February 2, 2023 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Jim O'Brien describes Pittsburgh Steelers' founding owner Art Rooney, Sr. as "the grandfather he needed." Rooney taught O'Brien the importance of always attending the funeral, whether of a friend or an acquaintance. Jim tells the incredible story of what Art Rooney, Sr. did for a man he barely even know while they were both in the middle of deep grief.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Oh next, we bring you Jim O'Brien, a Pittsburgh native,
a sports journalist and the author of the Pittsburgh Proud
(00:33):
series of books. Today, Jim brings us a story about
Steeler's legend, the chief, the founding owner of the franchise,
Art Rooney Senior. I'd like to tell you a story
about my favorite person in all of pro sports. He's
(00:55):
like the grandfather that I never had. My grandparents were
all gone by the time I was a little boy,
so I guess I needed a grandpap, and Art Rooney
filled the bill. He was the nicest guy that I
ever met in the sports world. I met him when
(01:20):
I was a teenager and I went out to see
the Steelers practice one day at the fair Grounds in
the South Park area of Pittsburgh. The boy was that
a dump and they had horses out there during the week,
and sometimes the players had to watch where they stepped
on the grass. But somehow the Steelers back in the
(01:42):
fifties managed to practice there and Art Rooney was normally
on the sideline. I met him one day on the
sideline and talked to him, and he told me who
some of his favorite players were, some of his favorite
sports writers, and just to show what kind of a
man he was. The next day, he sends me a
(02:05):
postcard and he apologizes for having the temerity to tell
me who his favorite sports writers were. Now, I was
a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. I was nineteen
years old, and Art Rooney's apologizing to me. You know,
I was the sports editor of the student newspaper and
(02:26):
he's apologizing to me. But that's what a humble man
he was. And Art Rooney is responsible for the reason
that I go to so many funerals today. He says,
you can't miss a funeral of a friend or an acquaintance.
(02:47):
You've got to show up. And if you never hear
another story about Art Rooney, this one should suffice to
tell you exactly what a wonderful man he wants. I
went to the funeral when his wife, Kathleen died. I
(03:10):
was covering the Pittsburgh stories at the time for the
Pittsburgh Press, and she had died while we were in Seattle,
and a couple of days later they had a funeral
at what they called the Rooney Church, which was Saint
Peter's on the north side of Pittsburgh. The reason they
call it the Rooney Church was for twofold one is
(03:35):
mister Rooney was always seated in one of the first
pews in that church on a daily basis. And secondly,
no one in the community gave more money to Saint
Peter's than did Art Rooney. So his wife, Kathleen dies
(03:57):
and the funeral was held at Devlin's Funeral Home, also
on the north side of Pittsburgh, and just about everybody
in Pittsburgh showed up for the funeral, and just about
every priest when they had to mass at St. Peter's,
just about every priest showed up for the funeral. George Young,
(04:21):
a good friend of the Rooneys and at the time
the general manager of the New York Giants, said that
nobody in Pittsburgh, no Catholic, should be dying at that
particular time because there wouldn't be any priest to offer
the last rights. So a friend of mine, Dan Lackner,
(04:46):
who owned a paper company in Pittsburgh and of course
had the Steelers account. He was a good Catholic and
he had worked for the Steelers when he was a
teenager at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, a school
well known for later producing the likes of Danny Marino,
(05:06):
who went on to become an All America quarterback at
the University of Pittsburgh and then an All Pro quarterback
for the Miami Dolphins. So Art Rooney's at the door
greeting all of his friends and acquaintances as they come
through the front door of Devlin's funeral home and offer
their condolences for the death of Kathleen, and Art Rooney
(05:30):
was almost dismissing most of their comments because they were
usually the same. And my friend Dan Lachner showed up,
and Dan was getting in line, getting ready to talk
to mister Rooney, when all of a sudden, somebody to
his left went hey, Dan, Dan, and Dan looked over
(05:57):
and it was a fellow named Joe McNamara, been a
classmate of his at Central Catholic. And Dan said, what
are you doing here? And he said, I'm here because
my father died and we have him in the back
room here, he said. I didn't know what to do.
(06:18):
He said, we don't have many people left. It still
knew my dad, my mom's been gone, but I thought
i'd have him here for at least a day. I
didn't know that Art Rooney's wife was going to be
at the same funeral home. But we're doing the best
we can. And since Dan Lachner had to wait a
while before we could get to see Art Rooney, he said,
(06:40):
come on, I'll go in the back with you to
offer my condolences. And you're listening to author Jim O'Brien,
a sports journalist, a Pittsburgh native, and the author of
Pittsburgh Proud, a series of books about his hometown, telling
the story of the legendary Art Rooney Senior. You can't
(07:03):
miss a funeral, he said, a friend, anyone you know
or care about, you've got to show up when we
come back. More of the story of Art Rooney Senior
is told by the man he considered Art Rooney Senior
his grandfather, the grandfather he never had. Here on Our
American Stories, Lee Habibi here the host of Our American Stories.
