Posted on 01/31/2006 3:03:21 AM PST by beyond the sea
DETROIT (AP) -- Steelers fans longing for their prayers to be answered this Sunday have an ally with some experience -- Cardinal Adam Maida, the archbishop of Detroit.
Maida, who spent the first 54 years of his life in and around Pittsburgh and is a Steelers season ticket holder, made no secret of his loyalties Monday as the Steelers arrived in Detroit.
"Am I a fan? Yes," Maida said at a news conference, where he was surrounded by Steelers memorabilia, including a "terrible towel" and a signed helmet given to him by former coach Chuck Noll. "I went to all the Steelers games I could, and I always arranged my schedule even as a priest so that I could go to those Sunday games."
The team's late owner, Art Rooney, attended mass almost daily at the church where Maida was in residence in the 1960s, the archbishop said. On Saturday nights, Rooney would drop off hundreds of tickets to be distributed among the priests and nuns to help fill what was often an empty stadium. The Steelers weren't at their best in those days, said Maida, 75. "It reminds me of what the Lions are going through now."
Wanting to support Rooney, Maida bought three season tickets, which he still holds to this day. His nephews currently make the most use of them.
Among the historic Steelers moments that Maida has witnessed is 1972's "Immaculate Reception," ......
Many fans had already left the stadium by the time the famous play was made. "I wouldn't leave," Maida recalled. "My brother says, `It's time to go, let's beat the traffic.' I said, `It's not over till it's over."'
He added: "There must have been some divine intervention."
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
Mr. Rooney, Steeler.............. ping
I hope his prayers are answered!
Oh yes..........
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/sports/nationalsports/s_347621.html
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The Rooney family, which owns the Steelers, has a decades-old tradition of inviting a priest to say mass at the team hotel.
"We thought it would be important to bring in the spiritual aspect of things," said Steelers chairman Dan Rooney. "We think that's a good thing for young men to do. They seem to appreciate it. From this standpoint, the idea is that you're going into battle, so to speak, and you're asking God mainly to protect you from injury and things like that."
Rooney remembers that his father, Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr., would sometimes sit next to an Episcopalian minister named Dean Moore during games.
"And the Giants always had a Franciscan who would sit on their bench," Rooney said. "I think we beat them one time, 63-7, and my father took (Moore) down and said to (Giants owner) Wellington Mara, 'You've been dealing with those Franciscans for all this time? I found the secret. I got Dean Moore, Episcopalian.' "
*****
LOL
http://www.iup.edu/publications/iupmag/backissues/Fall00/lifestylesf00.html
Art for Art's sake: President Lawrence K. Pettit, center, accepts a commemorative print from Chuck Klausing, right, who made the presentation on behalf of the Rooney family. Athletic Director Frank Condino is at left. The baseball-card-like painting by famous sports artist Merv Corning, depicts IUP alumnus Art Rooney, who would have been a hundred in January, and his brother, Dan, in their Wheeling Stogies baseball uniforms in 1925. Dan was later ordained a Franciscan priest, and his name was changed to Silas. Art went on to own the Pittsburgh Steelers and to carve for himself and his family central roles in Pittsburgh sports history. Art and Dan finished second and third, respectively, in the Middle Atlantic League batting race in 1925.
We're due ........ it's been a long time for that fifth.
It never hurts to have God on your side.
Is the Boy Scout function late in the day?
It never hurts, but here's guessing God is not really taking sides in this matter.
;-)
But ...........
Is God a Steeler fan?
I had to work the day of the Immaculate Reception at the Clariton Coke Works, U.S. Steel. I was in the locker room changing to go home and we were listening to the game on a radio someone had. We were pretty bummed out, thinking it was over. Then, with seconds left, there went Franco. The locker room went wild! I'll never forget that day.
That's great.
I had already turned the radio off that day. Damn was I pleasantly surprised later when I found out what had happened.
****
Back in that great year 1960, I was running around in a junior high school soccer game with a little black transistor radio up to my ear as Mazeroski hit THE homerun to kill the mighty Yankees. At least I didn't miss that one.
