Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
My son-in-law, Adam, and his older brother, Phil, were ecstatic. As we returned from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to their parents’ home in Markvue Manner, a housing development in North Huntingdon, their excitement was visible.
When their father, Dave, asked how the day had gone. Phil blurted out, “I’m never washing this hand again,” as he held up his right hand. “I shook hands with Dan Rooney.”
The boys were Pittsburgh Steelers fans since birth. We’d gone to training camp on a hot August day in 2010. I used my Wyoming Press Association credentials to get field access and they allowed me to take a couple of guests.
While hanging out in the commons area of the media relations center set up in one of the student dormitories located above the St. Vincent football field we listened as a group of elderly former Steelers talked about the “old days.”
Adam and Phil recognized one of the men, Bill Priatko, who had played for the Steelers in the late 1950s and early 60s.
The men were talking about Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, and Al Davis. They told a story of Ditka reneging on a verbal offer from Al Davis with the fledgling AFL after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. Priatko supported Ditka because he’d had a bait and switch by Davis to play for the Raiders at about the same time. He offered (this is hard to believe with today’s salaries) Priatko $10,500 to play linebacker, but when Bill arrived in California, Davis dropped the total to $7,500. Bill declined.
What he didn’t decline was chiming in on a story about Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett. Dorsett was a standout football and basketball player in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, at Hopewell High School. He had dozens of Division I offers but stayed home, playing for the Pitt Panthers.
Priatko and a couple of the other guys related how they’d convinced their friend, Bill McDonald, who was the head coach for the Division II Edinboro Scotties in 1972, that Dorsett was going to sign with him. Nope, sorry, Coach McDonald, but it got a big laugh at the table.
The trip was already memorable from listening to these characters.
We hit the field and, about 30 minutes into practice, a fast-moving thunderstorm dumped a burst of rain. We didn’t leave the field.
Neither did Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney. Rooney was 78 years old at the time, a bit stooped and covering himself in a clear plastic sheet against the rain. He walked over to the three of us and said, “I can see you guys are Steeler fans. Where are you from?”
“Wyoming,” I said.
His eyes lit up, “Wyoming the state?” (There is an area of Pennsylvania called Wyoming, it’s where we got our state’s name.)
“Yes, the central part of the state,” I said.
Rooney started to relate the story of a three-week wagon train reenactment he took along the Oregon Trail a few years earlier. We spoke about Split Rock, Sweetwater Station, the Ice Slough, and South Pass. He was enamored that I lived nearby and had visited many of the sites he passed on his trip.
As my dad later said when I related the story to him, “I’ll bet Adam and Phil were grinning like a opossum eating a persimmon.”
Rooney was just a regular guy. You wouldn’t know he was the owner of one of the premier professional sports franchises on the planet.
Dan passed away in 2017. His son Art now runs the organization. I spoke with Art a couple of times over the intervening years. He’s a quiet, polite, inquisitive man, but we didn’t have the connection I found with his dad.
I write this after watching another Raider debacle on Monday Night Football.
It was the Raiders and the Cowboys. I’ve been a Raider’s fan since 1968 when the roster was dotted with future Hall of Famers like Daryle Lamonica “The Mad Bomber,” Art Shell, Jim Otto, and Gene Upshaw. My favorite player was Ben “Big Ben” Davidson, a tall, psychotic defensive lineman.
It’s hard to be a Raider’s fan these days. There’s no dash, no splash, no swagger; they’re an empty Las Vegas shell of the working-class heroes that once were in gritty, bayside Oakland.
My dad loved the Cowboys. Roger Staubach was his quarterback, though he often said that “Roger the Dodger” wasn’t as good as Johnny Unitas. One memorable Thanksgiving at my uncle Ralph’s house, the entire Gasser clan was gathered around the living room television.
Dallas was playing Washington; Redskins and Cowboys, what could be more American on Thanksgiving Day 1974?
Staubach went down with an injury. Clint Longley, a rookie, entered the game and engineered one of the most remarkable comebacks in NFL history with the Cowboys edging the Redskins 24-23.
Longley didn’t have much of a pro career; personality issues he had with management ended it early. But he’ll always have that moment in the sun.
Management issues plague both the Cowboys and the Raiders. They were both once storied franchises, but they’ve become the butt of jokes around the league.
The problem starts at the top with their owners, Mark Davis and Jerry Jones. Davis inherited the team from his father, Al. Al was a backroom bandit, a wheeler-dealer, and produced a team that was feared, respected, and despised, all at the same time. His son, well, I’m not sure what he does aside from driving the team into the pits of the league year after year.
Jerry Jones was once a good owner, but his maniacal control is reminiscent of LBJ playing war games on a big board at the Whitehouse while young men died in Vietnam. Out of touch, and out of time comes to mind.
For Cowboys fans, every year is “this year.” But “this year” hasn’t happened for almost three decades. The last Dallas Super Bowl win came in 1996, with a 27-17 win over Dan Rooney’s Steelers. There hasn’t been much joy in Texas since then.
The Monday Night crew hyped the game. There were montages of great players and great plays from long ago, but not much from recent seasons or this one in particular.
The starters from the last Cowboy championship team are all members of AARP today, and the guys on the last Raider’s Super Bowl championship in 1984 are all on Medicare.
It’s been a while for both franchises, and it’ll be at least another season at this point.