STEELERS/EAGLES History

[Todd Pence]

The only regular season NFL game ever played in the state of West Virginia took place on November 20th, 1938 between the Steelers (then still known as the Pirates) and the Eagles. It was played at Charleston's Laidley Field, with the Eagles winning 14-7. I don't know if this is true or not, but legend has it that Pirates coach Johnny "Blood" McNally was a no-show for the game because he mistakenly believed his team had a bye week.

[rhickok1109]

The only regular season NFL game ever played in the state of West Virginia took place on November 20th, 1938 between the Steelers (then still known as the Pirates) and the Eagles. It was played at Charleston's Laidley Field, with the Eagles winning 14-7. I don't know if this is true or not, but legend has it that Pirates coach Johnny "Blood" McNally was a no-show for the game because he mistakenly believed his team had a bye week.

That's a story invented by Art Rooney. Johnny Blood's version is quite different.

Because of Whizzer White's enormous salary ($15,000), Rooney scheduled a number of exhibition games to bring in extra money. This included two games against the Los Angelese Bulldogs. The first was on Nov. 11 in Colorado Springs (because White was from Colorado) and the second was in L.A. two days later.

Rooney was in one of his frequent periods of negative cash flow because of losses at the track. This is how Johnny Blood told the story (directly from my book):

"I was not only the coach and a player, I was the trainer and business manager. I had orders from Rooney to send him the money as fast as I collected it. We got $10,000 for each of those exhibition games and I sent him all the money. He was supposed to wire me enough money to get the team back to Pittsburgh.
"Well, he didn't. I kept calling him, but he was never in—he was proba¬bly at the race track. Finally, he sent some money, but it wasn't quite enough. I sent the team back on the train, with Walt Kiesling in charge. Then I called Art a few more times, but could¬n't reach him.
"The day after I missed the game, he wired me the money to get me back to Pittsburgh. He probably took it out of the receipts from the game I missed."

I brought this up when I interviewed Rooney at the Pro Football HOF in 1973. He just smiled and said, "My story is better. It's the one people will remember."

I guess he was right.

[Brian wolf]

Thank Goodness for Chuck Noll, though Parker could have done better by the team had he embraced younger black players sooner ...