American football in Western Pennsylvania, featuring the city of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, has had a long and storied history, dating back to the early days of the sport. All levels of football, including high school football and college football, are followed passionately, and the area's National Football League (NFL) team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, is consistently one of the sport's most popular teams. Many of the NFL's top stars have come from the region as well, especially those that play quarterback, earning Western Pennsylvania the nickname "Cradle of Quarterbacks".
Early years
Professional
In the early 20th century, football began to catch on in the general population of the United States and was the subject of intense competition and rivalry, albeit of a localized nature. Although payments to players were considered unsporting and dishonorable at the time, a Pittsburgh area club, the Allegheny Athletic Association, of the unofficial western Pennsylvania football circuit, surreptitiously hired former Yale All-American guard Pudge Heffelfinger. On November 12, 1892, Heffelfinger became the first known professional football player. He was paid $500 to play in a game against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. Heffelfinger picked up a Pittsburgh fumble and ran 35 yards for a touchdown, winning the game 4–0 for Allegheny. Although observers held suspicions, the payment remained a secret for years.
A year later, Ben "Sport" Donnelly became the first professional football coach, when he headed up the Allegheny Athletic Association team. Meanwhile, a player assumed to be Grant Dibert of the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, signed the first known pro football contract, which covered all of the club's games for the 1893 season.
On September 3, 1895, the first wholly professional game was played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe Athletic Association and the Jeannette Athletic Club. Latrobe won the contest 12–0. During this game, Latrobe's quarterback, John Brallier became the first player to openly admit to being paid to play football. He was paid $10 plus expenses to play. In 1897, the Latrobe Athletic Association paid all of its players for the whole season, becoming the first fully professional football team.
From 1890 until 1900, nearby Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was the home of the Greensburg Athletic Association. The team began as an amateur football club in 1890 and was composed primarily of locals before several paid players were added for 1895. In 1894 it was discovered that the team had secretly paid formerly Indiana Normal (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania) player, Lawson Fiscus, to play football and retained his services on salary. The team was the chief rival of another early professional football team, the Latrobe Athletic Association. Aside from Fiscus, the Greensburg Athletic Association included several of the era's top players, such as: Charlie Atherton, George Barclay, Ross Fiscus, Jack Gass, Arthur McFarland, Charles Rinehart, Isaac Seneca and Adam Martin Wyant. Several of these players revolutionized the game during their playing careers. Charlie Atherton is credited with inventing the place kick, and George Barclay invented the first-ever football helmet. Meanwhile, Isaac Seneca became the first Native-American to earn All-American honors and Adam Wyant was the first professional football player to become a United States Congressman.
In 1898, William Chase Temple took over the team payments for the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, a professional football team based in Pittsburgh from 1895 until 1900, becoming the first known individual football club owner.. A year later in 1899, the Morgan Athletic Club, on the South Side of Chicago, was founded. This team later became the Chicago Cardinals, and now is known as the Arizona Cardinals, making them the oldest continuously operating professional football team. The Cardinals would later merge with the Steelers for one season in 1944 due to player shortages as a result of World War II, with the two teams meeting in Super Bowl XLIII over six decades later.
The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club would become the top pro team in the state in 1898 and 1899. In 1898 Latrobe and two players from the Greensburg Athletic Association, formed the very first professional football all-star team for a game against the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, to be played at Pittsburgh's Exposition Park. Duquesne went on to win the game 16–0. On November 18, 1905, Latrobe defeated the Canton Bulldogs, which later became a founding member, and two-time champion, of the National Football League, 6–0.*
Later the Homestead Library & Athletic Club, fielded the top pro team in the state in 1900–1901. In 1902 the top players in the area, mainly from the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club line-up, formed the Pittsburgh Stars of the first National Football League. The Stars were suspected of being financed by Barney Dreyfuss and William Chase Temple, the owners of baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, who were at the time the dominant team in the National League. The Stars featured baseball players in the line-up including Christy Mathewson, a future Hall of Fame pitcher with the New York Giants and Fred Crolius, and outfielder with Pirates. The team won the league's only championship in 1902.
In 1903, Franklin, Pennsylvania, was the home of the Franklin Athletic Club. That season, the team was unofficially recognized as the "US Football Champions" and later won the 1903 World Series of Football, held that December at Madison Square Garden. The team included several of the era's top players, such as: Herman Kerkhoff, Arthur McFarland, Clark Schrontz, Paul Steinberg, Pop Sweet, Eddie Wood, and coach Blondy Wallace.* Other early professional football teams from western Pennsylvania include; the McKeesport Olympics, Oil City Athletic Club, Pitcairn Quakers and Glassport Odds.
