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REWIND: Fun Facts About Pittsburgh Sports (Volume 2) · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, just wanted to take a pause in the episode here to let you know that our book chronicling the entire history of the Steelers Ravens rivalry is now thirty-five percent off for the holidays.
0:12
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0:22
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0:26
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0:51
SPEAKER_01: Hi everybody, welcome to the Pittsburgh Sports Memories Podcast.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: My name's Tim Hannon, and with me is my co-host, Steve Wirt.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: So uh we're gonna do some fun facts this time.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: This is actually a uh kind of a sequel episode.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: We did an episode like this a while back, and it it proved to be a pretty popular episode, got a lot of good reaction to it.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and last time um we did, I think it was like 58 fun facts.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: This time it'll be a little fewer, it'll be 47 fun facts, but they're gonna be quality fun facts.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Is there any significance in the number 47?
1:29
SPEAKER_01: No, it was it was literally just I counted however many I had in the list, and that's what it came out to.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: You were like, I really like Mel Blunt or Scott Shields.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: No.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: No, I wish I could say there was some significance to it, but there isn't.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and like last time, we'll we'll kind of uh do some of these as trivia.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: So I'll put Steve and maybe you, the listener, on the spot a couple times just to see if you you might know the answer to some of these.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh one one change from last time.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: Last time we grouped these by team.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: We did like Steelers, Penguins, Pirates.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: This time there's there's no such organization, it's just a bunch of facts.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: So let's kick things off uh with uh one that's related to the Steelers.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: And and this is one that you may have already known if you listen to the episode that Steve did recently on Ben Rothlesberger.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: And the fun fact here is that there have been 26 games in NFL history featuring a 500-yard passing performance.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: And of those 26 games, Ben Rothlesberger has four of them, which is pretty impressive.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh, in fact, the only other guys with more than one are Tom Brady and Drew Brees, who each have two.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but Ben has four.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Is that 500 or 400?
2:46
SPEAKER_01: 500 yards.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: 500.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: I thought Patrick Mahomes, I think Patrick Mahomes just I saw has a couple, or maybe that was 400.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: He's a couple like big yardage passing games now, too.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: And he, I mean, how long has he been in the league?
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Four years, five years.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's there's it's amazing that uh you know you don't have more of that, but it's it's hard to get 500 yards because a lot of times you have to be either in a shootout or or playing from behind.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh because even if you're dominating and you have a really good game, eventually you're gonna stop passing the ball.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, Ben, Ben has four of those.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh here, I'll here's a here's a question.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll we'll do a question here and see if see if you can answer this.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: What is the only city that all three Pittsburgh Pro Sports teams, the Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers, have beaten in the postseason?
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good one.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: The only city that the Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Would that be the big apple?
3:49
SPEAKER_00: Ding ding ding.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: You are correct.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Ah, look at me.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: Yes, the the uh Pirates have beaten the Yankees, the Steelers have beaten the Jets in the playoffs, and the uh Penguins have beaten the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils in the postseason.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: So we're still waiting on that Steelers Giants Super Bowl.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: They haven't got that one yet, but they have they have eliminated the Jets in a in a playoff game multiple times.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: Now, now you could have kind of thrown a second city in here if you want to classify the Bay Area as one sports city, right?
4:24
SPEAKER_01: Because the Oakland Raiders, San Francisco Giants, and San Jose Sharks have all lost postseason uh matches against Pittsburgh teams.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to count the Bay Area as one, you could count that.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody beaten the Golden State Warriors, though?
4:40
SPEAKER_01: No, but that's a great transition, Steve.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: Because speaking of playoff eliminations in the NBA, who is the only current NBA team, and it's not the Warriors, to have been eliminated from the playoffs by a Pittsburgh team?
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Current NBA team.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, that's a good one.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we'll go with the Indiana Pacers.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: That's correct.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Hey, that that was by the uh whatever, the Condors or Pipers, yeah.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: Or who changed their name to the Condors, yeah.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whatever they Connie Hawkins, yeah.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: Connie Hawkins, 1968 playoffs.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: I knew it had to be an ABA team.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, very good.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: Indiana Pacers in their history have been eliminated by a Pittsburgh team.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: They're the only NBA team that still exists that has that distinction.
5:35
SPEAKER_01: So, Steve, you're you're two for two.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty good start.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh I ate my Wheaties today.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: I had I had a leftover with the Stanley Cup champion 92 penguins on it.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, that would have been very healthy to eat after all these years, I'm sure.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: Um here's here's an interesting like six degrees of separation.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: Fun fact.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: Chuck Knoll coached against both Vince Lombardi and Bill Belichick.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: So if that gives you an idea of kind of how long Chuck Knowle's career expanded, uh he he coached the Steelers against both those head coaches.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, Vince Lombardi?
6:12
SPEAKER_00: When he was with like Washington?
6:14
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: When he was with the Redskins, yep.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: When he was like dying of cancer.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and then Belichick with the Browns.
6:21
SPEAKER_01: So so maybe that's a that's a sub-fun fact is that he didn't he didn't coach against those two guys for what they're really known for, the Packers and the Patriots.
6:29
SPEAKER_01: He coached against them with the Redskins and Browns.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sorry.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: What is this Redskin team of which you speak?
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, I guess you're correct, because they were called that back in the day.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm just being factual about what the team was that he coached at the time, and it was called the Washington Redskins.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Pittsburgh coaches, and this is another one that Steve covered in a previous episode.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jamie Dixon, the former coach of Pitt Basketball, was a child actor, mostly in commercials uh for Mattel, Rice Krispies, and Volvo.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh Steve, I did go on YouTube and I found like a Rice Krispies commercial from the 70s with some kids in it.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: And one kid looks like it could be Jamie Dixon, but I have no way no way to prove that.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: I was just saying it's him.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: You can go find that on your own if you're really interested in finding, trying to identify Jamie Dixon.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Jamie likes it.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Nobody awaited it.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Jamie likes it.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: Was that Rice Krispies?
7:30
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember what that was for.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: That was like life or something.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: And it was Mikey.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Mikey.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Mikey, yeah.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Who may or may not be dead or missing, or I don't know.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't an urban legend for a while.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, that'll be a that'll be a different fun facts episode that somebody can cover what happened to uh serial spokespeople.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh we just did an episode recently on uh Super Bowl 43 and talked a lot about Larry Fitzgerald, who of course played a lot of his college games at Heinz Field.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: How many pro games did Larry Fitzgerald play at Heinz Field during his 17 years in the NFL?
8:09
SPEAKER_01: I think that number would be zero.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's close.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: He actually played one game at Heinz Field after college.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: He did?
8:18
SPEAKER_01: It was in 2015.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: It was a game in which his Cardinals were upset by the immortal Landry Jones and the Steelers.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, but that's that's amazing, right?
8:28
SPEAKER_01: He he seventeen.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: I knew it wasn't very often, yeah.
8:32
unknown: Yeah.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, I you and it's kind of well, that's because they're on that schedule.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, you only play, they're only going to play here once every eight years.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: So And they didn't even do that because it it it's yeah, so you so you're right, you play NFC teams once every four years.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: It'll be a little more often now because of that 17th game.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: But you only play them once every four years, and it's supposed to be home away, home away, but that gets messed up sometimes.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: And so what ended up happening was they played the Cardinals on the road in 2007, they played the Cardinals on the road again in 2011, and then they finally played the Cardinals here at home in 2015, and then I think they played them on the road again in 2019.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: So again, the Cardinals like it better when we play them there.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: It's a sellout for them.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: Um here's here's here's a really tough question, I think.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Can you name the last time that each of the three Pittsburgh pro sports teams, again, Steelhorse, Penguins, Pirates, played a game that ended in a tie?
9:32
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean it?
9:33
SPEAKER_00: That ended in a tie?
9:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, the penguins Oh, yeah, that's right.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: The Penguins don't play ties no more.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: So you mean like not just yeah.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: When was the most recent time that all three of those teams played a game that ended in a tie?
