Tube City Almanac

February 09, 2006

Super Bowl Wrap-Up

Category: default || By jt3y

In the wake of the Steelers' victory in the Super Bowl, I took a little break for a few days to catch the flu. On Tuesday morning, I briefly considered checking myself into a funeral home, but I got better.

Someone asked me if he was a "bad Pittsburgher" because he didn't feel any sense of pride or accomplishment in the Steelers' win. Well, since he didn't actually suit up and play on Sunday, I'm thinking: No.

I don't feel any sense of pride or accomplishment, either. I was extremely happy that they won, and I felt very good seeing Dan Rooney and Bill Cowher holding the Vince Lombardi trophy. Given some of the alternatives (the Irsays? Al Davis of the Raiders? Art Modell, formerly of the Browns/Ravens?), I prefer Rooney, and it's about time he had a trophy of his own --- the others belong to the Chief, after all.

I was also happy that the Steelers --- largely free of scandals (and Minnesota Vikings, I'm looking at you) --- won. I mean, would you rather see Jerome Bettis hoisting that trophy or Terrell Owens? Overall, this seems like a settled, well-behaved and decent group of guys, and it's gratifying to see that nice guys do finish first sometimes.

OK, so Roethlisberger's got a wild streak, and Porter leads the league in trash-talking, but basically, the Steelers come off as a team of regular people and seem unusually well-spoken for pro athletes. Ward and Bettis in particular have second careers waiting for them in the media; they're better already than a lot of so-called professional TV journalists.

But pride? Accomplishment? What did I accomplish? I'm happy for the Steelers. Isn't that enough?

Also, do I think it's "great" for the region, as some of the talking heads are arguing? Well, it's not harmful for the city. But I didn't see where the price of a gallon of milk dropped on Monday, nor did my taxes go down. Duquesne City School District is still on the verge of dismemberment. The Homestead High-Level Bridge is still falling down.

And when the Steelers were winning all of those championships in the '70s, it didn't save the steel industry in the Mon Valley. Four Super Bowls didn't keep our family and our neighbors from having to line up for government cheese.

Great for the region? Eh. It's a sugar rush. Once it fades, what do you have? An upset stomach and a headache.

Speaking of the 1970s Steelers, can we stop talking about them now? Thanks. I think the current Steelers would appreciate that, too.

Also, would it kill the Pirates to go .500 this year? I'm not asking for a World Series. Just don't lose more games than you win. Please? Pretty please?

We'll work on the Penguins (who after all, have two Stanley Cups since the last Pirates World Series win) next year.

---

Sunday night, after the game, I took a quick spin through Our Fair City and the suburbs to see what celebrations might be ongoing.

It might have been the first time since ... well, since the last Steelers Super Bowl win ... that there was a traffic jam Downtown on a Sunday night. Lots of people leaning out of car windows or sticking up out of sunroofs, spinning Terrible Towels. And when one Terrible Towel waver met another, of course, they started honking their horns at each other. (Sometimes they even honked the car's horn. Heigh-yo!)

It's been 26 years. How do you put it into perspective? The last time the Steelers won the Super Bowl:

--- U.S. Steel's National Works was coming off one of its best years, having shipped thousands of tons of pipe to Alaska and Texas, where oil speculators were trying to cash in on the energy crisis.

--- Its sister plant, Duquesne Works, was four years away from winning U.S. Steel's "Ironmaster" award for breaking a bunch of production records ... it would close before the ink was dry on the souvenir jackets.

--- Other steelmaking facilities in the city included Fort Pitt Steel Casting in Christy Park and Firth-Sterling in the East End. (Both had about another year to go.)

--- Cox's and Jaison's department stores were still in business Downtown. So were two five-and-10s (Murphy's and Green's), several shoe stores, National Record Mart, Wander Sales, Kelly and Cohen, and several jewelry stores --- off the top of my head (which is an odd place for a jewelry store), Goodman's, Morrow's and Gala's.

--- Downtown also had two functional hotels --- the McKeesport Sheraton and the Penn-McKee.

--- The old 15th Avenue Bridge was still open, and would be for another nine years.

--- Besides the Daily News, Mon-Yough residents were also reading the Pittsburgh Press, the Monongahela Daily Herald, the Irwin Standard-Observer and the Jeannette News-Dispatch. (The Homestead Daily Messenger had abruptly closed a year earlier, while the Jeannette "News-Disgrace" would limp along for another year.)

--- Century III Mall was only a year old. Eastland Mall still boasted Gimbels, Penney's and Woolworth's. (And Wiener World, as Alert Sometime Reader Dan always reminds me.)

What else was different in 1980 that I'm forgetting? Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments below.






Your Comments are Welcome!

In 1980, people here were even more depressed than your post makes me…
Sure, the era of Big Steel is dead (our family got the govment cheese, too), but there’s still a fair amount of industry here, including steel-fabricating companies.
Ever hear of Carbide Alley?
The Super Bowl win is like a much-needed shot of adrenalin for this city.
Jonathan Barnes (URL) - February 09, 2006



As a former boss of mine said, I have an attitude problem. Show me a parade, and I’ll rain on it.

