Art Rooney

Arthur Joseph Rooney Sr. (January 27, 1901 – August 25, 1988), often referred to as "the Chief", was an American professional football executive. He was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, an American football franchise in the National Football League (NFL), from 1933 until his death. Rooney is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was an Olympic qualifying boxer, and was part or whole owner in several track sport venues and Pittsburgh area pro teams. He was the first president of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1933 to 1974, and the first chairman of the team from 1933 until his death in 1988.

Rooney's great-grandparents, James and Mary Rooney, were Irish Catholics who emigrated from Newry in County Down, Northern Ireland to Canada during the Great Famine in the 1840s. While living in Montreal, the Rooneys had a son, Arthur (who would become Art Rooney's grandfather). James and Mary later moved to Ebbw Vale, Wales, where the iron industry was flourishing, taking their son Arthur, then 21, with them. This Arthur Rooney married Catherine Regan (who was also Irish Catholic), in Wales, and they had a son, Dan. Two years after Dan Rooney was born, the family moved back to Canada and eventually ended up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1884. Along the way the family grew to include nine children of which Dan was the second.

Dan Rooney remained in the Pittsburgh area, and eventually opened a saloon in the Youghiogheny Valley coal town of Coulter, Pennsylvania (or Coultersville). This is where Dan Rooney met and wed Margaret "Maggie" Murray, who was the daughter of a coal miner, and where the couple's first son, Arthur Joseph Rooney, was born. Dan and Maggie would eventually settle their family in Pittsburgh's North Side in 1913, where they bought a three-story building at the corner of Corey Street and General Robinson Street. Dan operated a cafe and saloon out of the first floor with the family living above. The building was located just a block from Exposition Park, which had been home to the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team until 1909.

Rooney had a brother, Silas Rooney, who later entered the priesthood. Silas Rooney eventually became the athletic director for St. Bonaventure University in 1947 and invited the Steelers to play their training camp at the university in the 1950s. Another brother, James P. Rooney, later was elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, winning easily in part because Art had renamed the team after James, who also played on the squad, as a promotional tactic.

Rooney attended St. Peter's Catholic School in Pittsburgh, Duquesne University Prep School, then several semesters at Indiana Normal School before completing a final year at Temple University on an athletic scholarship. He was awarded for his athleticism at Indiana (now the Indiana University of Pennsylvania) by being posthumously inducted into the IUP athletic Hall of Fame in 1997. He spent his time there participating on both the basketball and football teams while also playing centerfielder for the Crimson Hawks baseball team.

After his high school graduation in 1919, he dedicated himself to sports. Initially, Rooney became an accomplished boxer, winning the AAU welterweight belt in 1918 and tried out for the 1920 Olympic Team,

He played minor league baseball for both the Flint, Michigan "Vehicles" and the Wheeling, West Virginia "Stogies". In 1925 he served as Wheeling's player-manager and led the Middle Atlantic League in games, hits, runs, stolen bases and finished second in batting average (his brother Dan Rooney, Wheeling's catcher that year, finished third).

Rooney also played the halfback position for the semi-pro Pittsburgh "Hope Harvey" and "Majestic Radio" clubs, the former of which he later took over and renamed the J.P. Rooneys before purchasing an NFL franchise for $2,500 in 1933 following the repeal of Pennsylvania's blue laws. During this time, Rooney served as the team's general manager, head coach and owner. His team played games at the former Exposition Park on the Northside.