Rooney: A Sporting Life

Rooney: A Sporting Life

Rooney: A Sporting Life

Rooney: A Sporting Life

Hardcover

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Overview

Born to an Irish Catholic working-class family on the Northside of Pittsburgh, Art Rooney (1901-88) dabbled in semipro baseball and boxing before discovering that his real talent lay not in playing sports but in promoting them. Though he was at the center of boxing, baseball, and racing in Pittsburgh and beyond, Rooney is best remembered for his contribution to the NFL, in particular to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team he founded in 1933.

As Rooney led the team in the early years, he came to be known as football's greatest loser; his influence, however, was instrumental in making the NFL the best-run league in American pro sports. The authors show how Rooney saw professional football--and the Steelers--through the Depression, World War II, the ascension of TV, and the development of the NFL. The book also follows him through the Steelers' dynasty years under Rooney's sons, with four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s alone.

The first authoritative look at one of the most iconic figures in the history of the NFL, this book is both a critical chapter in the story of football in America and a thoroughly engaging in-depth introduction to a character unlike any other in the annals of American sports.

Rob Ruck is a senior lecturer of history at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of The Tropic of Baseball, available in a Bison Books edition. Maggie Jones Patterson is an associate professor of journalism at Duquesne University and coauthor of Behind the Lines: Case Studies in Investigative Reporting. Michael P. Weber (1936–2001) is the author of Don’t Call Me Boss: David L. Lawrence, Pittsburgh’s Renaissance Mayor.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803222830
Publisher: Nebraska
Publication date: 04/01/2010
Pages: 641
Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author


Rob Ruck is a senior lecturer of history at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of The Tropic of Baseball, available in a Bison Books edition. Maggie Jones Patterson is an associate professor of journalism at Duquesne University and coauthor of Behind the Lines: Case Studies in Investigative Reporting. Michael P. Weber (1936–2001) is the author of Don’t Call Me Boss: David L. Lawrence, Pittsburgh’s Renaissance Mayor.

Table of Contents




Contents

List of Illustrations   000

Introduction      000

Arthur J. Rooney’s Family Tree      000

1. Coming to Pittsburgh 000

2. The Young Athlete: The Northside 000

3. On Life's Learning Fields: 192228  000

4. Dreams, Depression, and Commitment: 192933     000

5. Pittsburgh Joins the nfl: 193336      000

6. Rooney's Ride: 1937  000

7. Between the Races and the Fights: 193738 000

8. Returning to the Ring: 193941      000

9. Season of Reckoning: 194041  000

10. The World at War: 194145    000

11. The Sutherland Years: 194647      000

12. Shamrock Farm 000

13. Same Old Steelers: 194856   000

14. Buddy, Bobby, and Bert: 195759    000

15. Renaissance for Pittsburgh, Not the Steelers: 196064      000

16. Not the Same Old Steelers--Worse: 196568      000

17. Changing History: 197071    000

18. 1972    000

19. Football's Promised Land: 197374  000

20. Super Redux: 1975   000

21. City of Champions: 197679   000

22. The Fourth Quarter: 198088  000

Notes 000

Bibliography      000

Index       000

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