;-)
I was in fifth grade for that World Series game, Pirates Vs. Yankees. We were all sitting there getting updates from the 6th grade class next door to us. It wasn't looking good for the Pirates. All of a sudden a great noise erupted next door. Desks were being overturned and kids were whooping and hollering. Mazeroski had just hit the game winning home run in the 9th inning. Another day I'll never forget.
I was in the U.S. Steel locker room when I heard Roberto Clemente had been killed in a plane crash. Same locker room I was in for the Immaculated Reception.
Some things you never forget.
It use to work for the Irish maybe, it'll work for the Steelers?
What a class act.
I was staying with my grandmother that winter when Roberto died.
I had been out all night, had just pulled up to the curb in front of her house at around 6:30 a.m., I was ready to turn off the radio when I heard that terrible news of the plane going down. I will never forget that too.
*****
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/sports/clemente.htm
Mr. Clemente was the leader of Puerto Rican efforts to aid the Nicaraguan victims and was aboard the plane because he suspected that relief supplies were falling into the hands of profiteers.
The four-engined DC-7 piston-powered plane crashed moments after takeoff from San Juan International Airport at 9:22 P.M. The plane, carrying a crew of three and one other passenger, came down in heavy seas a mile and a half from shore.
Coast Guard planes circled the area trying to locate the plane by the light of flares. The wreckage was not found until 5 P.M. today in about 100 feet of water. There was no sign of survivors. Airport officials said the plane crashed after making a normal left bank while climbing after the takeoff. It could not be learned if the pilot, identified as Jerry Hill, radioed that he was in difficulty.
Cristobal Colon, a friend of Mr. Clemente who was working on the committee to raise funds and collect clothing for the earthquake victims, said he had driven Mr. Clemente and his wife, Vera, to the airport. Mrs. Clemente did not board the plane.
Mrs. Clemente said she was concerned that the plane seemed old and overloaded, but her husband assured her that everything would be all right. When the pilot did not show up until late, she said he told her, "If there is one more delay, we'll leave this for tomorrow."
Mr. Colon said Mr. Clemente had insisted on going with the flight to make certain that the supplies got into the hands of the people who needed them. "He had received reports that some of the food and clothing he had sent earlier had fallen into the hands of profiteers," said Mr. Colon. Mr. Clemente had been asked to take part in the collection of funds by Luis Vigoraux, a television producer.
"He did not just lend his name to the fund-raising activities the way some famous personalities do," said Mr. Vigoraux. "He took over the entire thing, arranging for collection points, publicity and the transportation to Nicaragua."
Mr. Clemente's relief organization had collected $150,000 in cash and tons of clothing and foodstuffs. More money and clothing are still being donated. "We sent a ship loaded with supplies during the week," said a member of the earthquake relief committee. "One of the reasons Roberto went on the plane was to get there before the ship arrived to see the supplies were distributed properly."
LOL ............. unacceptable.
Here is another piece on this:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/SPORTS0106/601310399/1126/rss14
Blessed be the Steelers, cardinal says
(snips) – Maida, who was friends with the late owner of the team, Art Rooney Sr., is an example of the Steelers' close relationship with Catholics. The team's training camp has even been at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., since 1966. And the team's Catholic following is evident in one of its largest fan clubs -- the Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Club of Baltimore, which has more than 3,300 members.
Essex, Md., resident Jack Staley, president of one of its chapters, says at least half of the club is Catholic and compares its appeal to that of the University of Notre Dame. "It's a religion to us," he said. Staley, 45, lived in the Pittsburgh area as a boy and remembers people making it a priority to go to Mass before the games. "I don't think (the team and its ownership) push the Catholic faith on you. We just all happen to be (Catholic)."
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In Detroit, when the Communications Office of the archdiocese issued a news release Friday saying Maida was officially "neutral" about the Super Bowl, Maida roared with laughter. "I'm going to get off this neutral thing: I'm rooting for the Steelers!" Maida said. Inundated with media requests for the cardinal's views on the Big Game, the archdiocese held a news conference so reporters from Metro Detroit and Pittsburgh could attend.
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