9:46
SPEAKER_01: Start with the Steel Horse, because I think that's an easy one.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the no, that's not the Falcons.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: They played a tie after that, didn't they?
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Is it the Falcons game?
9:56
SPEAKER_01: No, it was 2021 against the Detroit Lions.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that game, yeah.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I I deleted that from my memory.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: It was so horrible.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: I was at that game and sat in the rain for five quarters watching Mason Rudolph and not be able to get our team down the field and watch everybody fumble the ball away in over time.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: So that was the Steelers.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: The Penguins, like you alluded to, has to be 2003 or 2004 or something.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was March 27, 2004, against the Buffalo Sabres because after the 04-05 lockout, the NHL eliminated tie games, and so that was the last time was that end of the year game against the Sabres?
10:33
SPEAKER_00: The Pirates are probably like what 1920, 1910, something like that.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: So the last time the Pirates played a game to a tie, this might surprise you, was against the Chicago Cubs on September 29th, 2016.
10:47
SPEAKER_02: What?
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: They just let it be at what?
10:52
SPEAKER_00: What was there a rain delay or something?
10:54
SPEAKER_01: So so what happens is the game that September 29th is like the last the final week of the baseball season.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: The teams were out of it.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: So so well, the Cubs weren't.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: That was the year they won the World Series.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: But what happened was the game goes into the sixth inning and weather happens, and so they postponed the game, which normally means they would make it up later.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: But because it was the last week of the season, the Cubs were headed to the playoffs, the Pirates were out of it, that game meant nothing to the standings, so they just declared it a tie.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at the the Pirates' record from 2016, the their record is 78, 83, and one.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: No under 500.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, of course.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: But uh, but yeah, they have a tie, they have a tie game from 2016.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: So wow.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: I would not have thought that.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: That makes sense, though.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Makes sense.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: That was a tough one.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: That was a tough one.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that one a lot.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: I was I was I thought that one was pretty interesting.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: Let's uh let's talk a little bit about awards.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Everybody likes nice, shiny trophies and awards.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Art Ross trophy has been given annually to the NHL scoring leader since 1948.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: The team with the most Art Ross trophies is the Penguins.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: They have 15 of those, although the Edmonton Oilers are nipping at their heels, with 12, including the last three from uh Dre Seidel and uh McDavid.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: Those 15 awards split between four players, uh, if Genny Malkin and Sidney Crosby each have two, Yarmara Yarger won five, and Mary O'Mey won six.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: The NFL has an award called Defensive Player of the Year.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: That's been given since 1971.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: The team with the most Defensive Player of the Year awards is your Pittsburgh Steelers.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: Eight times.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: Seven different players.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: Steve, you want to take a crack at naming the seven Steelers and one Defensive Player of the Year?
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, I guess you go James Harrison, then he win it once.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: DJ Watt, I think, won it once.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we'll go Mean Joe, he probably won it once.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh so what am I up to?
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Three?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Troy?
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Troy, I Troy ever won it.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Troy won it in 2010, yes.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: So what am I up to?
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Four?
13:10
SPEAKER_01: Four.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: Three more.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Try Rod Woodson.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Rod Woodson in the uh in the uh 93 season that we discovered recently.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: So I need two more.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Defensive players of the year.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Greg Lloyd?
13:32
SPEAKER_00: No?
13:33
SPEAKER_01: No.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: No.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Boy, we're getting on the slim pickings here.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll give you a hint.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: You already named one of these guys earlier in the episode.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who did I name?
13:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember what I said.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember what I said five minutes ago, Tim.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Stop that.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh the the other two players are Jack Lambert and Mel Blunt.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's right.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Mel Blunt.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: As he said about the number 47.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: So Mel Blunt jokes.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Or Mel Blunt.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna come down with this cowboy hat and like kick my butt or no, and then he was defensive player of the year.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: Those those are the seven Steelers.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: Joe Green did win it twice, which is why they have eight eight times by seven players.
14:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Heisman Trophy, of course, is a big award in college football.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: Pitt Pitt only has one of those.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: It's Tony Dorsett in 1976.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: But they did have uh five other times where they've a pit player finished as a Heisman finalist in the top three.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: I know two of them.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Kenny Pickett and Larry Fitzgerald.
14:37
SPEAKER_01: That's correct.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: I think I think the two that you're definitely not going to get are Marshall Goldberg in 1937 and 1938.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: I know who Marshall Goldberg is.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize he was a finalist.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Joe Sh Joe Joe Schmidt?
14:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Joe Schmidt.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: That's a good guess.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: It was Hugh Green in 1980.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, lost out to George Rogers.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: The immortal George Rogers.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: But he did finish ahead of Herschel Walker.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Out of those three people, uh, I'm thinking they should have picked Herschel Walker.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: But hey, that's not the first time uh Herschel Walker's lost a vote.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: So that's true.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh the NFL's list of all-time leaders in fumbles, if you go look at that, it's dominated by quarterbacks, which makes a lot of sense, right?
15:30
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of times quarterbacks get hit from the blind side.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's much easier for a quarterback to fumble than it is any other player.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Is it a Dave Craig?
15:39
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't he like the all-time fumblyist quarterback?
15:42
SPEAKER_01: He was, I believe Brett Favre owns that record now.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh but don't but don't quote me on that.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: I can tell you, though, who is the all-time leader for running backs.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: It's a tie between Jerome Bettis has to be wonderful.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: It is not Jerome Bettis, it's a tie between Franco Harris and former pit running back that we just talked about, Tony Dorsett.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
16:02
SPEAKER_02: Really?
16:02
SPEAKER_01: They each had 90 fumbles in their career.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: Now that that's kind of a misleading stat because both those guys played for you know over a decade, which is incredibly rare for a running back to play that long.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, you can say, like, oh, they have 90 fumbles, but it most running backs don't play that long.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: And if they do, they're relegated to backup status or something.
16:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we did an episode a little while ago called His Mind Is Thought to Be Deranged, and we talked a lot about Deacon Philippi, who is the hero of the 1903 World Series, uh, because due to some unfortunate events that we talked about in that podcast, he ends up throwing five complete games, which is still a uh a record for most innings pitched in a World Series, and that's one I can pretty much guarantee will never be broken.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Unless like they go into extra innings or something.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: I have to play a lot of extra innings for somebody to pitch 45 innings in a World Series.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh so that's one fun fact.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: Another fun fact is that years later, uh Deacon Philippi has a descendant named Ryan Philippee.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: Ryan becomes an actor, he meets an actress named Reese Witherspoon, and together they have a baby boy.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: Steve, guess what they named the baby boy?
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Deacon.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: They named him Deacon after his uh ancestor, the the Pirate's Pitcher.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's wild.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: There's there's a fun fact there.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know Ryan Philippi was married to Reese Witherspoon.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: He he was he he I don't know if he was married to he definitely had a child with her at some point, but it's Hollywood, so you know I'm sure it was over before it even started because they all get together and then they get divorced, and that's how it works, apparently.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Steelers hold the record for most safeties taken in a single season.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: In 1999, they got uh five safeties against scored against them that year, which is pretty unbelievable.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: I mean, safeties are a pretty rare play in football, so that year they hit five.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh here's a fun fact about Roberto Clemeni.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: He was a Marine Reserve.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: He spent six months on active duty at Paris Island, and he was a reserve for six years total.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: So Roberto Clemeni is a uh veteran.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I knew that previously.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: We uh we talked about awards before.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh one award that the penguins have never won is the Vesena Trophy, which is given to the best goaltender.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Wait, oh no.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say, didn't yeah, Barraso won it, but I guess it was with Buffalo.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: That's correct.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the Penguins have the Penguins have employed goaltenders who have won it during their careers, but not while they were playing for the Penguins.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: So uh but they are the Penguins are 5-1 against that year's Vesina winner in the playoffs.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: So the five times they they took out the Vesina winner in the playoffs were Kim Carey in 96, Olaf Kolzic in 2000, Haushik in 2001, and then Braden Holtby and Sergey Brobrowski on their way to Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: The one time that they lost to the Vesena winner was in 2022 when they lost to Igor Shisterkin uh because the NHL thought it would be fun to let Jacob Truba elbow everybody in the face and take out our best player.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: So not that we're bitter about that or anything.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: No, I I love watching sports where the best players get hurt because somebody you know elbowed them in the face.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a great way to run your sport.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: I think you'll get a lot of new new things that way.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Start like elbowing Patrick Mahomes in the face.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who wouldn't want to watch the AFC championship game with you know two backup quarterbacks?