Seriously, I was just trying to point out how much things have changed. I could have pointed out that I was going to grade school in a Steelers tassle cap in those days, but how many people could have related to that?

So what else has changed in 26 years? We had five and a half TV stations … KDKA (2), WTAE (4), WIIC (11), WQED (13), WPGH (53) and WPTT (22). (The latter was barely half a TV station at the time.) Wikipedia tells me that WPCB (40) signed on a year before, in 1979.

What else is different? Few people had FM radios in their cars. We had AM, and liked it, by cracky. Your rock choices were 13Q or 13Q. Mom liked WTAE (1250) with O’Brien and Garry, Bob Dearborn and the liberal version of Jim Quinn. Dad liked country music on WEEP (1080) or WIXZ (1360). (Remember the billboards … “CHEW WIXZ 1360”?) Grandma liked KDKA (1020), which was a mix of talk and soft pop music (Carpenters, John Denver, etc.).

No one in Pittsburgh had heard of Starbucks, Steak ‘n Shake or Taco Bell. We had Burger Chef, Winky’s and Sweet William’s. We didn’t shop at Wal-Mart, Kohl’s or Target … we went to Gold Circle, Gee Bee’s (Glosser Brothers, out of Johnstown), Hills, Murphy’s Mart, Horne’s … gosh, I start naming all of those, we’ll be here for months.
Webmaster (URL) - February 09, 2006



OK, sorry, Jason. Maybe I was jumping the gun.
One thing that’s changed is that there seem to be more African-Americans and other racial minorities playing on the Steelers than many years ago. That appears to be a good thing, judging from the win-loss record of the Steelers.
Number 88 doesn’t play football and is now a republican candidate for governor—maybe not a good thing.
Instead of everyone in Pittsburgh working for US Steel, Westinghouse of one of the other big companies, they’re working for smaller companies, colleges or hospitals, or working for themselves.
The attitude in the workplace also has changed, and it is more acceptable for people to job-hop or change careers than it was years ago.
A lot more people work from home, and are happier because of it.
So it aint all bad.
Jonathan Barnes (URL) - February 09, 2006



“I could have pointed out that I was going to grade school in a Steelers tassle cap in those days, but how many people could have related to that?”

I could :-) I had the baseball-style jacket too.
Steven Swain - February 10, 2006



Those first 4 Lombardi trophies may have been “the Chief’s”, but they are also very much Dan Rooney’s. He had taken over the day-to-day management and decision-making functions of that team years before their first Super Bowl win. He was the man in charge of putting that organization together that brought home those Super Bowls.

Much the same way that the 5th Trophy today is the result of Art Rooney II and his management of the organization.

And by the way, FM radio was firmly entrenched during the last half of the 70’s. I had an AM/FM factory installed radio in my 1975 Buick Skylark and it picked up 96.1 and 102.5 like a champ.
Bulldog - February 10, 2006



Well, Bulldog, I agree with you on Dan Rooney, in part. But I think Dan was very much in dad’s shadow in 1980, even if (according to what I’ve read) he was very much in charge.

As for the radio, you were just on the cutting edge. :-)

But 1979 was the first year (that’s the conventional wisdom, I can’t find a source for the claim right now) that FM had as many listeners as AM, and in Pittsburgh, most of the FM’s were still beautiful music in 1980.

However: 96.1 (“96 KICKS!”) and WDVE were indeed notable exceptions to the rule, and hit music on AM in Pittsburgh was on the treadmill to oblivion by 1980, no question. Only 13Q was trying to play top 40 on AM in the city, and they were hanging on by their thumbnails.

By 1980, WPEZ-FM had been hammering 13Q for a couple of years, and I suspect 96KX is what finally finished ‘em off. (They became “music of your life.”) Then B-94 debuted on the former easy-listening WJOI-FM. (Alert Reader El Kabong will fill in the blanks and correct the errors, I’m sure.)

Once FM hit that tipping point in ’79, there was no turning back. Today, about four out of five radio listeners are listening to FM.

Boy, have we bored the crap out of everyone now, or what?
Webmaster (URL) - February 10, 2006



Actually, 13Q was a thing of the past in 1980. By that time, it was “1320 WKTQ,” a Nationwide clone of their successful oldies/AC station in Cleveland (WGAR), and it bombed. A year later, 1320 would be back to WJAS.

96KX signed on in 1977, and yes, 96KX/WPEZ/WDVE helped to kill off 13Q, but on Labor Day 1980 WPEZ dropped out of the Top 40 race, and became 3WS, which at the time was an AC station. WJOI switched to B-94 on April 2, 1981.
El "I used to listen to the new sound of 13Q" Kabong - February 11, 2006



In 1980, I didn’t exist yet…
Karen (URL) - February 15, 2006



Why must you hurt me, Karen?
Webmaster (URL) - February 16, 2006



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