Pittsburgh athletes reflect on transition from Three Rivers Stadium to PNC Park, Acrisure Stadium

PITTSBURGH — We continue our look at how the north shore has transformed over the last 25 years.

It’s no secret; Pittsburghers are nostalgic and don’t like change.

Saying goodbye to Three Rivers Stadium was hard. The last game played there was in December of 2000.

Many of the athletes who made the transition, including Pittsburgh’s own John Wehner, say it was easier than they thought.

Few cities would turn a stadium implosion into appointment viewing, but Pittsburgh did almost 25 years ago - when Three Rivers Stadium came down on a cold February morning.

Fans weren’t the only ones who struggled to let go.

“Three Rivers was so great of a home-field advantage. I mean, it was loud and it just had an energy and a presence about it,” said former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis.

It was an emotional goodbye for those who made history inside its walls, and few felt it more than former Pirate John Wehner.

“I didn’t hit many home runs. I joked about it before the game with Greg Brown and Kevin Young. Actually, it’s like, wouldn’t that be something if I hit the last home run at Three Rivers?” Wehner said.

It was a moment manifested. At the bottom of the fifth on October 1, 2000. The Pirates were hosting the Cubs in the final game at Three Rivers Stadium. The Carrick native hit the last home run in Three Rivers history.

“All I could think about was the slowdown. I wanted to take it in.I wanted to last as long as I possibly could. I couldn’t keep from tearing up when I got back out to the to the field, the third base, you know, the fans reaction…When I jogged back out there, and, you know, there’s tears in my eyes, and it was just…it was because of the reaction,” Wehner said.

A small number of athletes lived through the last days of Three Rivers and were also among the first to step into the North Shore’s future.

In 2001, PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium, Heinz Field at the time, made big first impressions.

“In this stadium, you got a chance to see a little bit of the character of the city, which made it really impressive,” Bettis recalled.

“I sat in that dugout, and I just looked over at the skyline and…I couldn’t take my eyes off of downtown Pittsburgh,” Wehner said about PNC Park.

Former Pitt Panther Lousaka Polite remembers when sharing a stadium with an NFL team was only a recruiting pitch.

“I remember being on my recruiting visit and kind of being told about the vision and what to expect in a couple years, and then to see it, you know, come to fruition, it was super cool,” Polite said.

Though Heinz Field hosted an NSYNC concert and a Steelers preseason game in the summer of 2001, it was the Panthers that played the first official game there.

A 31-0 win over East Tennessee State on September 1st.

“The students were actually rocking, and it was fun, and it was an exciting atmosphere, and then to come out there with a big win. I mean, that’s how you really want to kick off such a monumental, grand opening like that,” former Pitt Panther Shawn Robinson said.

It is a moment that still resonates.

“It’s super cool to just, you know, know that you were a part of something new that we, you know, our recruiting class came in off of a two or nine season, and we felt like, ‘Hey, that doesn’t matter. We feel like we can be a part of history. We can be a part of this movement.’ And yeah, we were right,” Polite said.

As PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium continue to shape the next generation of historic moments for these athletes, the North Shore remains a bridge between where Pittsburgh has been and where it’s going.

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