By Janice Lane Palko
Sports fans relish this time of year. In the fall, we have the MLB World Series, NCAA and NFL football are in full swing, and the NHL and NBA launch new seasons. To ignite fans’ excitement, franchises often coin slogans, develop catchphrases, and adopt good luck charms, and in some cases, these rise organically from the fan base.
During the 1966 baseball season, legendary Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince developed the
“green weenie,” which was believed to possess powers that could hex an opposing team. Green plastic rattles that looked like an oversized hot dog were soon created and were adopted by Pirates fans to shake at opponents and jinx them. The colorful Prince is also responsible for another Bucco good luck charm, Babushka Power. For those who don’t know, babushkas are women’s head scarves, common with those of Eastern European roots. In 1974, Prince asked that the women fans attend a certain game with the scarves tied under their chins. Throngs of babushka-clad women came to the game and to spur on the Pirates, the women would whip them off and twirl their babushkas in the air.
Over the years, the Pirates have had many slogans and rallying cries. When the Pirates were in contentions for a World Series title in 1971, they adopted the “Go Like ’60 in ‘71” motto as an encouragement for the team to perform and win the title as they had done 11 years prior. Also, during the 70s when the Pirates lineup was packed with heavy hitters, they were known as “The Lumber Company.” Later the “You Gotta Believe” slogan and “Raise the Jolly Roger” became popular phrases associated with the team.
Pittsburgh has been blessed to have had some of the best, most colorful sportscasters in the world. Not to be outdone by Prince, the late legendary Myron Cope gave Steelers fans the Terrible Towel in 1975. According to Myron in his book Double Yoi “I said, what we need is something that everybody already has, so it doesn’t cost a dime. So I says, We urge people to bring out to the game gold or black towels, then I’ll tell people if you don’t have a yellow, black or gold towel, buy one. And if you don’t want to buy one, dye one. We’ll call this The Terrible Towel.” Nearly 50 years later, the Terrible Towel is still whipping team spirit into a frenzy.
Legendary hockey coach “Badger” Bob Johnson coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to their first Stanley Cup in 1990-91, and ever the optimist, Johnson was known for his catchphrase “It’s a Great Day for Hockey.” Sadly, the Badger passed a way not long after winning the cup, but his phrase was immortalized in 2019 at the Heinz History Center with an exhibit about the Penguins entitled “It’s a Great Day for Hockey.”
As the baseball winds down, and football, and hockey rev up, let’s hope our team’s games are exciting and add to Pittsburgh’s sports lore.
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