How Pittsburgh contributed to the growth of professional sports in America

PITTSBURGH — We are celebrating Pittsburgh’s contribution to the American story, and you can’t talk about Pittsburgh without talking about sports.

So many American firsts have ties to this region, and Channel 11’s Shelby Cassesse took a look at those tied to the sports world

“People forget that at the turn of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was one of the 10 largest cities in America,” said Anne Madarasz with the Heinz History Center. “It was one of the wealthiest cities in America. So it became really integral to the beginnings and the growth of so many professional sports.

Before the NFL became a multi-billion-dollar business, one of its first defining moments happened here.

In 1892, Pudge Heffelfinger received $500 to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association, considered to be the birth of professional football.

Less than 50 years later, Pittsburgh helped shape a young NFL. At a 1935 meeting inside the Fort Pitt Hotel, league owners approved a new way to acquire talent - a draft.

“And from that comes the whole system that’s in use today,” Madarasz said. “You know, last picks first and so on down to try and build a sustainability and provide kind of an economic bedrock for the National Football League.”

Pittsburgh has long been front and center for groundbreaking moments across sports.

The Pirates and the Boston Americans battled in the first World Series in 1903.

Historic radio station KDKA aired the first live broadcast of a sporting event, a boxing match.

A Pirates/Phillies game was the first baseball game to be broadcast live, and Pitt/WVU was the first college football game.

The Panthers appeared in the first nationally televised college basketball game and were one of the first to wear numbered jerseys.

Sam Sciullo Jr. is a Panthers sports historian and author.

“The fact that KDKA was the first station. It was a perfect marriage at that time because of how Pittsburgh was growing at that time. A lot of immigrants coming into the city. Everything coming together to make that happen,” he said.

But some of Pittsburgh’s most important contributions opened doors. The Chuck Cooper Fieldhouse on Duquesne’s campus symbolizes that, named for the former Duke and first black man drafted to the NBA.

“I just wonder mentally how tough that was,” Chuck Cooper III said. “When you talk about courage, they really had to have a lot of courage to blaze that trail.”

And Cooper is far from the only example.

“he had to stand up against a world, a country of prejudice and bigotry but took it all in stride,” Sciullo said.

Pitt’s Bobby Grier helped change college football history. He desegregated the Sugar Bowl in 1956.

Despite intense outside pushback, Grier had the support of his teammates and even players on opposing Georgia Tech.

“Oh yes, I’m very proud of what I did,” Grier told Channel 11 in an interview before his death in 2024.

Pittsburgh was also the only city in America to have two teams in the Negro Baseball League. The families of players like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige keep their memories alive today.

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