November 25, 2024 • 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 funerals, including the story of Rooney attending a funeral for a man he barely knew.
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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.
Up 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, sor.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'd like to tell you a story about my favorite
person in all of pro sports. He's 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.
(01:13):
He was the nicest guy that I ever met in
the sports world. I met him when I was a
teenager and I went out to see the Steelers practice
one day at the Fairgrounds in the South Park area
of Pittsburgh. Boy was that of dump and they had
(01:33):
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 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,
(01:55):
some of his favorite sports writers, and just to shay
what kind of a man he was. The next day,
he sends me a postcard and he apologizes for having
the temerity to tell me who his favorite sports writers were. Now,
(02:16):
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 he's apologizing to me. But that's what a
humble man he was. And Art Rooney is responsible for
(02:36):
the reason that I go to so many funerals today.
He says, you can't miss a funeral of a friend
or an acquaintance. 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
(02:59):
he was. I went to the funeral when his wife,
Kathleen died. I was covering the Pittsburgh stories at the
time for the Pittsburgh Press, and she had died while
we were in Seattle, and a couple days later they
(03:21):
had a funeral at what they called the Rooney Church,
which was Saint Peter's on the north side of Pittsburgh.
The reason they called it the Rooney Church was for
twofold one is mister Rooney was always seated in one
of the first pews in that church on a daily basis.
(03:43):
And secondly, no one in the community gave more money
to Saint Peter's than did Art Rooney. So his wife,
Kathleen dies and the funeral was held and Devlin's Funeral Home,
also on the north side of Pittsburgh, and just about
(04:06):
everybody in Pittsburgh showed up for the funeral, and just
about every priest when they had the Mass at Saint Peter's,
just about every priest showed up for the funeral. George Young,
a good friend of the Rooneys and at the time
the general manager of the New York Giants, said that
(04:28):
nobody in Pittsburgh, no Catholic, should be dying at that
particular time because there wouldn't be any priest to offer
the last rites. So a friend of mine, Dan Lackner,
who owned a paper company in Pittsburgh and of course
(04:49):
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,
who went on to become an All America quarterback at
(05:09):
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 Lackner 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 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. He said,
(06:18):
we don't have many people left that 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 Lackner had to wait a while before we
could get to see Art Rooney, he said, come on,
(06:41):
I'll go in the back with you to offer my condolences.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
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 miss a funeral,
he said, a friend, anyone you know or care about,
(07:07):
you've got to show up when we come back. More
of the story of Art Rooney Senior, as told by
the man who considered Art Rooney Senior his grandfather, the
grandfather he never had here on Our American Stories, Lie
(07:29):
Hibibe here, the host of Our American Stories. 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 hear, go to
Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
(07:52):
give a lot. Go to Alamerican Stories dot com and give.
And we're back with our American Stories and Jim O'Brien's
(08:12):
story about the Pittsburgh Steelers founding owner Art Rooney Sr.
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 up where we last
(08:36):
left off.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So he gets in the back room with his former classmate,
Joe McNamara, and he walks into the room and there's
a pope, there's a little dais there so to speak,
a table where you could sign your name that you
had paid your respects, and he signs his name and
(09:01):
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 he entered the lobby of the
funeral home, Art Rooney spied him, and Art Rooney walks
(09:23):
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 then Lachner said, oh,
an old friend of mine from Central Catholic High School.
His father died, a guy named Joe McNamara, same name
(09:44):
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 were funerals
in Pittsburgh than anybody. He just always showed up, said
(10:07):
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 the Steelers showed up at that funeral home to
pay their respects and everybody he touched in the room,
(10:27):
felt like a cardinal or a bishop had just blessed them.
So Art Runny'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
(10:49):
far from Forbesfield or Pitts Stadium, and he had 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
(11:10):
talking to Joe McNamara. You thought he was the mayor
of Pittsburgh, and mister Rooney remembered that his 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
(11:31):
of Pittsburgh is in the doorway, and that was Pete Flaherty,
good irishman from the North side. And 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
(11:53):
their condolences to Art Rooney said how sorry they were
that Kathleen had died, and Art Rooney 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.
