, if you're some little team that's not quite there, you you never even get a chance at the best players.
30:24
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah.
30:24
SPEAKER_10: And the Steelers would would have been in that category for sure had they not implemented a draft.
30:30
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, I yeah, it it's it's one of the more revolutionary concepts, and it's just shows that you know there's a different way of looking at the league, you know.
30:41
SPEAKER_09: And I think other leagues have finally caught on to that, you know.
30:45
SPEAKER_10: Well, yeah, everybody has a draft now.
30:47
SPEAKER_10: I mean, all the all the major sports leagues do have a uh that same style of draft too, where the worst team gets to pick first, or at least there's some kind of lottery worthy.
30:55
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, well, yeah, the penguins kind of ruined that with the tank.
31:00
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah, you at least get a certain percentage of top draft picks.
31:05
SPEAKER_09: Right.
31:06
SPEAKER_09: And it's funny to hear sometimes like the big market teams complain about it still.
31:10
SPEAKER_09: Like you'll hear a report everyone's well, why does Miami get this pick?
31:14
SPEAKER_09: It's like, okay, yeah, just because you make all the money doesn't mean you know you get every little advantage here.
31:21
SPEAKER_10: Well, well, those early NFL owners, like, you know, to your point, that was that was one of their big things is the the league has to succeed as a whole.
31:31
SPEAKER_10: It can't just be one or two teams being successful.
31:34
SPEAKER_10: And so there's a lot of unselfishness with things like that.
31:38
SPEAKER_10: Later on, the revenue sharing.
31:40
SPEAKER_10: Um, you know, if if they didn't have stuff like that, the league would not have been successful.
31:44
SPEAKER_10: It would have been a couple of a handful of teams that were good, and nobody else was, and then nobody would have gone to the games in those smaller towns where the teams weren't very good, and that those teams would have faded away.
31:55
SPEAKER_10: So um it it required a lot of unselfishness from people like the chief and and his contemporaries to build up the NFL to what it is today.
32:07
SPEAKER_10: We did an episode about the colorful Buddy Parker era, and we talked about how the Stewarters actually built a team that nearly made a run at a title.
32:16
SPEAKER_10: In 1963, their final game was against the New York Giants, and a win would have put them in the NFL championship game.
32:23
SPEAKER_10: Here is a story from Frank Gifford, who played for that Giants team, talking about what happened after that game.
32:44
SPEAKER_13: We beat them in the last minutes of those games, but before Art Rooney went to talk to his own ball club, he came into our locker room, congratulated the Maras, congratulated each and every one of the Giant players, and wished them well in the championship.
32:56
SPEAKER_13: That's the kind of individual Art Rooney Sr.
32:59
SPEAKER_13: was.
33:01
SPEAKER_10: One of the most fascinating stories we've ever told on this show is about the time that Rooney actually sold the Steelers and then tried to make the Eagles the team for both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, plus all the areas in between.
33:16
SPEAKER_10: It sounds kind of like a crazy scheme, but it kind of made sense at the time.
33:20
SPEAKER_10: Anyway, here is that story.
33:24
SPEAKER_10: So on December 9th, 1940, uh the the Steelers finish the season 2-7 and 2.
33:31
SPEAKER_10: It's another year of bad football, it's another year of financial setbacks.
33:34
SPEAKER_10: Remember, the Steelers are only seven years old at this time.
33:37
SPEAKER_10: And Rooney just says, you know what, this isn't working.
33:41
SPEAKER_10: And he sells the Steelers to a guy named Alexis Thompson for$160,000, which is the equivalent of about$3 million today.
33:50
SPEAKER_10: Uh, which is pretty good money, not obviously an NFL franchise would sell for a lot more than that today.
33:55
SPEAKER_10: Three million dollars would be like what you pay the kicker.
33:58
SPEAKER_10: Uh but um at the time that's pretty good money.
34:01
SPEAKER_10: Uh and and so Alexis Thompson is a guy that's really young.
34:05
SPEAKER_10: He's 26 years old.
34:07
SPEAKER_10: Uh, but his father had just died and left him with like millions of dollars.
34:10
SPEAKER_10: So the way, again, I don't know much about Alexis Thompson, but the way he's portrayed in the media back then is kind of like a young playboy who just inherited money.
34:18
SPEAKER_09: He made his money the old-fashioned way.
34:20
SPEAKER_09: Right.
34:20
SPEAKER_09: He inherited it.
34:21
SPEAKER_10: Right.
34:22
SPEAKER_10: So this is kind of at least they're portraying this as kind of like a vanity project for him.
34:27
SPEAKER_10: He's like, ooh, I want to own a football team and I have all this money to spend.
34:31
SPEAKER_10: So he pays top dollar for the Steelers.
34:34
SPEAKER_10: And just like new owners do today, Thompson kind of says all the right things.
