Download or read book Pittsburgh s Greatest Athletes written by David Finoli and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019-06-24 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author and sports historian David Finoli's inside look at the 50 greatest male and female athletes in Pittsburgh history. Greatness in sport is both undefinable and immediately recognizable. Though it is rare, Western Pennsylvania has been graced with a long history of athletes who embody the essence of greatness. They have proudly represented the region in sports such as boxing, golf and track; carried their collegiate teams to victory; and worn the black and gold of the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins. Pittsburghers still recall how Mario Lemieux glided effortlessly through an opposing defense before befuddling the goalie or Arnold Palmer's unique swing that made the everyday duffer feel like he was one of them. Fans debate whether Terry Bradshaw or Ben Roethlisberger is the better quarterback and what the legacy of Barry Bonds is, while keeping Roberto Clemente among their most cherished icons. Take a deep dive into all of that and more and re-discover the best of the best in Pittsburgh sports history.
Download or read book The Steel City 500 written by David Finoli and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We're gathered here: To select and celebrate the Steel City 500, the greatest athletes in Western Pennsylvania history. A few notes of explanation as you're getting your beer and preparing to argue with the choices. First, in the case of team sports, we're limiting our picks to those who competed here at either the collegiate or professional level. That same rule doesn't hold true for individual sports (more on that in a minute). Therefore, of our great legacy of NFL quarterbacks like Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Joe Montana and Dan Marino, only Marino qualifies for inclusion on the Steel City 500 list (No. 20), based upon his exploits at the University of Pittsburgh. Likewise, Donora's Stan "The Man" Musial doesn't crack the list, despite being one of the 20 greatest baseball players of all time, because he unfortunately never played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. For us, high-school athletics paled in comparison, so we chose to identify those who competed at a higher level. (However, we'e not nuts, so we included a separate listing of great athletes who hailed from but never played here.) How did we choose the 500, you may ask, and was there beer involved? Carefully and yes. We cast a wide net in determining what athletes and indeed what sports to include. Among the 500 you'l find the expected football, baseball, hockey and basketball players. But you'll also find boxers, swimmers, jockeys, wrestlers, sprinters, long jumpers, golfers and tennis players' and a whole host of others who competed in individual sports. We have a number of Hall of Famers. Some from Cooperstown and Canton, but also others from Danai Beach, Florida, home of the Fishing Hall of Fame as well as the Basketball, Hockey, College Football, Track, Soccer, Bowling and Tennis halls of fame just to name a few. We don't have any figure skaters because we don't consider it a sport but rather an activity. But who in their right mind can come up with rankings when you're comparing and contrasting across different sports? How do you determine that a great running back ranks higher than a power-hitting first baseman? Good question. There were a number of factors weighed: Records held and other awards/achievements, longevity/number of great seasons in Pittsburgh, championships, inclusion into halls of fame and impact. That's why Louise Fulton comes in at No. 194. As the first African-American woman to win a title on the Women's Professional Bowlers Association Tour in the midst of the Civil Rights movement, she had impact at a turbulent time. And yes, we'll probably hear it for ranking a horse, Adios, at No. 32. But before you say nay (or is it neigh?), take a look at our reasoning. Chances are you might not agree with where some of our competitors fall in the list. Barry Bonds outside the top 20? You'll see why. That's the beauty of this project, the discussions that are sure to ensue. The other highlight for us is to be able to showcase many of the top athletes you may not have heard of or have been overlooked. Western Pennsylvania has a great sporting heritage. Join us in celebrating it.
Download or read book 50 Great Moments in Pittsburgh Sports written by David Shribman and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century of Pittsburgh’s rich sports history is celebrated through 50 greatest moments in this volume, culled from the coverage by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Among the storied past of athletics in the Pennsylvanian city, this collection highlights such events as the Pirates at the World Series; Steelers' Super Bowls; the Penguins with their back-to-back Stanley Cups; the era when Carnegie “Tech,” Duquesne, and Pitt were all playing college bowls; and boxing title bouts fought by Harry Greb, Teddy Yaroz, and Billy Conn. These moments and others from the wide spectrum of franchises and Hall of Fame athletes in Pittsburgh’s history are celebrated in a commemorative format that illustrates why Pittsburgh has earned the title of the “Best Sports City” more than once and why “City of Champions” has come to describe the town time and time again.