19:59
SPEAKER_01: I would I would watch that.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Who's their backup now?
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I uh oh god, I can't remember.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, whoever it is, I won I I would love to watch it because you know that's definitely why people tune in is to watch.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: Watch that kind of stuff rather than you know skilled players.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: But I don't know anything about marketing or anything, so what do I know?
20:19
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh here's here's a here's a kind of an interesting one.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: On August 13th, 1910, the Pirates and Dodgers played in the most symmetrical game ever.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: They each scored eight runs, they each had 13 hits, 38 at bats, five strikeouts, three walks, one hit batter, one pass ball, 13 assists, 27 put-outs, two errors, and they both used two pitchers.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: It was the second game of a double header, and it gets too dark to play because back then they didn't have lights at the stadiums.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: So if it got too dark, they just called the game where it was.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: And so fittingly, this one ends in a tie.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: Remember that game, Steve?
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I remember going.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking, boy, it's getting pretty dark.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: If we finish this up, can uh can Fred Clark wrap this up here as a manager of the pirates?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Or I don't even know who was the manager.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: It was Bill McKechney.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: Here's one that I think people have probably heard before, but it's worth repeating.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Since 1969, there have been more popes than there have been steel or coaches.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: There's been five popes and only three steel or coaches.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, I can definitely name the three Steeler coaches.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about the popes.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, don't name the popes because I will not tell you if you're right or wrong there.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: John Paul Benedict, another Benedict.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I I won't Innocent the Third.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: I definitely don't have that answer in front of me.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll save that for a uh the Catholic fun fact.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: The Catholic podcast.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: Check that out, by the way.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: Try to find that on Spotify.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: Steve and I are Catholic fun facts.
22:09
SPEAKER_01: Catholic Fun Facts.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: We're going to get in trouble if we keep going down this road.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: What is the miracle of the mass?
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Oh sorry.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: Transubstantiation?
22:17
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Steeler coaches, in his final nine seasons as coach of the Steelers, Bill Cower's teams only made the playoffs four times.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: I think that's an interesting stat because I think a lot of folks we talked a little bit about that in our uh three coaches episode.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: You know how it's a little bit of a misconception that Mike Tomlin inherited this great team.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: He he, you know, the the four times Cower made the playoffs, he two of those were AFC championship game appearances, and one of those was a Super Bowl victory.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: So obviously they had a good team, but there was a bunch of years where they didn't even make the playoffs.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: So I just think that's an interesting stat.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: Take it for what it's worth.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: It's a fun fact.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: All right, here's one that I'll put you on the spot again, Steve.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh so the Pirates currently have the longest pennant drought of any team in the National League, which means that every other team in the National League has won a pennant and appeared in a World Series since the Pirates last won one in 1979.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: There is only one American League team with a longer drought than the Pirates.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: Can you name the American League team the only American League team who has a longer drought of not winning a pennant and appearing in a World Series?
23:37
SPEAKER_00: Are they currently an American League team?
23:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, that eliminates the Brewers.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Brewers have never been in a World Series, have they?
23:45
SPEAKER_01: The Brewers were in the 1982 World Series when they were in the American League, which was after 1979.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: 1979, yeah.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: American League teams that haven't been in the World Series for a hundred, Alex.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh I have no idea.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Seattle, maybe thing.
24:03
SPEAKER_02: Correct.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Yay! Mariners.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: They they had the best, they they own the best record in baseball of all time.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: And they lost to that Jeter team in what was that, 2000, 2001?
24:14
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, they were even in the playoffs this most recent uh season.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: So they've definitely had their chances since then.
24:21
SPEAKER_01: But the Seattle Mariners were founded in 1977 and they've actually never won a pennant.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: So they've never been to a World Series, hence having a longer drought than the Pirates.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Has Tampa Bay been there?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: I guess Tampa Bay.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: 2008 they were in the World Series.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: I think two or three years ago they were in the World Series.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: So yes, Tampa Bay's been there.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: Again, just highlighting how bad the Pirates suck.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Well.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: Can't argue with that.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh we talked before about cities.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: Steve, where do you think if you if you take all the cities in North America that are in the four major sports, right?
25:02
SPEAKER_01: Football, basketball, hockey, baseball.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: If you took all those cities and added up all their championships, where do you think Pittsburgh ranks on that list?
25:11
SPEAKER_01: I've looked this up before.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: See, that's uh see that's tough to say.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: I think we're we're like 25 or 24 somewhere in there.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: We're number nine.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: That's hard to believe.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Are you sure we have more than Philadelphia?
25:28
SPEAKER_01: We do not have more than here's here's the cities in front of the city.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Because like I know Chicago is more, Philadelphia is more, LA definitely New York, LA, New York, Boston.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Boston.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, picks is there.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: The the the cities, yeah, the other cities that you didn't mention, uh Montreal, because of the Canadians having all the Stanley Cups.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Toronto, probably.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Toronto is underneath us, they're 10th.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh Detroit has more than us, uh, but they have four teams.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: And then this list that I have here, it it this does count the Bay Area as a city.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: So the Bay Area also has more championships.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Because of all the Warriors and Well, I guess.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, was this do they still count the Raiders' wins as I guess?
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, did the Raiders ever win in Oakland?
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they did.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they did.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: They did win as Oakland, yeah.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:24
unknown: Yeah.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Al moved them every other week.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I'll I mean who knows?
26:30
SPEAKER_00: They were LA, Oakland, you know, where the hell were they?
26:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: The the Raiders, also the 49ers, have a bunch of Super Bowls.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: So uh that counts for the Bay Area, too.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: But this list that I that I'm looking at at least has Pittsburgh with 17 championships because they are counting the Pipers ABA championship in here.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you took if you took that away, and if you didn't count that, then we would be in a tie with Toronto with 16.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, the Maple Leafs haven't won a Stanley Cup in a while.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: No, they haven't.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: The Blue Jays haven't, and then the last team was the uh Raptors won a couple years ago.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
27:10
unknown: Yep.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: They actually beat Philadelphia in one of their playoff games.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, again, you can you can take these things with a grain of salt because like Montreal and Toronto, you know, have all those Stanley Cups, but so many of those came when like they were the only two teams in the league, basically.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: It's like so I I know there was more than two, but there was like six, right?
27:30
SPEAKER_01: So I mean, come on.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was yeah, there was only two Your odds are pretty pretty high of winning a championship at that point.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Or like, you know, the Ottawa team was going in and out of business.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Right.
27:41
SPEAKER_01: Right?
27:43
SPEAKER_01: I bet if the Pirates played in the sixth team league, you know where they'd finish?
27:47
SPEAKER_01: Seventh.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: Seventh, seventh, yeah.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: They'd add a team.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: Pittsburgh, speaking of Pittsburgh baseball, uh Pittsburgh had a pro baseball team called the Pittsburgh Stogies.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: They played in the Union Association in 1884 and they disbanded after only about a month of play.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: But I just love the fact that we had a team called the Pittsburgh Stogies.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: What was that?
28:08
SPEAKER_00: 1884.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: That is a great name.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: They got smoked.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: I yeah, you could have done a lot of stupid newspaper puns with the Pittsburgh Stogies, but alas, they did not last.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Stogie season up in smoke or something.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: It's never ending.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: It would never end.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: And let's end it now.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: Um we we did an episode semart recently about uh Kevin Colbert's draft drafts, and we talked a lot about you know the steelers and the draft.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: So let's let's do some Steelers fun facts for the draft.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: Steve, can you guess what college the Steelers have drafted from the most over the years?
