The Decade of Dreams: How Sports in the 1970s Saved Pittsburgh

How sweet it was in thoses days! Anyone who grew up in the region around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, experienced a decade unlike any that had ever occurred in any city, as long as memory and history books can recall. In the days leading up to the 1970s the city of Pittsburgh was preparing itself for economical hardship and the failure of big business. The post-war period had seen a gradual decline of Pittsburgh's dominance in the steel industry and its total influence over the tri-state area in developing. Population naturally began to decline, and as a result, the ability for the local government to raise money to keep a thriving and growing city in the black got harder and harder to do. No doubt, Pittsburgh and its residents had seen better days.

But wait! In the mist of smoky but clearing skies and the filthy, glowing coke ovens shrinking in number, optimism reigned supreme. In the industry of sports, the city was arriving in the dark on a great proud horse, taking on all foes and gathering momentum. There had been glory before here in the great city where Fort Duquesne had once existed. In the early 1900s the baseball Pirates had dominated the National League, and had stayed competitive through the 20s. In those same years the University of Pittsburgh had also proved champions. Their football program had been one of the region's early strengths, and their other sports had proven to be competitive as well. However, Pittsburghers were not prepared for what was about to happen.

It all started in the late 1960s with a change of guard. The Pirates franchise was proving to be noticeably improved, with top talent coming from its minor league affiliates and some trades that had brought in good fits into the baseball machine. Two college basketball programs, the Duquesne Dukes and the Pitt Panthers, were staying quite competitive in the academic scene, with the Dukes at the time having a slight edge. Pitt football had gone through a tumultuous time in previous years, but it would soon get better. The Steelers football team had never won anything, but then again, had they really tried? Professional basketball had given its try in the city, but it had proven not very successful; at least not financially. The Pittsburgh Penguins had come into the NHL in the late 60s but had not been taken too seriously yet. No, there was no reason to get too excited in Pittsburgh yet.

Right off the bat, the year of 1970 started it all. I was a young high school student who enjoyed sports but did not pursue playing them too much. Like many young boys and girls in the area, I lived and died with my local teams. As my dad had suggested, I was not supposed to get too enthusiastic about the local sports teams. My grandfathers and my father had only seen one instance of success in recent years in our city and that had been the Pirates' World Series champs of 1960. It had taken them since the late 20s to win anything even close to a championship, and when it did it was room for a great celebration.

Pittsburghers knew that they couldn't squander the fun they could have in the days after the World Series triumph, for it wasn't known when the next chance would occur. When the Pirates won the NL East Division title that year, we didn't know what it would bring. The playoffs went poorly for the Buccos but we anticipated the "wait til next year" thought. That is exactly what happened! They won the division again, but this time they went all the way. A second world championship in my short lifetime was a dream come true, but it was to get better. Perhaps not immediately, but soon enough.

Football fans in Pittsburgh had been suffering for quite a long while, when out of the blue came Chuck Noll. We had seen coaches come and go, and his first season was no indication what was going to happen. Everyone remembers what proved to be the most famous one play, or pass, in NFL history, the "Immaculate Reception". I remember watching it transpire on the television with my dad and mom, thinking like my dad had told me so many times, "don't get your hopes up, son!" Even though the Steelers that year lost in the AFC Championship game, I had a sense that I was to see great things in the days ahead. And I would, for sure!

The Pirates won three more division titles in the first half of the decade, but failed to get to the World Series again. I recall sadly the end of the 1972 playoffs when our nemesis, the Cincinnati Reds, again beat the Pirates and ended our hopes of repeating as World Champions, but if they could just keep trying perhaps they would get there again, soon. It was the Steelers, though, who began to catch the imagination of fans in our great city. I soon went to college and began a career as a student, temporarily forgetting about the sports scene back in Pittsburgh. One day in January in my freshman year I just happened to notice that the Super Bowl was on the lobby tv, and to my surprise, the Steelers were playing! How could I have missed the news that my hometown team was playing in its first Super Bowl? And wouldn't you know, they won it! Another great dream was playing itself out. The Steeler franchise had never won anything, and again, we all didn't know what the future would bring. For all we knew, it would be short-lived, a one year thing. The rest became history.

In my college days, I missed a lot of the everyday, game-watching television and radio goings-on that I had experienced back home, but I did not miss the celebrating. Each time some Pittsburgh team won, I honored it as best I could with a beer or a bottle of wine or something, and I shared it with my friends. If you were not from Pittsburgh, it was difficult to explain. Years of being down and out with the local sports teams had made us more than excited: we were in ecstasy. And it didn't immediately end like we thought it would. Every year of that decade brought some type of success, if not a championship. When the Steelers won their second Super Bowl in a row, it began to dawn on me that we were living in a dream world that, we hoped, would never end.

In 1976, the college scene got into the show. The Pitt Panthers had a great running back by the name of Tony Dorsett. They had a great young coach by the name of Johnny Majors, and they were picked to do great things. And they did. It wasn't easy, as the interviews of the team members later suggested, but they went all the way, and won the College Football National Championship. All in the midst of an NFL run for the Steelers that was magnificent. Still it did not end. The Steelers, after a two year break, made the Super Bowl again. Many of the familiar names were still there: Bradshaw and Webster, Swann and Stallworth, Ham, Blount, and Lambert, and yes, Mean Joe Green. Some names had changed, but not many. They beat the Dallas Cowboys, again, in one of the most memorable Super Bowls in history, and I remember it for the year that I go so excited at the game's end that I fell and chipped my front tooth. All for a game! That team wasn't done, either, because by the next year, when I was finished with college and finding my niche in real world, they won their fourth Super Bowl of the decade, even though the game was played in the beginning of 1980. And guess what? The Pirates won another World Series with the "Family" in that same year! What a decade! What a great decade to live in Pittsburgh!

Since those days, I have kept an eye on the sports scene in the country. I have watched players from all those teams gain entry into different Hall of Fames. I, like other Pittsburghers, have seen more heartbreak than celebration, and I have seen many of my fellow Pittsburghers in our area move out to different cities and municipalities for bigger and better things, especially in the job market. I have also seen some scattered, sparse success, like the three division titles of the baseball team in the early 90s, and the two Stanley Cup Championships in those same years, and of course, the most recent "One for the Thumb" that the Steelers won. I am glad for that last one for my young daughter got to see a Super Bowl Chamionship here in Pittsburgh that many young people during the 80s and 90s did not get to see. We thought back in those days that it would hopefully never end. We perhaps even admit to our arrogance and our being spoiled. In the era of economic crisis after crisis here in our region, it seems that sports held us all together. We were able to keep our chins up in spite of all that was happening to Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers alike, and yes, we relished in it all. Look it up in any sports almanac, and you will not see a decade like it anywhere else, in any city or region. I may be wrong, but check it out. Oh, we all miss it somehow, and those of us that lived through it hold it all dear in our minds. When I watch sports events now I still think back to a grander time. Can you blame me?

When you come to Pittsburgh now, you see a constantly changing city. We keep our chins up, for differing reasons, and we still complain about the negative things that happen here, but take a ride through the Fort Pitt Tunnels and onto the bridge, and you see a city that is proud of its success, and its survival, through a very rough era and a very trying period. The beauty of it all is not new, but its pride has been tested over the last several years. One thing that can not be taken away, however, is that we still sometimes call ourselves the "City of Champions". Maybe you think that is too much in the past, but, can you again blame us? It gave us something to hope for, and to be hopeful for, and our heroes our revered for that. And it will never be matched! I am quite glad that I grew up when I did, otherwise I would have missed it all. Oh, how terrible that would have been!