(07:32):
Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from
across this great country, stories from our big cities and
small towns. But we truly can't do the show without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love what you here, go
to our American Stories dot com and click the donate button.
Give a little, give a lot. Go to our American
(07:54):
Stories dot com and give. And we're back with our
American Stories and Jim O'Brien's story about the Pittsburgh Steelers
(08:14):
founding owner Art Rooney Senior. We just left off with
Jim's friend Dan Lackner at the funeral of Rooney's wife, Kathleen.
While in line to give Rooney his condolences, Dan ran
into a friend and former classmate whose father was also
being remembered at the funeral home, Joe McNamara. Let's pick
(08:35):
up where we last left off. So he gets in
the back room with his former classmate, Joe McNamara, and
he walks into the room and there's a pop. There's
a little dais there so to speak, a table where
(08:56):
you could sign your name that you had paid your respects.
And he signs his name and he said there were
only about three or four other signatures on the pad,
and he said, there weren't many flowers in that room
at the funeral home. He went back out, and as
(09:17):
he entered the lobby of the funeral home, Art Rooney
spied him, and Art Rooney walks over to him, and
he didn't miss a trick, and he said, hey, Dan,
what are you doing in the back room. Kathleen's over here,
and Dan Lachner said, Ah, an old friend of mine
from Central Catholic High School. His father died. I named
(09:42):
Joe McNamara, same name as his son. And mister Rooney says, well,
come on, let's go back, show me where he is,
and I'll pay my respects to your friend. You got
to remember that Art Rooney was known for going to
or funerals in Pittsburgh than anybody. He just always showed up,
(10:06):
said a prayer, and he had a very comforting effect
on people. I remember when my brother Danny died, I
was editing a newspaper that had a circulation of about
five thousand at best, and mister Rooney and all the
club officials from his Steelers showed up at that funeral
home to pay their respects, and everybody touched in the
room felt like a cardinal or bishop had just blessed them.
(10:32):
So Art Renney's in the back room with his friend
Dan Lackner. He signs Annie, tells the son that he's
sorry that his father had died, and he learns that
his father had lived on Dawson Street in Oakland, not
far from Forbes Field or Pitts Stadium, and he had
(10:56):
died at the VA Hospital in Oakland. It was very
familiar to Art Rooney because in addition to going to
so many funerals, he also paid many visits to friends
that were in hospitals in the community. So he's back
there talking to Joe McNamara. You'd have thought he was
the mayor of Pittsburgh, and mister Rooney remembered that his
(11:18):
dad had been a city fireman. He always had a
soft spot in his heart for them. So now he
goes back out in the lobby and lo and behold,
the mayor of Pittsburgh is in the doorway, and that
was Pete Flaherty, good irishman from the North side, and
(11:39):
another North Sider, Tom Forrester, the Allegheny County Commissioner, one
of the top politicians in the city. He was in
the doorway with his friend Pete Flaherty, and they were
ready to offer their condolences to Art Rooney said how
sorry they were that Kathleen had died, and Art Rooney
(12:01):
kind of shrugs it off, and he says to him,
he says, hey, listen, he said, you fellas, don't forget
to go to the back room and pay your respects
to our friend mc namara. And Forster shoots a look
at Flaherty to see if he knows the McNamara that
(12:23):
Art Rooney's referring to. He gets a blank look, and
Forrester says, I don't know any fireman named McNamara, and Rooney,
rather testily it was a little upset with him, says, yes,
you do, the one from Dawson Street in Oakland. So
(12:44):
Forrester and Flaherty look at each other and they sort
of gave a look like they knew what mister Rooney
was talking about. And Forrester says, oh, that one, and
he and Pete Flaarty go back to the other room.
So the rest of the day that weekend, Art Rooney
(13:06):
had everyone pay their respects to our friend McNamara, and
he had them signed a Visitor's Book. It wasn't like
that the rest of the day. And when I came
back the next day, my friend Lachner was still there,
and so was McNamara. He said, we decided to stay
(13:27):
another day. So Dan Lachner said that he went into
the back room to see Joe McNamara's father once again,
and he said, you could hardly see Joe McNamara in
the casket. He said, the room was full of flowers.