28:55
SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Notre Dame, I don't know.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Notre Dame is second, but in first place is the University of Pittsburgh.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: I thought that, yeah.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: See, it seems weird that they don't I don't know.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I always thought they never did for a long time, but then I think just the last couple years they have.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: So I Yeah, so so that that's a little misleading because this is since the beginning of time, right?
29:18
SPEAKER_01: And if you think about like the 1938 draft or whatever, you're not gonna have really national scouting.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna draft a kid from UCLA because you're not gonna be able to go watch him play or anything.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: So so it's misleading because you're you're gonna get a lot of local players in those early days.
29:35
SPEAKER_01: So let's ask, let's ask this question a little differently.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh who do you think the Steelers, what college do you think the Steelers have drafted from the most post-merger?
29:46
SPEAKER_01: So like the modern era of the Super Bowl era.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: The Super Bowl era, yeah.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: What college is that?
29:51
SPEAKER_01: It's not Pitt.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: I I would guess Notre Dame still.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: It is not Notre Dame, it is Penn State.
29:58
SPEAKER_02: Well with 16.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: 16 players from Penn State, uh 15 from Nebraska, 14 from Ohio State.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, no accounting for taste, I guess.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I uh in their defense, like probably like three of those guys from Penn State are Hall of Famers.
30:18
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, Franco, Jack Ham.
30:20
SPEAKER_01: Pitt actually still with 12.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: So even since the merger, they've still drafted a dozen kids out of Pitt.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Kenny Pickett, James Connor, uh, who is that offensive lineman they got in the first round the one year that really stunk.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: There's some guys from Pitt.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: Hank Hank Botiet.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: Right?
30:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't I think he was a he I don't think he was drafted, was he?
30:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I thought he yeah, he was like a third or fourth round pick, I thought.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what really?
30:46
SPEAKER_00: I thought he was just like one of those guys they signed after the draft.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: So I that would be a fun, I won't we won't go through it now, but it would be fun to try to name all 12 players.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: I think we just named like five or six there.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean Pitt has had a lot of I think Pitt and uh still has out of like NFL Hall of Fame, I think they're still second or third behind Notre Dame and Notre Dame, yeah, Notre Dame and USC, I think are still ahead of them.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: We actually covered that in our previous fun fact episode.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: So go back and listen if you want the actual answer on that.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: Um but I think you're right.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: I think they're third, they're they're right up there.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh so okay, so Penn State's where they drafted from the most.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: How about in the first round?
31:31
SPEAKER_01: Where, and this is just all time, what college have they drafted the most uh from in the first round only?
31:39
SPEAKER_01: Ohio State.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you are correct.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Four times they have drafted an Ohio State player in the first round.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: Bob Ferguson in 1962, Santonio Holmes in 2006, Cam Hayward in 2011, Ryan Shazier in 2014.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Most of his players are pretty good.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who Bob Ferguson is, but yeah, the other three worked out okay.
32:01
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh how about what position have they drafted the most in the first round?
32:07
SPEAKER_01: Any guesses there.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh wow, that's uh I don't know, defensive line.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: No.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: The answer is defensive back.
32:17
SPEAKER_01: So nine defensive backs, which I guess is kind of cheating because you're combining cornerbacks and safeties, but yeah, uh, you know, also um sometimes they drafted a guy that was listed as a safety or listed as a cornerback and they turned him into a safety.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a little hard to g gauge that.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm also, by the way, this is also post-merger because if you look at again, like the 1938 draft, the positions are like back, back or s or end or whatever.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's kind of well then like you think Carnell Lake, who played safety, was really a linebacker in college.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, right.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: But he was again first.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: But he wasn't a first rounder.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't a first rounder, but that's a good example of sometimes the position you draft isn't what they end up being.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh linebacker is second with eight, and then wide receivers third with seven.
33:02
unknown: Yeah.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Steelers have drafted a punter five times in their history.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh Craig Colquitt in 78, John Goodson, Harry Newsom, Daniel Sapulvida, and Presley Harvin the third.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: They've also drafted a place kicker eight times.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to list all eight placekickers they drafted, but I will ask this question.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: Do you know when the most recent time is that the CRs drafted a place kicker?
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Matt Barr?
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Is it Matt Barr?
33:32
SPEAKER_01: A little more recent than that.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Gary Anderson?
33:37
SPEAKER_01: He was undrafted, but that's a good guess.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: A little later than that.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what's his name?
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Chris Brown.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: Chris Brown in the ninth seventh round of the 1999 draft, who was really, really good.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: He was a pretty good singer.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: He was a really good kicker in Three River Stadium, and then they moved to Hines Field, and he was just terrible.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: He he was a bad kicker on grass.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: He didn't do well once all the stadiums went to grass.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: He kind of had like remember Gary Anderson had that problem too?
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Like he was not good kicking on grass.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: So I think you know who else wasn't good at that was Scott Norwood, and that's what killed them in the Super Bowl when he played for Buffalo.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: He he he just yeah, he was he the I think we forget how many AstroTurf stadiums there were back then.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: Because even like Soldier Field and Rich Stadium and Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, like all those Cincinnati, all those outdoor stadiums had AstroTurf.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:36
SPEAKER_01: You know, which was kind of weird to think about back then, but that's the way it was.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: Um there are nine Steelware first-round picks who have been then inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: Those nine picks are Bill Dudley, Len Dawson, Joe Green, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Lynn Swan, Rod Woodson, Alan Fanica, and Troy Polomalu.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: Ben Rothesberger will be the tenth.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: Are you sure about that?
35:05
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I am very sure.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: How long's the wait on that?
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Five years?
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Is it five years?
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Five years, yeah.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Five years.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: So he's still got what is that, 2026?
35:16
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: And he won't have a ton of competition, I don't think.
35:20
SPEAKER_01: Um you know Brady retired the same year, but then he came back, so So Ben will get his own little Hall of Fame thing.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Right.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and everybody can call him a rapist again, and it'll be it'll be a good time.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there'll be some of that as well.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, unfortunately.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: But haters gonna hate.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: Here's a good question.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: Who so those are all the first round picks that made it to the Hall of Fame.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: Who's the lowest round steeler pick to make it to the Hall of Fame?
35:50
SPEAKER_00: Currently.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Because I think James Harrison's gonna make the Hall of Fame, and he's not even I guess he wasn't even drafted.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
36:00
SPEAKER_01: So this is the guy that the Steelers drafted.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: That made the Hall of Fame.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: And a late round.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: A late round draft pick.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I don't even know.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know, uh, Donnie Schell or Mike Wagner.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: No, Mike Wagner's not in the Hall of Fame.
36:19
SPEAKER_01: So that's a good guess.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: Donnie Schell is actually.
36:22
SPEAKER_01: either.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't drafted either.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, who is the guy in front of him in that draft?
36:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh so so the the the name on the list is Johnny Unitis, was drafted in the ninth round in 1955.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you want to go with the guy that played for the Steelers, then you're on to something there, Steve, because Donny Show, that was 1974, the year that the Steelers drafted a bunch of Hall of Famers, and Mike Webster was drafted in the fifth round that year.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Before Donnie, yeah.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: So so Mike Webster uh technically, if you want to again go by guys that actually played for the Steelers uh and not for the Baltimore Colts, then it'd be Mike Webster in the fifth round in 1974.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: Or the San Diego Chargers.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, that too.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: Johnny United's also played there.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh now, I know what I know what you're all saying, those of you listening, but Tim, Jim Finks was a 12th-round pick of the Steelers in 1949, and he's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
37:22
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jim Finks was selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his front office work, but the Minnesota Vikings not because of his playing career, so we're not going to count him.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: That's what I was protesting.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just I know everybody was thinking that, so I just wanted to get that out in the air.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: You know.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure Jim Finks is really happy, you clarify.
37:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure he is, if he's still with us.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: So uh here's a here's a baseball.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: So baseball, you know, baseball's been they've been playing baseball for over a hundred years, and they play they played a gazillion games, right?
37:59
SPEAKER_01: You play a gazillion baseball games a year, it all adds up.
