50 Fun Facts About Pittsburgh Sports

What colours do Pittsburgh's Steelers, Pirates and Penguins all share?

Black and gold come from the city flag, based on William Pitt's coat of arms. The Penguins switched last, in 1980, beating a Boston Bruins protest by citing the city's black-and-gold NHL team of the 1920s.

After the Pirates and Steelers both won titles in 1979, Pittsburgh took which nickname?

City of Champions: the Steelers won Super Bowls in January 1979 and January 1980, and in between the Pirates came back from three games to one down to beat Baltimore in the World Series.

An 1892 game between two Pittsburgh athletic clubs is remembered as American football's first what?

Professional game: Allegheny secretly paid Yale star Pudge Heffelfinger $500, and he scored the only touchdown. Proof surfaced some 80 years later, in a club expense sheet obtained by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Why did a rival league brand Pittsburgh's ball club 'piratical' in 1891, giving the Pirates their name?

Signing a player a rival claimed: the Athletics left second baseman Lou Bierbauer off their reserve list, Pittsburgh pounced, and the club embraced the insult as its new name.

Which Steelers star tossed his jersey to a young fan in a famous 1979 Coca-Cola commercial?

Joe Greene, the feared tackle known as 'Mean Joe', had to drain a bottle on every take and kept belching, so the one-minute ad took three days to film. He said children stopped being afraid of him.

A T206 baseball card of which Pirates star sold for $6.6 million in 2021?

Honus Wagner made the American Tobacco Company stop printing his card, so only about 50 are known. Whether he objected to selling cigarettes to children or simply wanted to be paid is still argued.

Forbes Field, opened in 1909, was the National League's first ballpark built from which materials?

Concrete and steel, chosen to outlast wooden parks. Critics called the site by Schenley Park 'Dreyfuss's Folly' because it was a trolley ride from downtown, until the city grew out to meet it.

Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series home run remains the only one ever to do what?

End Game 7 as a walk-off: his ninth-inning shot won it 10-9, even though the Yankees had outscored Pittsburgh 55-27 across the Series.

Roberto Clemente won 12 straight Gold Gloves at which position?

Right field. Brooklyn signed Clemente first but left him off its big-league roster, so Pittsburgh drafted him away in 1954, and he won a Gold Glove in each of his final 12 seasons.

Roberto Clemente died in a 1972 plane crash while delivering earthquake relief to which country?

Nicaragua. Clemente had organised relief flights from Puerto Rico after the Managua earthquake, and boarded this one himself after hearing that the army had stolen earlier supplies.

What was historic about the starting lineup the Pirates fielded on September 1, 1971?

All nine were Black or Latino, a first in the majors. Manager Danny Murtaugh may not have realised as he wrote it out, and the players only noticed once the game was under way.

Which Pirates pitcher later said he threw his 1970 no-hitter against San Diego while on LSD?

Dock Ellis said he lost track of a day at a friend's place in Los Angeles and was woken four hours before the first pitch. He flew down, walked eight batters and still won 2-0.

The Pirates' record run of 20 losing seasons began after a 1992 playoff loss to which team?

The Atlanta Braves won Game 7 in the ninth when Sid Bream, a former Pirate, slid home just ahead of Barry Bonds's throw. Bonds left that winter, and Pittsburgh's next winning season came in 2013.

Whose statue was unveiled outside PNC Park on April 7, 2001, two days before he died?

Willie Stargell was too ill to attend, and died on the morning the Pirates played their first game at the new park. Fans arriving for the opener laid flowers at the statue's base.

Three Rivers Stadium was named for the spot where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form which river?

The Ohio. The stadium was a homecoming as much as a move: it brought the Pirates back to the North Shore, where they had played at Exposition Park until leaving for Forbes Field in 1909.

Which Negro league team, started by Black steelworkers near Pittsburgh, won the 1948 Negro World Series?

The Homestead Grays drew so well on visits to Washington's Griffith Stadium that by 1943 they played most home games there, which is why some records call them the Washington Grays.

Which star pitcher did numbers boss Gus Greenlee sign for his Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1931?

Satchel Paige started the first game at Greenlee Field, the $100,000 park Greenlee built for the team in 1932. He struck out 10 New York Black Yankees and still lost 1-0.

Which Pittsburgh catcher became MLB's career batting average leader when Negro league stats were integrated in 2024?