(12:16):
And Forster shoots a look at Flerty to see if
he knows the McNamara that Art Rooney's referring to. He
gets a blank look, and forst says, I don't know
any fireman named McNamara, and Rooney, rather testily, he was
a little upset with him, says, yes, you do, the
(12:40):
one from Dawson Street out in Oakland. So Forrester and
Flerty look at each other and they sort of gave
a look like they knew what mister Rooney was talking about.
And Forest says, oh, that one, and he and Pete
Flerty go back to the other. So the rest of
(13:02):
the day that weekend, Art Rooney had everyone pay their
respects to our friend McNamara, and he had them signed
a Visitor's Book. It went like that the rest of
the day. And when I came back the next day,
my friend Lackner was still there, and so was McNamara.
(13:25):
He said, we decided to stay another day. So Dan
Lackner 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.
(13:52):
And young McNamara showed the Visitor's Book to Dan Lackner,
and there were so many famous Steelers who had signed
the book, such as Joe Green and Mel Blunt and
Terry Bradshaw, Andy Russell, so many Hall of famers get this.
(14:17):
It was signed by Pete Roselle, the NFL commissioner, and
Al Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders. They've 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
(14:41):
in the league, and how he 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
(15:01):
you know, at the church itself, 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,
(15:22):
and the Davis was threatening to take the NFL to
court and so forth for differences 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 or behind him,
I saw Al Davis shake hands with Pete Roselle, And
(15:50):
somehow I thought that Art Rooney arranged it, I guess
in his own way. But think of 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.
(16:13):
He was a fireman and as far as Art Rooney
was concerned, he was the best of friends. That's all
you need to know about Art Rooney.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
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 when there was nothing there and built it up.
And anyone who's known Art Rooney or his family will
(16:49):
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
or mosque aspires to be, and that is a servant
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
(17:13):
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
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.
Up 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, sor.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'd like to tell you a story about my favorite
person in all of pro sports. He's 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.
(01:13):
He was the nicest guy that I ever met in
the sports world. I met him when I was a
teenager and I went out to see the Steelers practice
one day at the Fairgrounds in the South Park area
of Pittsburgh. Boy was that of dump and they had
(01:33):
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 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,
(01:55):
some of his favorite sports writers, and just to shay
what kind of a man he was. The next day,
he sends me a postcard and he apologizes for having
the temerity to tell me who his favorite sports writers were. Now,
(02:16):
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 he's apologizing to me. But that's what a
humble man he was. And Art Rooney is responsible for
(02:36):
the reason that I go to so many funerals today.
He says, you can't miss a funeral of a friend
or an acquaintance. 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
(02:59):
he was. I went to the funeral when his wife,
Kathleen died. I was covering the Pittsburgh stories at the
time for the Pittsburgh Press, and she had died while
we were in Seattle, and a couple days later they
(03:21):
had a funeral at what they called the Rooney Church,
which was Saint Peter's on the north side of Pittsburgh.
The reason they called it the Rooney Church was for
twofold one is mister Rooney was always seated in one
of the first pews in that church on a daily basis.