38:03
SPEAKER_01: So anytime something happened like once and only once in the history of baseball, I always find it super fascinating.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: And on July 25th, 1956, at Forbes Field, the Pirates are playing the Cubs, and Roberto Calmeni becomes the first and only Major League Baseball player to hit a walk-off inside the park grand slam.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: And I know that's pretty specific, right?
38:27
SPEAKER_01: It's a walk-off, not only a walk-off home run, not only a walk-off grand slam home run, but one that was an inside-the-park home run.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: But that's the only time it's ever happened in the history of baseball.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: So I find that pretty, pretty interesting.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know Clmeny was pretty good, but somebody had to be throwing the ball around the infield, that's for sure, on that one.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: Well, usually, yeah, so inside remember, inside the park home runs only count as inside the park home runs if there's not an error.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: If there's an error, then it's a triple and then like an error.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: So inside the park home runs usually have to be where like the ball took a funny bounce where it went like way into a corner and like the guy had to fish it out.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: That was Forbes field, so that was a pretty big field.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: It was a deep field, and Clementi was pretty fast.
39:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: So you could see it happening for sure.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: But but that's why inside the park home runs are so rare because they're hard to hit, especially in this day and age.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: We we talked about again in that 1903 Pirates episode.
39:25
SPEAKER_01: Remember, we talked about uh one of the games in that World Series, we let off the game with an inside the park home run, and that was the the only time that happened until like the Kansas City Royals did it like 100 years later.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh because again, back then you had deeper fields than you do now.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Steelers have not lost a Monday night football game at home since 1991.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: That's 20 straight games that they've won at home on Monday night football.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: So that's pretty pretty good fun.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: Fact.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: I was at that game that they lost.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: It was against the Giants.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: And uh that was a game I talked about in a previous episode where everybody was sarcastically canning, let's go Bucks, because the Pirates were in the playoffs against the Braves and the Steelers stunk that year, and everybody was mad at the Steelers and loved the Pirates, which you'll probably never see again, ever.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: You weren't ready for some football that night.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, as long as Bob Nottingham's a team, you'll never you'll never see a repeat of that.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if Joe Walton was the offensive coordinator in '91.
40:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that might have been that might have been Joe Walton era.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think you're right.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Steelers are the only NFL franchise to win back-to-back Super Bowl titles twice.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: So lots of lots of teams have won back-to-back, but no one's ever done that more than once, other than the Seowers.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's an interesting fun fact.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: That again, nobody seems real close to repeating that at this point.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the Patriots.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
40:58
SPEAKER_01: If they got Tom Brady back.
40:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
41:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but they'd have to win two more.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Like they'd have to win two in a row again.
41:04
SPEAKER_01: Two and then take a break and then win two.
41:07
SPEAKER_01: Well, they they did they won in 03 and 04, right?
41:10
SPEAKER_01: So they're one of the teams that did it once.
41:12
SPEAKER_01: Dallas did it once in the 90s.
41:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, Denver did it in the 90s.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: So you've had teams that have already done it once, right?
41:19
SPEAKER_01: So if if the Dallas Cowboys won the next two Super Bowls, then they would be a franchise that had done it twice.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
41:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: All right.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: But right now, no one's done that other than the Steelers.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Robert Morris men's basketball team has qualified for the NCAA tournament nine times, which is pretty impressive, given the fact that the program has only been around since the late 1970s.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so I think that's a fun fact.
41:47
SPEAKER_01: They have never made it past the first round, however.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've been meaning to talk about the Scotty Reynolds.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: That's another bad Scotty Reynolds moment.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: Robert Morris.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: They lost to Villanova.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh, in the first tournament.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was in the tournament.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: That was in the tournament, yeah.
42:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
42:08
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, it's still making it nine times since the late 70s, that's nine more times than do than Duquesne's made it, who's my alma mater.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's saying something.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: We we talked about like old-timey Steelers stuff a little bit earlier.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Steelers, of course, played their first game in 1933.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: Steve, any guess to their first ever point scored?
42:32
SPEAKER_01: What kind of play was it?
42:33
SPEAKER_01: And I'll give you a hint, it was not an offensive play where they scored their first ever points.
42:39
SPEAKER_01: Safety.
42:39
SPEAKER_01: Didn't they did they score a safety?
42:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're you're correct.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: It was a punt blocked out of the end zone for a safety by the immortal cap Oler.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: Like that was awesome.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: Good old Cap.
42:54
SPEAKER_01: That was the only points they scored in that game, unfortunately.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they really need to fire the offensive coordinator, whoever that was.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh but they should give the special teams coach a raise.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh can you do you know with the first ever points scored against them, how that happened?
43:12
SPEAKER_01: And again, this was also not an offensive play.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: Hunt return or kickoff return or a touchdown or something.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a good guess.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: It's actually a pick six by a Giants player named Ken Strong.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, the first ever points scored were safety, first ever scored against was a pick six.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: That's weird.
43:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, isn't it?
43:33
SPEAKER_00: That is that is a fun fact.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: Not so fun for the players that were playing that day.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's fun for Ken Strong.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: Got a pick six.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: Um really really helped this fantasy team.
43:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh back in nineteen forty, whatever.
43:51
SPEAKER_01: Nineteen thirty three, yeah.
43:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
43:53
SPEAKER_01: You know.
43:54
SPEAKER_01: Um the the uh pirates.
43:57
SPEAKER_01: So we talked about how bad the pirates suck.
43:59
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Some good pirates stuff.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: Pirates have won five World Series.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: All five Pirates World Series were won in seventh games.
44:09
SPEAKER_01: Which is kind of hard to believe.
44:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, a seventh game is a is a you know is a crapshoot.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a one-game scenario.
44:16
SPEAKER_01: And the pirates have gotten into that five times in the World Series and they've won all five.
44:19
SPEAKER_01: So that's pretty cool.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: Don't go to seven games against the Pirates.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: It's trouble.
44:25
SPEAKER_01: It's trouble, but you know, you have to actually get to a World Series or a game of significance first.
44:31
SPEAKER_01: And that won't ever happen again because anyway, we already talked about that.
44:37
SPEAKER_01: Pittsburgh likes to build its sports stadiums by their rivers.
44:42
SPEAKER_01: Steve talked in a in our uh defunct uh venues episode about how Exposition Park used to flood because it was like right on the banks of the Allegheny, uh Three River Stadium, and now of course PNC and Aquicire, all kind of right next to a river.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, did you know that in 1958 the city actually proposed a stadium that was going to be built literally on the Monongahela River?
45:07
SPEAKER_01: The idea was to tear down the Smithfield Street Bridge and replace it with like a giant platform that could support the weight of a stadium and apparently like a couple of skyscrapers as well.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, I know this is a podcast so you can't see it at home, and we'll link the picture on the website, but there's an artist rendition of it, and it's it's literally, Steve, like how would you describe it?
45:28
SPEAKER_01: It's like almost like a giant bridge.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: A giant stadium in the river.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, that's really what it is.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: I guess you didn't need to get barges up and down, or maybe so you could go underneath it.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:43
SPEAKER_01: Look at the pic look at the picture closely.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: You can see boats sailing underneath it.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, um that's an interesting concept.
45:52
SPEAKER_01: You could you couldn't block the river, you would have had to get traffic through.
45:56
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, you would have had to put you they would have built it on it like a platform that could support the weight of a stadium.
46:01
SPEAKER_01: Where where would you park?
46:03
SPEAKER_01: I guess on the shore?
46:04
SPEAKER_01: I don't I state yeah, yeah.
46:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean, near Station Square there.
46:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean it was a Smithfield Street, right?
46:11
SPEAKER_01: So you could I yeah, I I I it never happened.
46:15
SPEAKER_01: So obviously they found they shot holes in it somewhere.
46:20
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that was actually proposed because and I I uh actually I asked my dad about that, friend of the podcast, my dad.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: He he remembers that and he said it was because what he remembers it was because they they really didn't have land anywhere else to build a stadium.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to put it in the in downtown in the city, but there was no place in downtown inside the triangle to put it.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: So maybe that's why they ended up on the north shore.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: In the river.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they should have built it on a barge in the river.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Could have could have floated away.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you could have taken it like on tour.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: Like just moved it around.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: It's at the confluence.
47:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
47:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh um this uh so speaking of stadiums and and home games, the Steelers uh have opened on the road at the time of this recording, the Steelers have opened their season on the road for eight straight years.
47:21
SPEAKER_01: And Steve, do you know why that is?
47:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh because the NFL really hates the Steelers and they're mean to them.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's a good guess, but it's not correct.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: I think it's because the Pitt football team plays and the Pirates play.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: So that's half right.
47:39
SPEAKER_01: It's because of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who always play at home during that weekend.
47:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh the teams cannot play Sunday afternoon games at the same time.
47:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh one would have to play Sunday night if they're both playing, which is unlikely.
47:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh Art Rooney III has recently expressed some dismay over this and said he plans to have a conversation with the Pirates about it, to which I say, have you met Bob Nutting?
48:03
SPEAKER_01: Good luck with that.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, Cincinnati's nice on Labor Day weekend, right?
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh uh okay.
48:14
SPEAKER_01: Here's a here's another question, Steve.
48:16
SPEAKER_01: Can you name the last Pirates 20 game winner?
48:21
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: God bless you on that one.
48:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
48:27
SPEAKER_00: Doug Draybick, I don't know.
48:29
SPEAKER_01: That's very close.
48:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but there was a guy after Doug Drabeck, actually.
48:34
SPEAKER_01: Dane Smith?
48:35
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
48:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh it was it was in the same era, it was the next year, it was John Smiley in 1991.
48:44
SPEAKER_01: Won 20 games.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: Good old John Smiley.
48:48
SPEAKER_00: And then was promptly traded out of town because pirates.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll have none of this 20-game winner stuff.
48:58
SPEAKER_01: So a lot of guys in pro sports, they're the you know, they're kind of their peak age is in their 20s.
49:04
SPEAKER_01: A lot of guys can play really good into their 30s.
49:07
SPEAKER_01: Pretty rare uh when professional athletes play into their 40s.
49:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh so let's talk about who's in the over 40 club in Pittsburgh sports.
49:16
SPEAKER_01: Who played for a Pittsburgh sports team when they were over the age of 40?
49:20
SPEAKER_01: For the Steelers, that would be nobody.
49:23
SPEAKER_01: Steelers have never had a player, age 40 or over.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, Tim, you could be there first.
49:29
SPEAKER_01: I could.
49:30
SPEAKER_01: I could.
49:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure I'll get right on that.
49:33
SPEAKER_00: I could hold I could hold a clipboard, but that's about as much as I can do.
49:37
SPEAKER_01: I don't even think I could do that.
49:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh Ben Rothesberger did come close.
49:42
SPEAKER_01: He was 39 years and 10 months when he retired.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh so he was almost 40, but not officially 40.
49:50
SPEAKER_01: The penguins have had six players.
49:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh that would be Matt Collin, dad, was his nickname appropriately.
49:58
SPEAKER_01: He was the oldest Penguins player at 42.
50:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they also had Tim Horton, Gary Roberts, Mario Lemieux, Joe Mullen, and Ken Shinkle.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, I always forget Tim Morton played for the Penguins.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: I always forget that.
50:11
SPEAKER_01: We talked about him in our Guys He Forgot played for Pittsburgh episode, so go back and listen to that if you're curious about other guys that you had no idea played for Pittsburgh.
50:19
SPEAKER_01: But yes, Tim Horton did play for the Penguins at age 42.
50:23
SPEAKER_01: Now, baseball's a little different.
50:24
SPEAKER_01: There are lots of baseball players who play into their 40s, a lot of pitchers, especially.
50:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so we'll go with the over 45 club instead.
50:33
SPEAKER_01: And uh for the Pirates, also on that list is nobody.
50:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh, however, there are a couple guys on that list that um like Satchel Page and Tim Wakefield, who played for Pittsburgh at some point in their career, but not at the time they were on the other side of 45.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: And nobody knows how old Satchel Page really was anyway.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
50:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he didn't have a burst or damaged.
50:55
SPEAKER_01: Right.
50:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he yeah, exactly.
50:58
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
50:59
SPEAKER_01: So he may have been, who knows?
51:00
SPEAKER_01: He may have been over 45 when he played for the uh Crawfords.
51:04
SPEAKER_01: He played for the Crawfords, yeah.
51:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: But no one ever really knows for sure.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh speaking of longevity, Steve, here's a good one.
51:12
SPEAKER_01: Which pit player holds the record for playing the longest in the NFL?
51:18
SPEAKER_01: Like most number of seasons in the NFL for a guy that went to pit.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh Andy Lee, I don't know.
51:25
SPEAKER_01: Ding ding ding ding.
51:27
SPEAKER_00: It is Andy Lee.
51:28
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
51:28
SPEAKER_01: Andy Lee with 19 seasons and counting because Andy Lee is still playing football while for the Arizona Cardinals.
51:36
SPEAKER_01: So Andy Lee holds that record.
51:38
SPEAKER_01: Larry Fitzgerald and Danny Marino were second.
51:40
SPEAKER_01: They each played 17 seasons.
51:42
SPEAKER_01: And the late Jim Sweeney played 16 seasons.
51:46
SPEAKER_01: Unreal.
51:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, pretty impressive.
51:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh let's talk about Pitt Basketball.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: Since 1960, Pitt Basketball has had five first team All-Americans.
51:56
SPEAKER_01: Steve, you want to take a shot at who the five first team All-Americans were for pit?
52:02
SPEAKER_01: They're so rare in basketball.
52:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's tough because again, you know, basketball, there's what, five guys?
52:11
SPEAKER_01: Five five guys every year.
52:13
SPEAKER_01: So that's why there's only been five pit players since 1960.
52:17
SPEAKER_01: Billy Knight?
52:18
SPEAKER_01: Billy Knight's one, yes.
52:20
SPEAKER_00: Was Brandon Knight every year?
52:22
SPEAKER_01: Yes, 2003, Brandon Knight.
52:24
SPEAKER_01: So both the Knights were Charles Smith, maybe?
52:29
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
52:29
SPEAKER_01: That's three.
52:30
SPEAKER_01: Charles Smith, actually twice, 1987 and 1988.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he was really good.
52:35
SPEAKER_00: He was.
52:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
52:38
SPEAKER_01: The next two.
52:39
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna kick yourself because I think you're gonna know at least one of these guys.
52:43
SPEAKER_01: Julius Page, maybe?
52:45
SPEAKER_01: No, not Julius Page.
52:47
SPEAKER_01: A little later.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: So it's definitely a Dixon Hollandair guy.
52:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
52:52
SPEAKER_00: It's a Dixon guy.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh, is it Steven Adams?
52:56
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a really good guess, but no.
52:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, I don't know that.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: I would have thought it was him based on you know where he went in the NBA draft.
53:04
SPEAKER_01: No, it's uh it's both guys in 2009.
53:07
SPEAKER_01: It was Sam Young and Dewan Blair.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Dewan Blair, I thought you'd get for sure.
53:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I'm really surprised you got Billy Knight and Charles Smith and not Dewan Blair.
53:18
SPEAKER_01: That's impressive that you knew those two guys.
53:21
SPEAKER_01: Dewan Blair, by the way, the only consensus all-American of those five.
53:26
SPEAKER_00: What are the other we're not sure?
53:29
SPEAKER_00: The AP says you are we're not buying it over the coaches.
53:33
SPEAKER_01: That's that's exactly what it is.
53:35
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
53:36
SPEAKER_01: It's you have multiple people doing it.
53:39
SPEAKER_01: So um the Steelers have played on Thanksgiving over the years several times.
53:45
SPEAKER_01: Their record on Thanksgiving is either two and five or three and five, depending on who you ask.
53:52
SPEAKER_01: And the reason for that is because uh if you go back to 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt decided he was going to move Thanksgiving back one week.