Josh Gibson passed Ty Cobb, yet he never got the chance to play in the white majors. He died at 35 in January 1947, three months before Jackie Robinson's debut.

With rosters thinned by World War II, the Steelers merged for the 1943 season with which team?

The Philadelphia Eagles. The 'Steagles' went 5-4-1 while players worked war-plant jobs, and co-coaches Greasy Neale and Walt Kiesling disliked each other so much that one took the offence and the other the defence.

The Penguins' name was chosen partly because their home, the Civic Arena, carried what nickname?

The Igloo. Co-owner Jack McGregor's wife Carol heard the arena's nickname and thought of penguins, and the owners' pick seems to have leaked: 700 of 26,000 contest entries suggested the same name.

The Civic Arena, built in 1961, was the world's first major sports venue with what feature?

A retractable roof, because the arena was built for the Civic Light Opera's open-air summer shows. A hanging scoreboard and the cost of repairs later kept it shut, and the roof last opened fully in 1995.

Who was the Penguins' 2009 playoff MVP?

Evgeni Malkin led the 2009 playoffs with 36 points and became the first Russian to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, then nearly left it behind in Detroit: Sidney Crosby had to shout after him as he boarded the flight home.

Mario Lemieux is the only man whose name is on the Stanley Cup in which two roles?

Player and owner: the bankrupt Penguins owed him years of deferred salary, so in 1999 he turned the debt into a stake and bought the club. Pittsburgh then won the Cup in 2009, 2016 and 2017.

Which illness was Mario Lemieux diagnosed with in January 1993, in a season he still finished as NHL scoring champion?

Hodgkin's lymphoma. Lemieux missed two months for radiation and came back 12 points behind in the scoring race, yet still took the title with 160 points in only 60 games.

Sidney Crosby wears number 87 and signed a 2007 deal worth $8.7 million a year, both a nod to what?

His birthdate, 8/7/87. League rules would have let Crosby ask for more, so the symbolic salary also left Pittsburgh room to keep its other young stars.

When the Penguins beat Detroit in 2009, Sidney Crosby set what NHL record?

Youngest captain to win the Stanley Cup, at 21. Pittsburgh had lost the 2008 Final to the same Red Wings, and Crosby spent most of Game 7's last period on the bench with a knee injury.

Which Penguins winger, picked fifth in 1990, was the first Czechoslovak player drafted by the NHL without having to defect?

Jaromír Jágr wore 68 for the Prague Spring of 1968, the year his grandfather, once jailed for defying the Communists, died. Penguins fans soon noticed that 'Jaromir' rearranges into 'Mario Jr.'

PPG Paints Arena opened in 2010 under what original name?

Consol Energy Center, after a coal producer that gave up the rights in 2016 when energy prices slumped. Paint maker PPG took over, and fans promptly christened the building 'The Paint Can'.

A fan phoned which Pittsburgh broadcaster with the name 'Immaculate Reception'?

Myron Cope used it on air that night after Sharon Levosky rang him. Her boyfriend Michael Ord had coined the pun in a bar after the game, and the couple never sought credit for it.

Which Steelers running back caught the Immaculate Reception and ran it in for the winning touchdown?

Franco Harris scooped the deflection at his shoe tops. Under 1972 rules two Steelers could not touch a pass in a row, so the touchdown counted only if Oakland's Jack Tatum had touched the ball, and whether he did is still argued.

Since 1996, every sale of the Steelers' Terrible Towel has helped fund what?

A school for people with disabilities: the towel's creator signed its trademark over in 1996 to Allegheny Valley School, where his son Danny, who has autism, lives.

Why did Heinz pay exactly $57 million in 2001 to name the Steelers' stadium?

The company's '57 varieties' slogan set the price. Henry Heinz said he coined it in 1896 after seeing a shoe shop advertise 21 styles, though his firm already sold more than 60 products; he said 5 and 7 were lucky numbers.

Which two teams met in the 2011 NHL Winter Classic at Heinz Field, billed as a duel of two number-one draft picks?

Penguins and Capitals, with Sidney Crosby facing Alex Ovechkin. Forecast rain pushed the New Year's Day game from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Washington won 3-1 under the lights as rain fell anyway.

Who coached Pitt football from 1915 to 1923?