34:38
SPEAKER_10: Like, we're gonna make the team a winner.
34:40
SPEAKER_10: Uh he goes out and he pays um a lot of money for a new head coach.
34:44
SPEAKER_10: Uh he also renames the team to the Pittsburgh Ironman.
34:49
SPEAKER_10: Like he actually renamed the team Pittsburgh Ironman.
34:52
SPEAKER_10: Uh now, Alexis Thompson, he lives in New York City.
34:57
SPEAKER_10: Uh he doesn't live in Pittsburgh, and he doesn't want to manage the team remotely.
35:01
SPEAKER_10: So he says he does agree that he's gonna keep the team in Pittsburgh for the 1941 season, but ultimately he makes it known he wants to move them out of Pittsburgh because he doesn't want to be in New York managing a team in Pittsburgh.
35:14
SPEAKER_10: Well, he can't move them to New York.
35:16
SPEAKER_10: They already have a team in the Giants.
35:18
SPEAKER_10: So he decides that Boston is the next best market.
35:21
SPEAKER_10: Like he can easily commit to Boston and it's a good market, and they don't have a team.
35:26
SPEAKER_10: Meanwhile, so Rooney has now sold the Steelers.
35:29
SPEAKER_10: So he buys stock in the Philadelphia Eagles with his friend Burt Bell, and he becomes part owner of that franchise.
35:35
SPEAKER_10: So Bell and Rooney now own the Philadelphia Eagles.
35:39
SPEAKER_10: And um Rooney, Rooney uh decides that he's still gonna live in Pittsburgh, and he also has this plan.
35:47
SPEAKER_10: So Rooney and Bell, like Thompson's gonna move the Steelers to Boston or wherever, right?
35:52
SPEAKER_10: He's gonna move them out of Pittsburgh.
35:53
SPEAKER_10: And once that happens, Rooney and Bell have a plan to have the Eagles split their home games between Pittsburgh and Philly.
36:00
SPEAKER_10: So we talked, you talked earlier, Steve, about them playing games in West Virginia.
36:03
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
36:03
SPEAKER_10: So they want to play games in Pittsburgh and Philly.
36:06
SPEAKER_10: In fact, they're gonna rename the team from Philadelphia Eagles to Pennsylvania Keystones.
36:11
SPEAKER_10: Nice so like they're gonna take the whole state.
36:14
SPEAKER_10: Take the whole state, right.
36:15
SPEAKER_10: Why not?
36:16
SPEAKER_10: Now we have all this territory and we can take the whole state and we'll and we'll make more money, we'll get more fans that way.
36:22
SPEAKER_10: Well, the rest of the owners, so so Thompson wants to move the team, and Roney and Bell want to take the state.
36:31
SPEAKER_10: And the owners bocket this for two reasons.
36:33
SPEAKER_10: So, number one, the the whole plan to move a team to Boston, two teams, two other teams that already tried and failed in Boston.
36:40
SPEAKER_10: One was the Boston Bulldogs, who was a team in the 20s that folded.
36:44
SPEAKER_10: And then the Boston Redskins who who moved to Washington, D.C.
36:47
SPEAKER_10: because they were not successful in Boston.
36:49
SPEAKER_10: So the owners are like, football will never work in Boston.
36:52
SPEAKER_10: You know, who would ever put a team in Boston?
36:55
SPEAKER_10: That would be a failure.
36:57
SPEAKER_10: You know.
36:58
SPEAKER_10: I can't imagine that.
36:59
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah.
37:00
SPEAKER_09: They'll never win anything.
37:01
SPEAKER_10: No, they'll never win anything.
37:03
SPEAKER_10: So that's reason number one.
37:04
SPEAKER_10: And then reason number two is the owner of the Redskins, George Preston Marshall, uh, who is a guy that like was pretty fiery and outspoken, he catches wind of Rooney's plan for the Eagles to make them the whole state of Pennsylvania, and he flips out because his team's in Washington.
37:22
SPEAKER_10: He's pulling fans from, you know, central Pennsylvania.
37:24
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, central Pennsylvania is kind of a weird area like that.
37:28
SPEAKER_09: Like there's a lot of like I I have a lot of family from there, and like like football-wise, there well back when I was growing up, there was no Baltimore Colts.
37:37
SPEAKER_09: So there they were more either Redskins fans, Steelers fans, and there were some Eagles fans, but it was more Redskins Steelers.
37:47
SPEAKER_09: Although the Steelers are so big anymore, I mean it's they almost take over that at a yeah.
37:53
SPEAKER_10: Well, right.
37:53
SPEAKER_09: And and But it wasn't that case in 1940 for sure.
37:56
SPEAKER_10: Right.
37:56
SPEAKER_10: And if you had a team called the Pennsylvania Keystones.