Download or read book Pittsburgh s Greatest Teams written by David Finoli and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pittsburgh is synonymous with winning. From the Penguins and Steelers to the Pirates and Panthers, the Steel City knows championships. There must be something special in the water to make Pittsburgh so particularly gifted with its sports teams. The most famous teams in the city's history would most likely be the 1970s Steelers, known as the Steel Curtain for obvious reasons, and the Penguins who raised the Stanley Cup five times. Names such as Lemieux, Crosby, Roethlisberger, Bradshaw, Clemente and Stargell are legends of American sport and members of Pittsburgh's most cherished franchises, but for every sports legend and multi-million dollar franchise, there are a dozen more talented players and long-past teams that have been forgotten to history; the Negro League's Crawford and Homestead Grays are too often overlooked in the city's sports history but were as talented as any team that has played there. Author Dave Finoli ranks the fifty greatest teams that won trophies, brought glory and lifted the hearts of Pittsburgh's devoted sports fans.
Download or read book Pittsburgh Sports written by Randy Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2000-10-12 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summer afternoons at Forbes Field, playoff Sundays with the Steelers, winter nights at the Igloo cheering for Mario and the Penguins: Pittsburgh Sports captures all that and more. With stories from sports fans, historians, and former athletes, Pittsburgh Sports mixes personal experiences with team histories to capture the full range of what it means to be a sports fan—in Pittsburgh, or, by extension, anywhere. A book that can be read cover-to-cover, or in bits and pieces, Pittsburgh Sports includes chapters on the ill-fated Pittsburgh Pipers, who won the American Basketball Association’s first championship, then folded four years later; the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays, perennial Negro League powerhouses; Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Jim Kelly, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and other legends of western Pennsylvania high school football; boxing’s illustrious past in the Iron City; football reminiscences by a former Steelers punter; and the ups and downs of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Download or read book The Best Pittsburgh Sports Arguments written by John Mehno and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every sports fan knows that the only thing better than watching sports is arguing about them - picking the best, the worst and who will come out on top.
Download or read book The 50 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Steelers History written by Robert W. Cohen and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Examines the careers of the 50 men who made the greatest impact on one of the NFL's most iconic and successful franchises"--
Download or read book Jim Thorpe written by Robert W. Wheeler and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-11-28 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born in 1888 in Oklahoma Territory, Jim Thorpe was a Sac and Fox Indian. After attending the Sac and Fox agency school and Haskell Indian Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas, he transferred to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. At Carlisle he led the football team to victories over some of the nation’s best college teams-Army, Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska. In 1912 he participated in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, winning both the decathlon and pentathlon. It was then that King Gustav V of Sweden dubbed him "the world’s greatest athlete." Between 1913 and 1919, Thorpe played professional baseball for the New York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Boston Braves. In 1915 he began playing professional football with the Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs. When the top teams were organized into the American Professional Football Association in 1920, Thorpe was named the first president of the league, which was renamed the National Football League in 1922. Throughout his career he excelled in every sport he played, earning King Gustav’s accolade many times over.
Download or read book Their Life s Work written by Gary M. Pomerantz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawn from personal interviews with the players themselves, a chronicle of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers, who won an unprecedented and unmatched four Super Bowls in six years.
Download or read book Fields of Play written by Robert T. Hayashi and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2023-09-26 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans love sports, from neighborhood pickup basketball to the National Football League, and everything in between. While no city better demonstrates the connection between athletic games and community than Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the common association of the city’s professional sports teams with its blue-collar industrial past illustrates a white nostalgic perspective that excludes the voices of many who labored in the mines and mills and played on local fields. In this original and lyrical history, Robert T. Hayashi addresses this gap by uncovering and sharing overlooked tales of the region’s less famous athletes: Chinese baseball players, Black women hunters, Jewish summer campers, and coalminer soccer stars. These athletes created separate spaces of play while demanding equal access to the region’s opportunities on and off the field. Weaving together personal narrative with accounts from media, popular culture, legal cases, and archival sources, Fields of Play details how powerful individuals and organizations used recreation to promote their interests and shape public memory. Combining this rigorous archival research with a poet’s voice, Hayashi vividly portrays how coal towns, settlement houses, municipal swimming pools, state game lands, stadia, and the city’s landmark rivers were all sites of struggle over inclusion and the meaning of play in the Steel City.
Download or read book The 50 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Pirates History written by David Finoli and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pittsburgh Pirates have a vast and celebrated history dating back to 1887, winning five World Championships and nine National League pennants since their inception. Many baseball legends have called Pittsburgh home, including Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Paul Waner, and Arky Vaughan. Although the Pirates have had their fair share of losing seasons, recent postseason appearances have brought life back into this storied franchise. The 50 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Pirates History celebrates the best to ever wear a Pirate uniform. David Finoli carefully and diligently ranks the Steel City icons based on statistics, awards, achievements, and postseason success. Each entry includes biographical information, accomplishments, and recaps of the player’s greatest moments. In addition to stories of glory on the field, Finoli also shares important events that took place away from the diamond, such as Roberto Clemente personally bringing supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua, a selfless act that led to his tragic death. Two concluding chapters cover the ten Pirates who almost made the cut and the players who went on to greatness after leaving the Pittsburgh organization. More than 25 photographs throughout the book enhance the rankings of these Pittsburgh legends. Sure to inspire debate and controversy among Pirate fans old and new, The 50 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Pirates History isan engaging look at the many players who have been a part of the franchise’s long and memorable history.
