Birthplace of Professional Football: Southwestern Pennsylvania

Birthplace of Professional Football: Southwestern Pennsylvania
Author: David Finoli
Publisher: Arcadia Library Editions
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2004-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781531621605

Southwestern Pennsylvania is heralded by many as the birthplace of professional football. Here lived the athletes who were first paid to play. In Pittsburgh, the Allegheny Athletic Association paid Pudge Heffelfinger $500 in 1892 to help them beat their rivals, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. In Latrobe, the first all-professional club was fielded in 1897. The Birthplace of Professional Football celebrates the contributions that the towns in southwestern Pennsylvania made to the sport, a national obsession in this country. These stories also come from towns such as Jeannette and Greensburg and include Latrobe's failed attempt to secure the Professional Football Hall of Fame in the late 1940s and 1950s.

The Birthplace of Professional Football

The Birthplace of Professional Football
Author: David Finoli
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738536750

An illustrated study of the history of professional football in Southwest Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates
Author: David Finoli
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738549156

The Pittsburgh Pirates have thrilled their fans for more than 120 years. Beginning as the Allegheny's, the Pirates boast 35 hall of famers, five world champions, nine National League pennants, and nine division titles. Treasured memories, from Honus Wagner's all-around excellence and Mazeroski's remarkable 1960 World Series blast to Roberto Clemente's grace on and off the field, are captured in this book.

Sports Memories of Western Pennsylvania

Sports Memories of Western Pennsylvania
Author: Lisa A. Alzo
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738550374

Since the late 1800s, sports have played a key role in shaping the very character of western Pennsylvania. The area's largest city, Pittsburgh, boasts well-known professional sports teams in baseball, football, and hockey. In fact, no other city of comparable size has had such success in sports at the professional level, earning bragging rights and the nickname "City of Champions." Sports Memories of Western Pennsylvania is a salute to the athletes, coaches, announcers, and fans, both professional and amateur, who together created a rich sports history for western Pennsylvania.

Football

Football
Author: Edward J. Rielly
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 460
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780803226302

"...provides a detailed look at America's pastime through the lens of pop culture, [an] A-to-Z inventory of how certain aspects of the game affect and reflect broader society."--from publisher description.

Pittsburgh Sports

Pittsburgh Sports
Author: Randy Roberts
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2000-02-22
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0822972336

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.

When Cobb Met Wagner

When Cobb Met Wagner
Author: David Finoli
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786457902

The 1909 World Series featured Hall of Fame players Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner and was the first championship to extend to Game Seven, the final and deciding game. This work examines the entire regular season of both the Tigers and the Pirates but pays special attention to the seven games of that World Series. Includes 54 photographs, complete club statistics, biographical and career thumbnails, box scores for each series game, and tables on the acquisition of each player as well as information on how they departed.

Tackling Jim Crow

Tackling Jim Crow
Author: Alan H. Levy
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2010-07-27
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780786483853

Many are familiar with Jackie Robinson and the integration of Major League Baseball after all the years of separate black and white leagues, but fewer people know of the segregation and then integration of the National Football League. The timing and sequence of events were different, but football followed a pattern similar to that of baseball in regard to the beginning and end of racial segregation. This work traces professional football's movement from segregation to integration, beginning with a discussion of the various reasons why the game was first segregated. It describes the schemes that NFL owners came up with to ban African Americans from the league in the 1930s and 1940s, and tells how these barriers broke down after World War II. The author considers how professional football overcame the legacies of Jim Crow and how Jim Crow laws may still haunt the game.

Burial at Home Plate

Burial at Home Plate
Author: Bob Fulton
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2023-06-13
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN:

About the Book Burial at Home Plate offers a colorful look at the Pittsburgh Pirates, with an emphasis on offbeat moments in team history. Read about the doubleheader completed underwater; the Pittsburgh outfielders whose pursuit of a batted ball was halted by a gun-wielding Cincinnati fan; the pitcher who earned a victory while taking a nap; the dead man who tied a franchise record for games played; the sparrow that flew from beneath batter Casey Stengel’s cap; and the rookie who struck out while seated on the bench. Burial at Home Plate touches on the indoor game that was rained out; the throng of 50,000 that turned out in Pittsburgh for a game played more than 400 miles away; the tipsy pitcher who fell asleep inside the tarp during a game; the future MVPs who delivered their first major league hits while still in the minors; the FBI agent who “pinch hit” for Ralph Kiner; and the Pirates manager who disproved the notion that you can’t steal first base. Burial at Home Plate also shines the spotlight on the Green Weenie, the alabaster plaster, Aunt Minnie, the Rickey Dinks, Destiny’s Darlings, Dr. Strangeglove, eephus pitches and—the inspiration for the book’s title—a strange pre-game interment that took place at home plate. About the Author Bob Fulton has written extensively about the Pittsburgh Pirates for regional and national publications such as Sports History, Pittsburgh Magazine, The National Pastime, Pittsburgh Sports Now, Pennsylvania, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game program and On Deck, formerly the official magazine of the Pirates. His work has also appeared in American Heritage, Football Digest, The NCAA News, NFL Exclusive, Delta Sky, Marathon and Beyond, Basketball Weekly, Referee, The Elks Magazine, Collegiate Baseball and Sports Heritage, among others. Fulton is the author of The Summer Olympics: A Treasury of Legend and Lore; Never Lost a Game (Time Just Ran Out); Top Ten Baseball Stats: Interesting Rankings of Players, Managers, Umpires and Teams; and Pirates Treasures: Facts, Feats, Firsts in Pittsburgh Pirates History. In addition, his story on the major league debut of 15-year-old pitcher Joe Nuxhall was included in an anthology, The Ol’ Ball Game. Fulton, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, resides in Indiana, Pa.