Pirates

Black and gold followed for the same reason, matching both the diamond team and the city's flag.

The football Pirates took the field in 1933 and never found their footing. McNally's case was the odd one: he coached the team while still playing for it.

One name from those rosters outgrew the sport entirely. Byron "Whizzer" White arrived in 1938, led the league in rushing that season, then went on to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.

By 1940 Rooney had seen enough. He renamed the club the Steelers, a nod to the furnaces that ran the city, and ran a contest to help pick it, with Arnold Goldberg and Margaret O'Donnell among those credited with the suggestion. Under the Pirates name, across all those seasons at Forbes Field, the club never won a championship or a division title.