Download or read book Facing the Pittsburgh Steelers written by Sean Deveney and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-08-02 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even die-hard fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers can only imagine what it was like to play against the premier teams and players in the black and gold’s history. Just how hard did Jack Lambert hit? How did opponents plan for Franco Harris’s combination of speed and power? What was it like trying to block Joe Greene and Dwight White? What was the feeling seeing a Ben Roethlisberger pass soaring downfield toward Hines Ward, or Troy Polamalu taking a bead on a receiver cutting over the middle? In Facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, John McFarland takes Steelers fans inside the locker rooms, onto the sidelines, and out on the field with opposing players. McFarland interviews some of the biggest names in the game to get their perspectives on playing against the best teams in Steelers history. He covers the most dramatic moments, most intense rivalries, and most memorable games from Pittsburgh’s pro football lore—from the other side of the line of scrimmage. It’s been said that seeing is believing. With Facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh fans can go beyond seeing to hear what it was like to play against the greatest Steelers teams, in the words of players who did just that. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Download or read book Classic Steelers written by David Finoli and published by Classic Sports. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it came to football in the 1930s, the college sport was king. But in 1933, former boxer and minor league baseball player Art Rooney, who had quarterbacked the squad at Duquesne University, purchased a team for Pittsburgh for $2,500. Thus began the legacy we know as "Steeler Nation." At the time, no one could have imagined that the Pirates, as they were originally named, would become a treasured possession for Pittsburghers. For the first 40 years, the franchise was a national joke. With only one playoff performance--a 21-0 defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles for the eastern division title in 1947--highlights were minimal for a team that regularly found itself at the bottom of the standings. Then in 1969, Art Rooney's son Dan hired Chuck Noll from the Baltimore Colts to coach his team. Noll replaced undisciplined players with future hall of famers. By 1974 the team won its first world championship and went on to capture four Super Bowl titles in six years. Noll's legacy for excellence continued with four more Super Bowl appearances and two championships in 2005 and 2008, garnering the franchise a league record of six Super Bowl wins. Classic Steelers includes these six championship tilts and takes citizens of the Steeler Nation on a play-by-play tour of the most memorable games in the team's history. Author David Finoli recounts in vivid detail the thrilling gridiron performances that have made the Steelers so special to their legions of fans.
Download or read book On the Clock Pittsburgh Steelers written by Jim Wexell and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2022-11-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider history of the Pittsburgh Steelers at the NFL draft. A singular, transcendent talent can change the fortunes of a football team instantly. Each year, NFL teams approach the draft with this knowledge, hoping that luck will be on their side and that their extensive scouting and analysis will pay off. In On the Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers, Jim Wexell explores the fascinating, rollercoaster history of the Steelers at the draft, from Terry Bradshaw through Troy Polamalu and beyond. Readers will go behind the scenes with top decision-makers as they evaluate, deliberate, and ultimately make the picks they hope will tip the fate of their franchise toward success. From seemingly surefire first-rounders to surprising late selections, this is a must-read for Steelers faithful and NFL fans eager for a glimpse at how teams are built.
Download or read book Were You There written by Stephen Mulligan and published by Rosedog Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pittsburgh s Civic Arena Stories from the Igloo written by The Association of Gentleman Pittsburgh Journalists and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2021 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lovingly nicknamed the Igloo, the Civic Arena was home to the Pittsburgh Penguins until 2010 and hosted some of the most important sports and entertainment events in Steel City history. During the glorious Mario Lemieux era, the venue hosted four Stanley Cup Finals, including three championship-winning seasons. Muhammad Ali KO'ed Charlie Powell in 1963 there. It was home to Duquesne Basketball in the arena's early days and has hosted some of the University of Pittsburgh's most important basketball games as well. Some of the biggest acts in music history have rocked the Igloo's seats, including Elvis, the Beatles and frequent favorite, Bruce Springsteen. Join local sports and media writers as they recall the greatest moments in Civic Arena's storied history.
Download or read book Pittsburgh Steelers written by Lew Freedman and published by MVP Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great moments and stories in the history of a legendary franchise, including the players, teams, games, and coaches, presented in brilliant images and informative text.