(03:43):
And secondly, no one in the community gave more money
to Saint Peter's than did Art Rooney. So his wife,
Kathleen dies and the funeral was held and Devlin's Funeral Home,
also on the north side of Pittsburgh, and just about
(04:06):
everybody in Pittsburgh showed up for the funeral, and just
about every priest when they had the Mass at Saint Peter's,
just about every priest showed up for the funeral. George Young,
a good friend of the Rooneys and at the time
the general manager of the New York Giants, said that
(04:28):
nobody in Pittsburgh, no Catholic, should be dying at that
particular time because there wouldn't be any priest to offer
the last rites. So a friend of mine, Dan Lackner,
who owned a paper company in Pittsburgh and of course
(04:49):
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,
who went on to become an All America quarterback at
(05:09):
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 Lackner 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 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. He said,
(06:18):
we don't have many people left that 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 Lackner had to wait a while before we
could get to see Art Rooney, he said, come on,
(06:41):
I'll go in the back with you to offer my condolences.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
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 miss a funeral,
he said, a friend, anyone you know or care about,
(07:07):
you've got to show up when we come back. More
of the story of Art Rooney Senior, as told by
the man who considered Art Rooney Senior his grandfather, the
grandfather he never had here on Our American Stories, Lie
(07:29):
Hibibe here, the host of Our American Stories. 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 hear, go to
Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
(07:52):
give a lot. Go to Alamerican Stories dot com and give.
And we're back with our American Stories and Jim O'Brien's
(08:12):
story about the Pittsburgh Steelers founding owner Art Rooney Sr.
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 up where we last
(08:36):
left off.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So he gets in the back room with his former classmate,
Joe McNamara, and he walks into the room and there's
a pope, there's a little dais there so to speak,
a table where you could sign your name that you
had paid your respects, and he signs his name and
(09:01):
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 he entered the lobby of the
funeral home, Art Rooney spied him, and Art Rooney walks
(09:23):
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 then Lachner said, oh,
an old friend of mine from Central Catholic High School.
His father died, a guy named Joe McNamara, same name
(09:44):
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 were funerals
in Pittsburgh than anybody. He just always showed up, said
(10:07):
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 the Steelers showed up at that funeral home to
pay their respects and everybody he touched in the room,
(10:27):
felt like a cardinal or a bishop had just blessed them.
So Art Runny'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
(10:49):
far from Forbesfield or Pitts Stadium, and he had 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
(11:10):
talking to Joe McNamara. You thought he was the mayor
of Pittsburgh, and mister Rooney remembered that his 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
(11:31):
of Pittsburgh is in the doorway, and that was Pete Flaherty,
good irishman from the North side. And 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
(11:53):
their condolences to Art Rooney said how sorry they were
that Kathleen had died, and Art Rooney 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.
(12:16):
And Forster shoots a look at Flerty to see if
he knows the McNamara that Art Rooney's referring to. He
gets a blank look, and forst says, I don't know
any fireman named McNamara, and Rooney, rather testily, he was
a little upset with him, says, yes, you do, the
(12:40):
one from Dawson Street out in Oakland. So Forrester and
Flerty look at each other and they sort of gave
a look like they knew what mister Rooney was talking about.
And Forest says, oh, that one, and he and Pete
Flerty go back to the other. So the rest of
(13:02):
the day that weekend, Art Rooney had everyone pay their
respects to our friend McNamara, and he had them signed
a Visitor's Book. It went like that the rest of
the day. And when I came back the next day,
my friend Lackner was still there, and so was McNamara.
(13:25):
He said, we decided to stay another day. So Dan
Lackner 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.
(13:52):
And young McNamara showed the Visitor's Book to Dan Lackner,
and there were so many famous Steelers who had signed
the book, such as Joe Green and Mel Blunt and
Terry Bradshaw, Andy Russell, so many Hall of famers get this.
(14:17):
It was signed by Pete Roselle, the NFL commissioner, and
Al Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders. They've 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
(14:41):
in the league, and how he 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
(15:01):
you know, at the church itself, 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,
(15:22):
and the Davis was threatening to take the NFL to
court and so forth for differences 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 or behind him,
I saw Al Davis shake hands with Pete Roselle, And
(15:50):
somehow I thought that Art Rooney arranged it, I guess
in his own way. But think of 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.
(16:13):
He was a fireman and as far as Art Rooney
was concerned, he was the best of friends. That's all
you need to know about Art Rooney.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
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 when there was nothing there and built it up.
And anyone who's known Art Rooney or his family will
(16:49):
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
or mosque aspires to be, and that is a servant
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
(17:13):
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
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
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