54:01
SPEAKER_01: That's yeah uh yeah, and Steve Steve's the history buff.
54:05
SPEAKER_01: So, Steve, you probably know way more about this than I do.
54:08
SPEAKER_01: What what was what was why?
54:09
SPEAKER_01: Why did he do that?
54:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: He because he's Franklin Roosevelt and he did whatever the hell he wanted, pretty much.
54:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, one other president was four terms in office.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the guy was literally in office from 1933 to 1945.
54:24
SPEAKER_00: I I yeah, I don't know what the reasoning was.
54:27
SPEAKER_00: If it would they just they did it, they would move it.
54:30
SPEAKER_00: Like it moved forward a week and then it moved back a week.
54:33
SPEAKER_00: And I only know that because I used to watch a movie called Holiday Inn, and they they would have the little turkey moved back and forth on the calendar, and then he was like animated, and then he looked at you and shrugged his shoulders and it was like I guess that was like a joke.
54:46
SPEAKER_01: Oh, was Holiday Inn the one with where Bing Crosby tap dances with Danny leaping kid?
54:52
SPEAKER_00: No, that's why Christmas.
54:53
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
54:54
SPEAKER_00: They they can't show Holiday Inn anymore because of other things.
55:00
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's there's a scene where they they celebrate Lincoln's birthday and they decide to celebrate that by having Bing Crosby and his other actress go in blackface.
55:10
SPEAKER_00: So that's why they don't show that one.
55:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
55:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
55:15
SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep, that's probably not gonna work.
55:17
unknown: a good idea.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: I never understood it as a kid why they did that, but hey, who am I to question the logic of 1941?
55:28
SPEAKER_01: So well, I I think the reason he moved Thanksgiving back, I think, was like it it the holiday shopping season because people usually went shopping after Thanksgiving.
55:38
SPEAKER_00: I guess it probably it was a depression.
55:40
SPEAKER_01: And anyway, it was it was a super controversial move because some states adopted like the new Thanksgiving date, but some states were like, no, we're still celebrating it on the old date.
55:52
SPEAKER_01: And they even called it like Franksgiving.
55:54
SPEAKER_01: Like the states didn't celebrate it like this week's Franksgiving, but next week's the real Thanksgiving.
56:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and so Pennsylvania.
56:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it would be kind of nice for food.
56:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pennsylvania at first does adopt a new holiday, but in 1940, Pennsylvania decreed that Thanksgiving would be moved back to the original date, which was the final Thursday of the m of the month.
56:17
SPEAKER_01: So when the Steelers beat the Eagles on November 28, 1940, it was Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania, but not in any of the states where they're following the FDR plan.
56:27
SPEAKER_00: So I guess Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, both in Pennsylvania, the win.
56:33
SPEAKER_01: So so again, that then you then you would say the Steelers are three and five all the time on Thanksgiving Day.
56:39
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't recognize that, then they're two and five.
56:41
SPEAKER_01: And that came up recently because the Eagles uh have some kind of streak where they have like they've never lost on Thanksgiving Day.
56:48
SPEAKER_01: And they have.
56:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they have they have.
56:51
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they have.
56:53
SPEAKER_00: Ah, take that, you Eagles fan.
56:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh um, sticking with football.
57:01
SPEAKER_01: Earlier this uh past season, 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, uh who was on my fantasy team, but that's not the fun fact.
57:10
SPEAKER_01: He became the only the 11th player in NFL history to have a touchdown hat trick in one game, meaning that he ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown, and threw for a touchdown all in the same game.
57:21
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know the other guy.
57:22
SPEAKER_01: I know the other guy.
57:24
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's 11 players, but there's a stealer on that list.
57:28
SPEAKER_01: Do you know who that is?
57:28
SPEAKER_00: Other than the steeler?
57:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh I know Ladanian Tomlinson, definitely.
57:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
57:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
57:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
57:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, I won't ask you to name, I won't ask you to name the nine other guys, but there is one stealer on that list.
57:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh, let's go with Cordell.
57:41
SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a really good guess, actually.
57:43
SPEAKER_01: And Jerome Bettis.
57:44
SPEAKER_01: It's either Cordell or Jerome Bettis.
57:46
SPEAKER_01: Those are both, those are both really good guesses.
57:48
SPEAKER_01: I I would say Jerome Bettis not so much because he didn't catch too many passes.
57:52
SPEAKER_01: But Jerome Bettis did throw a couple of touchdown passes.
57:55
SPEAKER_01: And Cordell was a good one.
57:56
SPEAKER_00: Whatever he threw was such a shocker, it always went for a touchdown.
58:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
58:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's very true.
58:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that one, remember the one in Tampa that was like Jeremy Tooman was wide open because they're like, wait, this guy can throw a pass.
58:08
SPEAKER_01: That's not shouldn't even be legal.
58:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, the the player on the list is actually John Henry Johnson.
58:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
58:15
SPEAKER_01: And again, this is another game against the Eagles.
58:18
SPEAKER_01: In 1960, uh Johnson catches a seven-yard touchdown pass from Bobby Lane in the first quarter, has an 87-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and then throws a 15-yard touchdown pass uh also in the second quarter.
58:32
SPEAKER_01: So this all happens before halftime.
58:35
SPEAKER_01: And the Steelers win that game 27-21.
58:37
SPEAKER_01: That was actually a pretty impressive win because 1960, Steve, is the year that the Eagles won the NFL championship.
58:46
SPEAKER_00: I almost said Super Bowl.
58:47
SPEAKER_00: That was that was the Chuck Bagneric game.
58:49
SPEAKER_01: Yep, that's correct.
58:50
SPEAKER_01: And that the Eagles only lost two games all year, and that was one of them, thanks to the heroics of uh John Henry Johnson.
58:57
SPEAKER_00: Well, Chuck Bagneric couldn't hit him like he did what he did to Frank Gifford.
59:02
SPEAKER_02: No, he couldn't.
59:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
59:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh but that's a good transition, Steve, because our next fun fact I think involves Frank Gifford and Philadelphia.
59:11
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully not Chuck Bagner, because that's a bad day for Philadelphia.
59:17
SPEAKER_01: And he's been dead, and he's been dead for five or ten years.
59:21
SPEAKER_01: No, this is actually a better day for Frank Gifford.
59:24
SPEAKER_01: So uh uh this past fall saw a pretty unique situation where the Philadelphia Phillies played the Houston Aspers in a World Series game on the same day that the Philadelphia Eagles played the Houston Texans in an NFL game.
59:40
SPEAKER_01: And two cities playing each other in the World Series and in the NFL on the same day.
59:44
SPEAKER_01: That's only happened seven times before.
59:47
SPEAKER_01: One of those times was on October 9th, 1960, when the Pirates beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in game five of the World Series.
59:55
SPEAKER_01: And at the same time that that was happening, the Steelers lost to the New York Giants at Pitt Stadium thanks to a last-second touchdown catch by Frank Gifford.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_01: Frank Gifford.
1:00:07
SPEAKER_01: Just man, this this episode just flows so nicely.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_00: Did you intend it to do that?
1:00:15
SPEAKER_01: No, no, you're like unintentionally helping me.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm just easily like what's it sus suggestion?
1:00:25
SPEAKER_00: Like subconscious suggestion.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we're just this is our 81st episode, so we're just on the same wavelength after a while, apparently.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_01: I guess.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_01: I guess.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_01: Um we talked in the last one, folks, fun facts episode about uh penguins playoff go goals and overtime.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh there's only been four penguins who have so so lots of penguins have scored uh an overtime playoff goal.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_01: Only four penguins have done that more than once.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_01: Any guesses, Steve, on who those guys are?
1:00:56
SPEAKER_00: Who's done that more than once?
1:00:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:00:58
SPEAKER_00: Bill Guerin, I don't know.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_00: Chris Kunitz, I don't know.
1:01:02
SPEAKER_01: So Chris Kunitz has done it twice, yes.
1:01:05
SPEAKER_00: Not but I know Bill Guerin did it one time.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_01: Bill Guerin only did it once.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_01: Battleship Kelly, no.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_01: He probably didn't score many goals.
