Why are the Pittsburgh Steelers called the Steelers?

PITTSBURGH (WHTM) – The Pittsburgh Steelers were founded in 1933 but were originally called the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Art Rooney was the first owner of the Pittsburgh team when that NFL granted He named him to the team for a fee of $2,500, choosing the Pirates because the baseball team in Pittsburgh was named the Pirates.

Pittsburgh played its home games at Forbes Field (home of the Pittsburgh baseball team) from 1933 to 1963.

From 1933 to 1939, the Pittsburgh Pirates (football team) had five head coaches and suffered many defeats, so Rooney decided that the team needed a change, a name change.

Rooney would conduct a team competition with the help of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Steelers would end up winning the fan vote, creating the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A year later, due to financial setbacks, Rooney sold the Steelers to Boston’s Alexis Thompson.

The Steelers underwent a third name change when Thompson decided to call them the Pittsburgh Iron Men in 1941.

The story takes a turn in April 1941 when former owner Rooney (now the owner of the Philadelphia team) and Thompson swapped teams.

Everything would be swapped except for the uniforms and team colors.

The move meant that the Pittsburgh ownership group would now be listed as the Philadelphia Football Club, Inc.

The Pittsburgh Iron Men or Pittsburgh Eagles would never play a game under those names, as Rooney would rename the team the Steelers.

In 1943, during World War II, the Eagles and Steelers had difficulty fielding teams, so they merged teams instead.

This created a new team called the Steagles, which played some games in Pittsburgh and some in Philadelphia and the uniforms were green

This would only remain this way for the 1943 season and they would go 5-4-1.

But the next season, Pittsburgh had to align with another team, but this time it would be the Chicago Cardinals, creating the Card Pitt.

The team struggled over the course of the year, going 0-10, and became known as the “Carpits.”

After the 1945 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers would never reunite or change their name.

The Steeler nickname is also a tribute to the heritage of the city’s “Still” steelworks.

In the Steelers’ 91-year history, they have an overall record of 666-574-22, a playoff record of 36-27 and won six Super Bowls.