It looked like Phipps Conservatory. And young McNamara showed the
(13:55):
Visitor's Book to Dan Lachner, And were so many famous
stealers who had signed a book, such as Joe Green
and Mel Blunt and Terry Bradshaw, Andy Russell, so many
Hall of famers get this. It was signed by Pete Roselle,
(14:20):
the NFL commissioner, and Al Davis, the owner of the
Oakland Raiders. They'd been there too. Everybody who was anybody
in the National Football League had signed the book. That's
just showing you the way that Art Rooney was and
how respected he was in the league, and how he
(14:44):
got all these people who had come to see him
and offer him their condolences, that he got them while
they were there to sign the book for his friend McNamara.
And I'll tell you you know, at the church itself,
(15:05):
funny things happened. Al Davis was seated in a pew
on the aisle in front of Pete Roselle. Well, they
had been at odds with each other because they were
fighting about the things, and the Davis was threatening to
take the NFL to court and so forth for differences
(15:28):
that they had. But even on that day, when the priests,
who was officiating a mass, told everybody to give the
sign of peace to the person in front of them
were behind him, I saw Al Davis shake hands with
Pete Roselle, and somehow I thought that Art Rooney arranged it,
(15:56):
I guess in his own way. But think that, just
think of that Art Rooney's wife has died and Art
Rooney is steering everybody that comes to the funeral home
to a man that he doesn't even know. But he's
from Pittsburgh. He was a fireman and as far as
Art Rooney was concerned, he was the best of friends.
(16:19):
It's all you need to know about Art Rooney. And
a terrific job on the production by Robbie and a
spectacular piece of storytelling by Jim O'Brien about a legend
in the sports business, an owner's owner, literally one of
the men who started the NFL, started it from scratch
(16:43):
when there was nothing there and built it up. And
anyone who's known Art Rooney or his family will say
one thing. He was a Catholic. He was a Catholic
before he was anything. And this is what the Catholic
Church aspires to be. It's what any church or ague
or mosque aspires to be, and that is a servant
(17:03):
to the city and a servant to the people around them.
And there is no better story to tell about Art
Rooney than that story. It shows his heart, It shows
his compassion for others, even at the greatest moment of
his grieving the loss of his wife, who was everywhere
with him in Pittsburgh and always at that church, the
(17:24):
Daily Mass. The story of Art Rooney Senior, a Catholic story,
a story of faith, and so much more Here on
our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Oh next, we bring you Jim O'Brien, a Pittsburgh native,
a sports journalist and the author of the Pittsburgh Proud
(00:33):
series of books. Today, Jim brings us a story about
Steeler's legend, the chief, the founding owner of the franchise,
Art Rooney Senior. I'd like to tell you a story
about my favorite person in all of pro sports. He's
(00:55):
like the grandfather that I never had. My grandparents were
all gone by the time I was a little boy,
so I guess I needed a grandpap, and Art Rooney
filled the bill. He was the nicest guy that I
ever met in the sports world. I met him when
(01:20):
I was a teenager and I went out to see
the Steelers practice one day at the fair Grounds in
the South Park area of Pittsburgh. The boy was that
a dump and they had horses out there during the week,
and sometimes the players had to watch where they stepped
on the grass. But somehow the Steelers back in the
(01:42):
fifties managed to practice there and Art Rooney was normally
on the sideline. I met him one day on the
sideline and talked to him, and he told me who
some of his favorite players were, some of his favorite
sports writers, and just to show what kind of a
man he was. The next day, he sends me a
(02:05):
postcard and he apologizes for having the temerity to tell
me who his favorite sports writers were. Now, I was
a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. I was nineteen
years old, and Art Rooney's apologizing to me. You know,
I was the sports editor of the student newspaper and
(02:26):
he's apologizing to me. But that's what a humble man
he was. And Art Rooney is responsible for the reason
that I go to so many funerals today. He says,
you can't miss a funeral of a friend or an acquaintance.