1:01:15
SPEAKER_01: Battleship Kelly didn't play in many playoff games, is more like it.
1:01:19
SPEAKER_01: Tim Wharton?
1:01:21
SPEAKER_01: No.
1:01:22
SPEAKER_01: No, although he did kick the puck into our net, if you remember, we talked about that in our mistakes episode.
1:01:28
SPEAKER_01: That was an overtime, so but that doesn't count.
1:01:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, the net.
1:01:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_01: So the only other guys, uh, Yammer Yager actually did it four times for the Penguins in overtime in the playoffs.
1:01:41
SPEAKER_01: That dude was clutch.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_01: He was super clutch.
1:01:43
SPEAKER_01: The other the other two guys, uh, if Genny Malkin's done it twice, Martin Stracka's done it twice.
1:01:49
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Marty.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
1:01:51
unknown: Yeah.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_01: Martin Stracka, that was the same year.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_01: That was 2001.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_01: He did that twice in the same playoff.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_01: Chris Kunitz, as you said, did it twice as well.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_01: He did it once against the Islanders and then once to send the Penguins to the Stanley Cup in 2017.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about here, here.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_01: This is a I think this is an interesting one, Steve.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_01: Um the highest attendance for each Pittsburgh sports team.
1:02:17
SPEAKER_01: So let's start with the highest attendance ever.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_01: It was actually a pit game.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh where on on September t on September first, twenty twenty-two, seventy thousand six hundred and twenty-two people showed up at Ackerstore Stadium to see this.
1:02:33
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_00: Daniels can a throw on first down, goes to the sidelines, has a man wide open.
1:02:40
SPEAKER_00: It's Kipp and picked off.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_02: And J Devonshire's got base.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna take it to the end zone.
1:02:48
SPEAKER_02: Pittsburgh takes the lead.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_02: You have got to be kidding me.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, Pit West Virginia uh is the largest crowd ever to see a pit game or any sporting event in Pittsburgh for that matter.
1:03:07
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Steelers, their highest attendance of the game uh was on December 17, 2017, uh 68,574 to watch uh Jesse James not catch the game-winning touchdown against the Patriots.
1:03:22
SPEAKER_00: DC that's come back this year, like they don't know what a catch is again.
1:03:26
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, maybe it is a catch.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_00: It's like, God, make up your freaking minds.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_01: It's ridiculous.
1:03:34
unknown: Yeah.
1:03:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Penguins, their their uh highest attendance ever for a game was the 2011 winter classic against the Capitals.
1:03:41
SPEAKER_01: 68,111 people for that one at Heinz Field.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_01: The Pirates, uh, their highest attendance, any guess is their Steve.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_01: That's a tough one.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:03:54
SPEAKER_00: Boy, I don't know.
1:03:56
SPEAKER_00: Um had to be something at Three Rivers, then.
1:03:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's uh let's go with 70 something in 79, one of the World Series games in 79, maybe.
1:04:06
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a good guess.
1:04:08
SPEAKER_01: It was actually uh game two of the 1991 NLCS against the Braves.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_01: 57,000.
1:04:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it had to be Three Rivers Stadium because it holds just that much more than P and C Park.
1:04:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_01: And Three Rivers, I think, expanded a little bit over the years, so I'm guessing Three Rivers probably held more in '91 than it did in 79.
1:04:27
unknown: Yeah.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's like the third or fourth time in this episode that we've met in the year 1991.
1:04:34
SPEAKER_01: It's almost as as if that point in time were the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum.
1:04:40
SPEAKER_00: I hope not.
1:04:42
SPEAKER_01: Well, what I was doing in 1991, how old was I?
1:04:45
SPEAKER_01: 13?
1:04:46
SPEAKER_01: You were watching the Pirates play the Braves in the NLCS, or watching the Steelers lose on Monday Night Football for the last time for the next two decades.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_01: Or you're watching John Smiley win 20 games.
1:04:58
SPEAKER_01: All those things you were doing in 1991, Steve.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_01: I was really disappointed.
1:05:01
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pit Basketball.
1:05:06
SPEAKER_01: This one's hard.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_01: Guess what pit basketball's highest ever attended game was?
1:05:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's probably one of the uh one of the tournament games.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is we're talking about home games.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you mean like the yeah, and and I know they played like one of the tournament games at the arena, but that's not technically a home game.
1:05:31
SPEAKER_00: But it was in Pittsburgh.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, it doesn't count.
1:05:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh this would be a regular season home game.
1:05:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, that has to be one of the Pit Duquesne games at a console or something.
1:05:42
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's what I would have thought.
1:05:43
SPEAKER_01: It's actually uh the 1993 game against North Carolina at the Civic Arena.
1:05:50
SPEAKER_00: I remember that game.
1:05:51
SPEAKER_01: 17,701 716.
1:05:55
SPEAKER_00: I think Jerry Stackhouse smoked us that that game.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_01: That was that was the year that North Carolina they had Eric Montrose and yeah, I think you're right, Jerry Stackhouse.
1:06:04
SPEAKER_01: They won the national championship that year because Chris Weber didn't know the role was about when to call a timeout.
1:06:09
SPEAKER_00: I was just talking about that.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_00: That's like why is that a penalty to call a timeout?
1:06:15
SPEAKER_00: Like, what why like who cares?
1:06:18
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have any, just don't blow the whistle.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't understand that rule.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_00: Just look at him and like stare at him, and then if he moves, call a traveling or hold the ball too long.
1:06:28
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't underst I don't understand that rule at all.
1:06:32
SPEAKER_00: I can speculate.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_01: I can I can speculate a guess.
1:06:35
SPEAKER_01: Okay, here's here's my spectrum.
1:06:36
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the ref blew the whistle just thinking they had a timeout, or I but isn't that then the ref's problem?
1:06:43
SPEAKER_01: My speculation is that that's a penalty because when you sit there and make the timeout signal, everybody like automatically freezes, right?
1:06:53
SPEAKER_01: And the referees even might, like you said, blow a whistle just because it's a natural thing to do.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_01: So I could see if you don't have that role then and you didn't have any timeouts, you could stand there, dribble the ball, put up the timeout signal, get the guy in front of you to relax and then blow past him, right?
1:07:13
SPEAKER_01: That that's my best guess.
1:07:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm speculating.
1:07:18
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go.
1:07:20
SPEAKER_01: Very similar, maybe.
1:07:21
SPEAKER_01: I again I'm guessing, Steve.
1:07:23
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea if that's right or not.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, so that's the highest ever attended uh for each Pittsburgh Sporting event, and that's where we'll wrap up.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_01: I hope everybody enjoyed that episode.
1:07:34
SPEAKER_01: Steve, any fun facts that you have that I left out?
1:07:36
SPEAKER_01: You want to add a 48th?
1:07:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, hold on.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_01: Timeout.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_01: Oh, no.
1:07:41
SPEAKER_00: Nope, sorry.
1:07:41
SPEAKER_00: No, we don't have timeouts left.
1:07:43
SPEAKER_00: You use them all.
1:07:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you get a couple free throw technical shots.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_00: Oh, stupid Chris Weber.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_00: I hate it.
1:07:52
SPEAKER_00: I hated that Carolina team too.
1:07:54
SPEAKER_01: I didn't like that Michigan team, so I didn't really mind.
1:07:58
SPEAKER_00: I I I I always liked them way better than that Carolina team.
1:08:02
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why, but whatever.
1:08:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was definitely one of those ones where you you didn't couldn't, you know, it was like the lesser of two evils.
1:08:10
unknown: Yeah.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_01: What could you do?
1:08:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:08:12
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, we'll we'll we'll cover that amazing game on the uh on the uh College Teams We Hate episode.
1:08:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, college basketball.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh thanks everybody so much for listening.
1:08:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh just please continue to uh support the podcast by checking us out on social media and uh especially by telling your friends uh word of mouth again is always our best way to get new listeners.
1:08:38
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, and we'll see you next time.