Pop Warner, whose name now graces a national youth football league, came to Pitt from the Carlisle Indian School; his first Panthers team went 8-0, crushing his old school 45-0 along the way.

Which Aliquippa-raised running back won the 1976 Heisman Trophy while leading Pitt to a national title?

Tony Dorsett stayed home at Pitt after Notre Dame's coach called him too small. As a junior he ran for 303 yards against the Irish, and he left with the college career rushing record.

Which Pittsburgh-born quarterback starred at Pitt before a record-setting NFL career?

Dan Marino watched five quarterbacks go before him in the 1983 draft and slipped to 27th. A year later he threw for 5,084 yards and 48 touchdowns, both NFL records at the time.

Which future Hall of Fame quarterback, born in Pittsburgh, did the Steelers cut in 1955?

Johnny Unitas was a ninth-round pick released before he threw a pass. He played semi-pro ball for $6 a game until a Baltimore Colts tryout in 1956 changed everything.

Pitt beat which neighbouring-state rival in 1921 in what is credited as the first radio broadcast of a college football game?

West Virginia lost 21-13 at Forbes Field. Announcer Harold Arlin, a Westinghouse foreman, had called baseball's first radio broadcast from the same park two months earlier, speaking into a converted telephone.

Which Pittsburgh team won the very first ABA championship in 1968, led by Connie Hawkins?

The Pipers rode Connie Hawkins, a star the NBA had blacklisted over a college bribery scandal, to the title, then moved to Minnesota that summer. They came back a year later and folded as the Condors in 1972.

Which Steelers running back won his only Super Bowl in his hometown of Detroit in 2006?

Jerome Bettis, The Bus, had been ready to retire a year earlier. When the Steelers were introduced at Ford Field, Joey Porter held his teammates back so Bettis ran out alone before his home crowd.

Pittsburgh's professional soccer club, founded in 1998, is known by what name?

Riverhounds is the name, and after more than 25 years without a league title they won the 2025 USL Championship final on penalties at FC Tulsa, with goalkeeper Eric Dick named the final's MVP.

In which town east of Pittsburgh, also the hometown of Fred Rogers, did Arnold Palmer grow up?

Latrobe, where his father Deacon rose from groundskeeper to club professional at Latrobe Country Club. Arnold learned the game tagging along on the course, and later bought the club himself.

Who beat the Pirates in the first modern World Series?

Boston Americans won the 1903 Series five games to three, yet the losers went home richer. Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss added his own gate share to his players' pool, so each got $1,316 to Boston's $1,182.

Which disco hit was the 1979 Pirates' anthem?

We Are Family took hold on June 1, when the Pirates' captain made it the team's song on the night of a ninth-inning comeback. Soon the players' wives were dancing to it during the seventh-inning stretch.

At PNC Park, Pirates fans cheer a between-innings race among costumed versions of which food?

Pierogies called Cheese Chester, Sauerkraut Saul and Potato Pete first raced in 1999, inspired by Milwaukee's sausages. In 2010 the Pirates fired one runner for criticising team management on Facebook.

Which Pittsburgh-area wrestler won 1996 Olympic gold with a broken neck before becoming a WWE star?

Kurt Angle cracked two vertebrae at the national trials, and doctors refused to clear him. One finally agreed to numb his neck with novocaine before each match, a plan Angle admitted risked paralysis.

Which NBA star made all 18 of his shots in a 1967 game in Pittsburgh, still the most without a miss?

Wilt Chamberlain was perfect from the floor and poor from the line that night, missing eight of his 14 free throws. He still scored 42 in a neutral-site win over Baltimore.

Which NFL rule, adopted in 2003 and named for a Steelers figure, requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching jobs?

The Rooney Rule is named for Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who chaired the league's diversity committee. Four years later his team hired Mike Tomlin, who won a Super Bowl in his second season.

Which Steelers linebacker returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLIII?

James Harrison stepped in front of a Kurt Warner pass at the goal line with 18 seconds left in the half, when Arizona was a yard from taking the lead. He needed an oxygen mask afterwards.

Which Steelers safety had his flowing hair insured for $1 million by a shampoo maker in 2010?

Troy Polamalu said he had not had a haircut since 2000. His sponsor's Lloyd's of London policy came four years after a Kansas City runner dragged him down by the hair during an interception return.