(02:47):
You've got to show up. And if you never hear
another story about Art Rooney, this one should suffice to
tell you exactly what a wonderful man he wants. I
went to the funeral when his wife, Kathleen died. I
(03:10):
was covering the Pittsburgh stories at the time for the
Pittsburgh Press, and she had died while we were in Seattle,
and a couple of days later they had a funeral
at what they called the Rooney Church, which was Saint
Peter's on the north side of Pittsburgh. The reason they
call it the Rooney Church was for twofold one is
(03:35):
mister Rooney was always seated in one of the first
pews in that church on a daily basis. And secondly,
no one in the community gave more money to Saint
Peter's than did Art Rooney. So his wife, Kathleen dies
(03:57):
and the funeral was held at Devlin's Funeral Home, also
on the north side of Pittsburgh, and just about everybody
in Pittsburgh showed up for the funeral, and just about
every priest when they had to mass at St. Peter's,
just about every priest showed up for the funeral. George Young,
(04:21):
a good friend of the Rooneys and at the time
the general manager of the New York Giants, said that
nobody in Pittsburgh, no Catholic, should be dying at that
particular time because there wouldn't be any priest to offer
the last rights. So a friend of mine, Dan Lackner,
(04:46):
who owned a paper company in Pittsburgh and of course
had the Steelers account. He was a good Catholic and
he had worked for the Steelers when he was a
teenager at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, a school
well known for later producing the likes of Danny Marino,
(05:06):
who went on to become an All America quarterback at
the University of Pittsburgh and then an All Pro quarterback
for the Miami Dolphins. So Art Rooney's at the door
greeting all of his friends and acquaintances as they come
through the front door of Devlin's funeral home and offer
their condolences for the death of Kathleen, and Art Rooney
(05:30):
was almost dismissing most of their comments because they were
usually the same. And my friend Dan Lachner showed up,
and Dan was getting in line, getting ready to talk
to mister Rooney, when all of a sudden, somebody to
his left went hey, Dan, Dan, and Dan looked over
(05:57):
and it was a fellow named Joe McNamara, been a
classmate of his at Central Catholic. And Dan said, what
are you doing here? And he said, I'm here because
my father died and we have him in the back
room here, he said. I didn't know what to do.
(06:18):
He said, we don't have many people left. It still
knew my dad, my mom's been gone, but I thought
i'd have him here for at least a day. I
didn't know that Art Rooney's wife was going to be
at the same funeral home. But we're doing the best
we can. And since Dan Lachner had to wait a
while before we could get to see Art Rooney, he said,
(06:40):
come on, I'll go in the back with you to
offer my condolences. And you're listening to author Jim O'Brien,
a sports journalist, a Pittsburgh native, and the author of
Pittsburgh Proud, a series of books about his hometown, telling
the story of the legendary Art Rooney Senior. You can't
(07:03):
miss a funeral, he said, a friend, anyone you know
or care about, you've got to show up when we
come back. More of the story of Art Rooney Senior
is told by the man he considered Art Rooney Senior
his grandfather, the grandfather he never had. Here on Our
American Stories, Lee Habibi here the host of Our American Stories.
(07:32):
Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from
across this great country, stories from our big cities and
small towns. But we truly can't do the show without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love what you here, go
to our American Stories dot com and click the donate button.
Give a little, give a lot. Go to our American
(07:54):
Stories dot com and give. And we're back with our
American Stories and Jim O'Brien's story about the Pittsburgh Steelers
(08:14):
founding owner Art Rooney Senior. We just left off with
Jim's friend Dan Lackner at the funeral of Rooney's wife, Kathleen.
While in line to give Rooney his condolences, Dan ran
into a friend and former classmate whose father was also
being remembered at the funeral home, Joe McNamara. Let's pick
(08:35):
up where we last left off. So he gets in
the back room with his former classmate, Joe McNamara, and
he walks into the room and there's a pop. There's
a little dais there so to speak, a table where
(08:56):
you could sign your name that you had paid your respects.
And he signs his name and he said there were
only about three or four other signatures on the pad,
and he said, there weren't many flowers in that room
at the funeral home. He went back out, and as
(09:17):
he entered the lobby of the funeral home, Art Rooney
spied him, and Art Rooney walks over to him, and
he didn't miss a trick, and he said, hey, Dan,
what are you doing in the back room. Kathleen's over here,
and Dan Lachner said, Ah, an old friend of mine
from Central Catholic High School. His father died. I named
(09:42):
Joe McNamara, same name as his son. And mister Rooney says, well,
come on, let's go back, show me where he is,
and I'll pay my respects to your friend. You got
to remember that Art Rooney was known for going to
or funerals in Pittsburgh than anybody. He just always showed up,
(10:06):
said a prayer, and he had a very comforting effect
on people. I remember when my brother Danny died, I
was editing a newspaper that had a circulation of about
five thousand at best, and mister Rooney and all the
club officials from his Steelers showed up at that funeral
home to pay their respects, and everybody touched in the
room felt like a cardinal or bishop had just blessed them.