In 1933, as the oldest of nine children Art Rooney, who had been raised on the North Side of Pittsburgh, founded the Pittsburgh Steelers. Originally nicknamed the Pirates, the team later changed their name to the Steelers, to represent the city's heritage of producing steel. The Steelers' first season with a winning record came in 1942. However, they lost their first playoff game in 1947.
Collegiate (through World War II)
Western Pennsylvania football at the collegiate level began in the fall of 1889 at the University of Pittsburgh, then known as the Western University of Pennsylvania (WUP). The first official collegiate game in Western Pennsylvania was played on October 11, 1890, when the Allegheny Athletic Association's defeated WUP 38–0. WUP's second game was also the first game for Washington & Jefferson, a rivalry that would dominate the area through the early 20th century.
The region's early thirst for football was made evident when a 12,000 strong overflow crowd packed Exposition Park to watch W&J defeat Duquesne Country and Athletic Club 4–0 in one of the largest crowds in Western Pennsylvania history to that point. By 1904, the region had its first undefeated football team when WUP went 10-0 while surrendering only one touchdown on the way to collectively outscoring opponents 406–5, and by 1908, WUP had adopted its present name, the University of Pittsburgh, and quickly came to be commonly referred to as Pitt. In 1910, led by coach Joseph H. Thompson and star fullback Tex Richards, Pitt went undefeated for the second time in school history, outscoring its nine opponents 282–0, causing some to proclaim it as that season's national champion. This success paved the way for Pitt rise to national prominence under legendary coach Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner who would lead Pitt to national championships in 1915, 1916, and 1918; along with an additional undefeated season in 1917, while its players garnered 16 first-team All-American selections.
During this era, Washington & Jefferson was also competitive with some of the top teams in the nation. In 1913, the Presidents, led by Bob Folwell, team posted a 10–0–1 record and were the highest scoring team in the nation. That season featured a scoreless tie of Yale, a 100–0 defeat of Grove City College, and a 17–0 victory over Penn State that broke the Nittany Lions' 19-game winning streak, earning the entire school a day off to celebrate. Sportswriter Walter S. Trumbull of The New York Sun suggested that the Michigan Aggies, Washington & Jefferson, Chicago University, and Notre Dame were the new "Big 4 of College Football" instead of the traditional grouping of Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Penn. The next year, Folwell's team lost at Harvard University in front of 15,000 fans by a score of 10–9. If not for an errant kick that hit the crossbar, W&J would have won the game and at least a share of the mythical national championship. That squad saved face by becoming only the seventh team to ever defeat Yale University, with a decisive 13–7 victory. The game received national press coverage, and the team received a personal note of congratulations by Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1918, perhaps the biggest football game yet played in the region occurred at Forbes Field when undefeated Pitt hosted unscored upon and defending national champion Georgia Tech which was then coached by the legendary John Heisman, who had previously coach for one season at W&J. The game, which served as a War Charities fundraising event, was highly publicized and was played in front of many of the nation's top sports writers, including Walter Camp. Pitt dismantled Georgia Tech 32-0 and would go on to be championed as that season's best team. Another game of import occurred in 1926 when a 6–2 Carnegie Tech football team shutout Knute Rockne's undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish 19–0 at Forbes Field. It would be the only loss for the Irish all season and would come to be ranked as the fourth-greatest upset in college football history by ESPN.
Washington & Jefferson's 1921 team went 10-0 under coach Greasy Neale, earning them an invitation to the 1922 Rose Bowl to play the heavily favored California Golden Bears. Cal had won their season 312–33, but the W&J defense held the Golden Bears' potent offense, led by Brick Muller, to no points and 2 first downs, no completed passes, and only 49 yards rushing. The game, which would be the last time a "small school" would play in the Rose Bowl, featured the first African-American quarterback to play in the Rose Bowl (W&J's Charlie West) and the first freshman to play in a Rose Bowl (W&J's Herb Kopf).
In 1924, former Pitt All-American Dr. John Bain "Jock" Sutherland took over for Warner as coach of the Pitt Panthers, an event that was soon followed by the opening of university's Pitt Stadium. Sutherland was described as "a national hero" in a Saturday Evening Post article, and was perhaps the most highly admired and influential coach in the history of the university. During his 15-year tenure at the university, the longest of any football coach at Pitt, he compiled a record of 111-20-12 which included 79 shutouts. Sutherland players received 24 first-team All-American selections and his teams were named Eastern football champions seven times: 1925, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1934, 1936, and 1937. During this time, Pitt appeared in four Rose Bowl games (1928, 1930, 1933, and 1937) and turned down a bid for the 1938 Rose Bowl. Sutherland's teams were named "National Champions" by various selectors for nine different seasons including 1925, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1938.College Football Data Warehouse: Pittsburgh All National Championships: Pittsburgh Total National Championships, accessdate=2009-04-08 Of these, the University of Pittsburgh officially recognizes five of those years as national championship seasons: 1929, 1931, 1934, 1936, and 1937.