How'd you end up a Steeler fan?

Pretty cool that you got to watch one of their wins. They lost their first 6 games that year, then were unbeaten for 3 games (2 wins and a tie), then lost their last 5.

 

I was a kid in the 1960's. The Steelers were perpetual losers, but I loved their logo on one side of the helmet. My best friend's father was from Ohio, and he could always count on a win against the Steelers. He was such an OBNOXIOUS fan that I could root against him several times a year just by being a Steeler fan. Then came the 1970's; omg!

 

Born and raised 15 minutes north of the stadium.

Mom is from Aliqiuppa, Dad is from Sewickley.

My Dad brought Ernie Holmes to my 1st birthday. Ernie love to party and my Dad used to bring him to Aliqiuppa all the time.

 

My dad died when I was very young so my brother-in-law use to take me to see ass whippings at Pitt stadium. Never saw a win.

 

Did Holmes borrow your dad's gun to shoot at the helicopter?

 

Over here in the UK we didn't get a lot of NFL on TV when I was growing up, so I had to rent videos from NFL films to learn more about it.

One video was "Superstars of the Superbowls". And it was good, and fun to watch... then the segment on the Steelers came on. The music. The uniforms. The defense. Then seeing Swann's catches in SB X - I've been a fan ever since.

This was around 1986-7. Nobody can accuse me of being a bandwagon fan...

 

Grew up into it. I remember my grandfather's collection of Iron City Beer cans of all the 70s players. Watched many games during the 80s but didn't truly care much, as I was just a toddler. I'd mark my fanhood starting Cowhers first year, as that was the time I got hooked into watching guys like Lloyd and Woodson do their thing.

 

It was included in my DNA via my Father who had season tix between late 1930's up till 1965 when we moved to La La land.

Here's a bit of history (mainly for Steel Machine living in Eagles territory). Found this ticket (a wee bit before my time) in my Dad's stuff after he passed and just checked, the Steelers clobbered the Eagles that day at Forbes Field 35-24. Steelers were down 24-14 into the 4th Qtr when they scored 21 unanswered points. Also shown is the box score. Looks like QB Johnny Clement was the first "slash" with 177 yds passing and 90 yds rushing. LOL. No wonder he kept this ticket, I sure would have. Thanks Dad for this now 4 generation gift that keeps on giving.

 

I became a part of steeler nation because of my father. I asked him once when and why he was a steeler fan. He told me there was a few things that led him to become a steeler fan and those were Ernie Staunter was his favorite player and he felt sorry for them because they weren't very good. So he rode out some bad years before getting to experience that great decade of the 70s.

Funny enough in baseball and basketball I went with different teams to root for to be different from him or oppose him like kids tend to do. This caught me a lot of grief especially in the sport of basketball because we live in what was Larry Bird country when I was a kid and I chose to pull for the showtime lakers in a area where lakers were despised.

For some reason the steelers fandom stuck with me and most of the rest of the family. We went out of our way to honor dad's love for the steelers through the years too having family pictures with everyone wearing steelers gear multiple times and even had one taken shortly before he passed. It definitely became a passion especially for me. I have a very large family that had 43 people in it and I provided all the hats, shirts, terrible towels and other props for the photo for everyone in the picture besides my dad.

From 1999 to 2020 my dad and myself only missed watching 1 steelers game in that span of time and it was for one of those family photos, a fact I was pretty proud of considering we live in a area where your forced to watch the colts and bears all the time.

It was fun watching during that time even though with all the heart attack close games through the years and watching the area I live in grow in steeler fans. We'd go to a sports bar to watch games the last 5 years he was alive and a steelers fan owned the place and even had a decorated corner of his establishment decked out in steelers decor for us to sit in.

Found a lot of good people and camaraderie going there. We were despised by many of the colt fans there because we tend to own them and outnumbered them many times so that was fun also.

I do believe the steelers were all that was right about the sport for many years and have always been proud to show my love for them. One other thing I noticed that always seemed different about steeler fans is the personalities drawn to them. Many times I've walked in public places with steeler gear on and strangers would always give me a shout out at the least when we'd cross paths like "steeler nation baby" or "go steelers". My friends who would be with me would give me crap saying you steeler fans are weird because they never got that kind of interaction all the time with other fans of the team they pulled for.

Another interesting side note is when my dad got older he hit a phase in his later years when he resembled chuck noll but with a mustache. The other steeler fans at the bar noticed this and along with his age bestowed him with the nickname "coach" when they'd see him and they showed him great respect for his knowledge and years of service if you want to call it that being a steelers fan. We'd be down in a game and someone would yell "hey coach, what do we need to do here?" Or "You got the boys ready to play today coach?". He loved it and it meant a lot to him and myself.

After my dad's passing my son and I did finally make it Pittsburgh in honor of him. I wish we would have made time to do it together before he left but such is life. We had a lot of fun watching them on the road in enemy territory like Tennessee, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St Louis, Indianapolis and Chicago. Was awesome to see how well steeler fans travel and meeting people from all over the U.S. making long journeys to see their favorite team live. Most of the time watching them they won too so that made it all the better!

Long winded but that's basically my story.

 

they were a playoff team in the early 60’s right? With Bobby Layne, John Henry Johnson and Buddy Dial…

 

My Dad loved that gun j/k

 

There were no real "playoffs" back then. Just (as I recall) a Western and Eastern Conference consisting of 8 teams each. Top team in each Conference played one final championship game. For a few years they had a consolation game for the 2nd place finishers. Steelers played the Lions in one in the early 60's and lost but it was discontinued until the AFL/NFL merger and SB I in 1966 (I think).

 

My dad was born in Washington, PA. My grandfather was a W&J grad and stuck around for a while. They ended up moving into Browns territory, but my dad was a teenager during the 70's Steelers run. Probably a good time to be a kid that liked the Steelers. I grew up watching with my dad (he got Dish network back in the day just so we could watch them all), and we basically never missed a game. Probably remember games as far back as the 1994 season. Was a HUGE Kordell and Bettis fan growing up. Been a fan ever since, and have made the Steelers game on Sunday (or Thurs/Monday). My 4 week old daughter is 2-2 as a fan, but 2-0 when I bring her to my dad's to watch the game... so, rest easy Steelers fans, she's coming with this Sunday. Can't break that streak until we lose with her there.

 

Bet your sad you didn't become a Pirate fan I too hated the Celtics and became a Laker fan. Loved Kareem and Magic. TBH I am still a fan but don't follow. I did watch the Frank Vogel Coached Laker Championship since I know him.

HBO/MAX have a cool series about the rivalry between them back in the day.

 

Summer 83 my schoolfriend in italy has a visit from a boy from Chicago for the vacation we gang up togheter and i was talking about soccer and he start to talk me about franco harris and the steelers in a week i bought a a bradshaw Jersey following scorse on tuesday on a sport news apre that has a small section of other sports then years later istarted to Watch on paytv .then I come to ny to see steelers@giants

 

Your dad and my dad may have sat next to each other