37:59
SPEAKER_09: You would hopefully pull them in.
38:00
SPEAKER_10: And if you lived in Lancaster or Harrisburg, New York or whatever, then hey, that's my team too.
38:05
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
38:05
SPEAKER_09: Right.
38:06
SPEAKER_09: And you could do like the Huntington, West Virginia thing, play like games in Harrisburg, yeah.
38:10
SPEAKER_09: Or eerie, you know, Scranton.
38:12
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
38:13
SPEAKER_10: It was a good plan.
38:14
SPEAKER_10: I mean, honestly, especially back then, there was no TV.
38:16
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, so that's you would kind of barnstorm the state and yeah.
38:19
SPEAKER_09: Right.
38:20
SPEAKER_09: Come up with a good thing.
38:21
SPEAKER_10: Yep, you made all your money from attendance.
38:24
SPEAKER_10: And so it was a pr it was actually a pretty good plan.
38:27
SPEAKER_10: But again, if you're the owner of the Redskins, you're like, no way.
38:29
SPEAKER_09: Because yeah, those fans might be tra I mean, uh Harrisburg to DC probably isn't that far of a trip for you know, even back then, and maybe the train, you know, the train probably went there.
38:39
SPEAKER_09: So maybe there were some fans that were commuting down to DC for the football games.
38:44
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
38:45
SPEAKER_10: And he's just like, no, but you're not taking the whole state of Pennsylvania.
38:48
SPEAKER_10: So the owners just say they nix the whole thing.
38:51
SPEAKER_10: You're not you're not moving the the Ironman to Boston, the Pitts to Boston, and you're not gonna make the Eagles the whole state of Pennsylvania.
38:59
SPEAKER_10: So now Alexis Thompson's stuck owning a team in Pittsburgh and running it from New York City.
39:04
SPEAKER_10: And then Rooney's plan and Bell's plan of you know covering the whole state, that's not gonna work.
39:10
SPEAKER_10: Uh not only the owner were the owners against it, but obviously if the the Thompson's team is playing in pit staying in Pittsburgh, then that wouldn't have worked anyway.
39:18
SPEAKER_10: So like now Thompson and Rooney are both like, oh this maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
39:25
SPEAKER_10: So Rooney Rooney actually is like, hey, you know, he goes to he goes to Thompson, he's like, you know, you know what city is kind of close to New York City?
39:32
SPEAKER_10: Philadelphia.
39:34
SPEAKER_10: That's that's an easy one to like you could you could run a team in Philadelphia from New York City.
39:39
SPEAKER_10: And Art Rooney basically offers to trade cities with Thompson.
39:43
SPEAKER_10: So this is a little hard to follow, so I will do my best here.
39:47
SPEAKER_10: So here's what happens.
39:48
SPEAKER_10: Here's what happens.
39:50
SPEAKER_10: Thompson takes all of the CORs, aka the Ironman, players and coaches to Philadelphia.
39:57
SPEAKER_10: Art Rooney and Burt Bell take all of the Eagles players and coaches to Pittsburgh.
40:02
SPEAKER_10: Um they they Thompson also ditches the Ironman name and decides to call his team in Philadelphia the Eagles, since that's what the football team there was already called, and they keep the same uniforms, the same colors, and all that.
40:17
SPEAKER_10: So I'm trying to try to put this in perspective.
40:20
SPEAKER_10: It would be like today, so so today Art Rennie III owns the Steelers, Jeffrey Lurie owns the Eagles.
40:25
SPEAKER_10: It would be like if those two guys swapped teams.
40:27
SPEAKER_10: So the team in Pittsburgh would still be called the Steelers, and they would stay still have black and gold uniforms, but the head coach of the Steelers would be Doug Peterson and the quarterback of the Steelers would be Carson Wentz.
40:38
SPEAKER_10: And meanwhile, the team in Philadelphia would still be called the Eagles and they would still wear green and white, but Mike Tomlin would be their coach and their roster would be all players that played for the Steelers the previous season.
40:50
SPEAKER_09: Makes sense, yeah.
40:51
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
40:51
SPEAKER_09: And then Colonel Mustard in the uh library with a candlestick.
40:54
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
40:56
SPEAKER_09: Sure.
40:57
SPEAKER_09: Sure.
40:58
SPEAKER_09: This is uh this is a terrible idea at this point.
41:01
SPEAKER_10: I mean, it it's so goofy.
41:03
SPEAKER_10: And if you go look at Is that what actually happened?
41:05
SPEAKER_10: What did no Yeah, that's what actually happened.
41:07
SPEAKER_09: If you go look at the So that's what actually happened?
41:10
SPEAKER_09: Oh, I thought I thought Rooney just bought the shares back off of this is what actually if you go look at the Trevor Burrus.
41:15
SPEAKER_09: So Thompson actually so the team Wow.
