Steelers' Art Rooney Could Have Been A Contender, But He Gave Up Olympic Gold In 1920 And A Promising Career In The Ring

The Pittsburgh Steelers were founded by Art Rooney in 1933 when he paid a $2,500 fee for the team to join the NFL. The Rooney family and Pittsburgh are deeply connected historically. It is hard to imagine what Pittsburgh or the NFL would look like if Rooney had chosen another path in his youth. It almost happened in 1920, 13 years before he became an NFL owner.

The Rooney brothers grew up above their father’s tavern on Pittsburgh’s north side near where Three Rivers stadium would later stand. The boys grew up tough and would fight against touring professional boxers in carnivals for extra money. They were little more than precursors of modern Tough-Man competitions and locals could earn as much as $3 a round. The only issue for the Rooney brothers was getting the house fighter to last more than a round.

Word got out quickly amongst the touring professionals. When you went to Pittsburgh, you needed to look out for Art and Dan, the Rooney brothers. It was not long before the local promotions had a qualifier. They changed the billing to read that they would take on all comers except for the Rooney brothers. Dan Rooney recounted that his father often praised his namesake and uncle as a much better fighter.

“My brother Dan had more knockouts than Jack Dempsey. Most of them were out of the ring,” he recalled his father saying.

The founder of the Steelers had a common man’s touch and often downplayed his achievements; the boxing ring was no exception. By 1920, he was one of the best welterweight fighters in the country. He was invited to join the 1920 Olympic Team, but after beating Sammy Mosberg, the co-favorite to represent the United States, he declined to participate in the trials. He was worried that semi-pro teams that had paid him to play locally would eventually disqualify him.

Jim Thorpe had been stripped of his Olympic medals just eight years earlier for similar payments, so he allowed Mosberg to represent the country and win Olympic gold. According to the Pittsburgh Press via a story published in the Los Angeles Times in 1988, forfeiting a gold medal might not have sat well with Rooney.

“According to a story in the Pittsburgh Press, Rooney beat Mosberg in the Olympic Trials and then beat him again after the games. Rooney had two pro fights, winning both, and then retired from the ring.”

Rooney could have continued to fight professionally and based on the accounts of his acumen, could have been a serious contender in professional boxing. He might have gone on to be a world champion and who knows where that road might have taken him if he had. Rooney quickly realized that there was more money in promoting fights than participating in them and stepped away from the ring intact.

The Pittsburgh Steelers Were On A Mission In Super Bowl IX To Get Art Rooney His First Championship

The Steelers endured 39 seasons of futility before finally winning a playoff game in 1972. Pittsburgh’s owner waited 42 years for his first World Championship in Super Bowl IX. Rooney’s patience paid off as the club went on to win four titles in six seasons. If Rooney had elected to chase Olympic gold and a welterweight title in his youth, it is possible that the Steelers would not even exist.

Rooney lived until he was 87 years old and passed away on August 25th, 1988. Art Rooney II runs the team for the family in 2023 and is the third generation of family ownership. The Steelers and the New York Giants who are run by the Mara family are the only two original owners left from the founding of the league. The initial investment Rooney made of $2,500 has turned into a multi-billion-dollar asset that defines the city of Pittsburgh and his family’s legacy.