The Bread Line Blog: January 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

Steeler Nation Welcomes New Arrivals

By Mike Jones
Chartiers Valley Patch
Jan. 28, 2011

Little Brayden McQuillan was in the world for less than 10 minutes Friday morning when the staff at St. Clair Hospital wrapped him in a gold Terrible Towel and placed a Steelers knit hat on his tiny head.

“They’re born Steelers fans here in Pittsburgh,” said Sharon Johnson, clinical supervisor at the hospital’s Family Birth Center.

The staff at the hospital in Mt. Lebanon wrapped up 10 newborns in the towels Friday in celebration of the Steelers’ run to Super Bowl XLV. Each baby born this week at the hospital will also be wrapped up in the black and gold, a tradition the staff also did in 2008.

First-time dad Alexander Ameredes said his wife, Rachel, gave birth to their son Alexander on Wednesday, two weeks earlier than predicted. The Collier Township man said he thinks his son wanted to make sure he was around for the big game on Feb. 6.

“I was worried about the Super Bowl,” Ameredes said. “I think he was, too."

More Than Just a Yellow Dish Rag

By Mike Jones
Chartiers Valley Patch
Jan. 26, 2011

In the early 1990s when the Penguins were winning Cups and Pirates were still relevant, I tended to follow those teams rather than root for the downtrodden Pittsburgh Steelers.

They had won four Super Bowls a few years before I graced this Earth, but had fallen on tough times in the 1980s.

That all changed when Bill Cowher took the reins in 1992 and rejuvenated the team and catapulted it to a playoff berth against the Buffalo Bills. However, I still didn’t quite grasp what it meant to be a Steelers fan at the tender age of 9.

That is, until my mother handed me a yellow dish rag and told me to start waving it around.

“Are you crazy?” I asked her. “Why would I do that?"

It’s probably the same question people in Baltimore or New York or maybe even Green Bay ask themselves when they see those golden cloths twirling in the stands. But that was just about the time when I began to understand the lore of the Pittsburgh Steelers and The Terrible Towel.