41:18
SPEAKER_09: So if you So technically I've been an Eagles fan all these years.
41:21
SPEAKER_09: Technically, yes.
41:22
SPEAKER_09: Wow, I'm not sure how to like you know make my peace with that.
41:33
SPEAKER_10: If you look at the if you go to like Pro Football Reference or one of those sites, and you look at the 1941 Steelers roster and click on any of those players and see where they played the previous year, it was Philadelphia.
41:44
SPEAKER_10: Like there's no player on the 1941 Steelers that played for Pittsburgh the previous season because that was the Eagles roster.
41:51
SPEAKER_10: Nice.
41:52
SPEAKER_10: That moved to Pittsburgh and became the Steelers.
41:54
SPEAKER_09: And this was before the Steagles.
41:56
SPEAKER_09: Yes.
41:56
SPEAKER_09: Oh my gosh.
41:57
SPEAKER_10: Yeah.
41:57
SPEAKER_10: And and and actually the the um the incorporated owner of the Steelers for about three or four years was like Philadelphia Football Club or something, like own the Steelers.
42:07
SPEAKER_10: And then in the Well, him and Burt Bell always did have a close relationship.
42:11
SPEAKER_09: They did.
42:12
SPEAKER_10: And then and then Burt Bell eventually becomes a few years later, he becomes the commissioner of the NFL and he has to sell off his ownership shares.
42:18
SPEAKER_10: And he does that to the um, what's the family, the McGuintes?
42:22
SPEAKER_10: The Art Rooney like in-law family.
42:24
SPEAKER_10: So he basically sells the shares back to the Rooney family.
42:27
SPEAKER_10: Oh.
42:28
SPEAKER_10: And that's all the Rooneys then become like the the sole owners again for the rest of time.
42:32
SPEAKER_10: Oh, for the Steelers.
42:33
SPEAKER_10: So Bell actually co-owned the Steelers for a few years, but then he sells his shares, and again, no one really remembers that.
42:38
SPEAKER_10: It's a footnote.
42:41
SPEAKER_10: So we're gonna wrap this up with a bonus clip, but before we do that, I just want to thank everyone once again so much for supporting our show.
42:49
SPEAKER_10: Uh also a reminder to check us out on Facebook and to give us a good rating on your podcast service.
42:55
SPEAKER_10: Also a reminder to check out our Steelers book if you haven't already.
42:59
SPEAKER_10: We'll leave you with this clip.
43:01
SPEAKER_10: It's not from one of our episodes, but rather from a special that NFL Films did to mark the 75th anniversary of the league.
43:08
SPEAKER_10: And the voices that you'll hear in this audio are Joe Green, Pete Rosell, Terry Bradshaw, and Ray Mansfield.
43:16
SPEAKER_10: So take a listen to this and we will catch you next time.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: By 1974, the Steelers were poised to win Art Rooney his first Super Bowl.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: The desire to get a tank for Mr.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Rooney.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: That was our money, it wasn't about fame.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: But uh to win that was for Mr.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: Rooney.
43:53
SPEAKER_05: Probably the most emotional time I had was presenting him We uh quote over and over and over.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: But in any way, he was uh so expecting
44:02
SPEAKER_05: the league.
44:03
SPEAKER_05: He was a genuine gentleman, Art Rooney.
44:07
SPEAKER_01: An uncanny blend of power and grace, the Steelers' style mirrored their chief's personality.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: A decade of dominance eclipsed a lifetime.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: of losing.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: Rooney won four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
44:25
SPEAKER_01: But even when his Steelers became kings of the football world, he remained a king of the fowls.
44:31
SPEAKER_12: He was a good, powerful man.
44:33
SPEAKER_12: He was a good king.
44:34
SPEAKER_12: Here's a guy that kept hundreds of one-dollar bills so that he could pass them out on the streets and give them to the poor people and so he could give them to kids.
44:44
SPEAKER_06: So you can imagine how he felt about his players.
44:47
SPEAKER_06: One of the coaches was on my ass all the time, you know.
44:50
SPEAKER_06: And uh, I remember he was standing there chewing me out, and Mr.
44:53
SPEAKER_06: Rooney walked up.
44:54
SPEAKER_06: He jumped all over the coach, you know, he says, he took a cigar at his mouth.
44:57
SPEAKER_06: He says, This is a good boy, he says, You leave him alone.
45:02
SPEAKER_12: He was so generous, so gracious, so kind that he you you just people fell in love with him.
45:10
SPEAKER_11: Art Rooney?
45:22
SPEAKER_11: Boy, I love that man.
45:24
SPEAKER_11: I know you're watching, all right.
45:26
SPEAKER_11: I love you.
45:27
SPEAKER_11: You are always always by me.
45:30
SPEAKER_11: I love you so much.
45:31
SPEAKER_11: Thank you.