(10:32):
So Art Renney's in the back room with his friend
Dan Lackner. He signs Annie, tells the son that he's
sorry that his father had died, and he learns that
his father had lived on Dawson Street in Oakland, not
far from Forbes Field or Pitts Stadium, and he had
(10:56):
died at the VA Hospital in Oakland. It was very
familiar to Art Rooney because in addition to going to
so many funerals, he also paid many visits to friends
that were in hospitals in the community. So he's back
there talking to Joe McNamara. You'd have thought he was
the mayor of Pittsburgh, and mister Rooney remembered that his
(11:18):
dad had been a city fireman. He always had a
soft spot in his heart for them. So now he
goes back out in the lobby and lo and behold,
the mayor of Pittsburgh is in the doorway, and that
was Pete Flaherty, good irishman from the North side, and
(11:39):
another North Sider, Tom Forrester, the Allegheny County Commissioner, one
of the top politicians in the city. He was in
the doorway with his friend Pete Flaherty, and they were
ready to offer their condolences to Art Rooney said how
sorry they were that Kathleen had died, and Art Rooney
(12:01):
kind of shrugs it off, and he says to him,
he says, hey, listen, he said, you fellas, don't forget
to go to the back room and pay your respects
to our friend mc namara. And Forster shoots a look
at Flaherty to see if he knows the McNamara that
(12:23):
Art Rooney's referring to. He gets a blank look, and
Forrester says, I don't know any fireman named McNamara, and Rooney,
rather testily it was a little upset with him, says, yes,
you do, the one from Dawson Street in Oakland. So
(12:44):
Forrester and Flaherty look at each other and they sort
of gave a look like they knew what mister Rooney
was talking about. And Forrester says, oh, that one, and
he and Pete Flaarty go back to the other room.
So the rest of the day that weekend, Art Rooney
(13:06):
had everyone pay their respects to our friend McNamara, and
he had them signed a Visitor's Book. It wasn't like
that the rest of the day. And when I came
back the next day, my friend Lachner was still there,
and so was McNamara. He said, we decided to stay
(13:27):
another day. So Dan Lachner said that he went into
the back room to see Joe McNamara's father once again,
and he said, you could hardly see Joe McNamara in
the casket. He said, the room was full of flowers.
It looked like Phipps Conservatory. And young McNamara showed the
(13:55):
Visitor's Book to Dan Lachner, And were so many famous
stealers who had signed a book, such as Joe Green
and Mel Blunt and Terry Bradshaw, Andy Russell, so many
Hall of famers get this. It was signed by Pete Roselle,
(14:20):
the NFL commissioner, and Al Davis, the owner of the
Oakland Raiders. They'd been there too. Everybody who was anybody
in the National Football League had signed the book. That's
just showing you the way that Art Rooney was and
how respected he was in the league, and how he
(14:44):
got all these people who had come to see him
and offer him their condolences, that he got them while
they were there to sign the book for his friend McNamara.
And I'll tell you you know, at the church itself,
(15:05):
funny things happened. Al Davis was seated in a pew
on the aisle in front of Pete Roselle. Well, they
had been at odds with each other because they were
fighting about the things, and the Davis was threatening to
take the NFL to court and so forth for differences
(15:28):
that they had. But even on that day, when the priests,
who was officiating a mass, told everybody to give the
sign of peace to the person in front of them
were behind him, I saw Al Davis shake hands with
Pete Roselle, and somehow I thought that Art Rooney arranged it,
(15:56):
I guess in his own way. But think that, just
think of that Art Rooney's wife has died and Art
Rooney is steering everybody that comes to the funeral home
to a man that he doesn't even know. But he's
from Pittsburgh. He was a fireman and as far as
Art Rooney was concerned, he was the best of friends.
(16:19):
It's all you need to know about Art Rooney. And
a terrific job on the production by Robbie and a
spectacular piece of storytelling by Jim O'Brien about a legend
in the sports business, an owner's owner, literally one of
the men who started the NFL, started it from scratch
(16:43):
when there was nothing there and built it up. And
anyone who's known Art Rooney or his family will say
one thing. He was a Catholic. He was a Catholic
before he was anything. And this is what the Catholic
Church aspires to be. It's what any church or ague
or mosque aspires to be, and that is a servant
(17:03):
to the city and a servant to the people around them.
And there is no better story to tell about Art
Rooney than that story. It shows his heart, It shows
his compassion for others, even at the greatest moment of
his grieving the loss of his wife, who was everywhere
with him in Pittsburgh and always at that church, the
(17:24):
Daily Mass. The story of Art Rooney Senior, a Catholic story,
a story of faith, and so much more Here on
our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!