Leather & Blood:
“You just go and lay your hands on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and I
think you are finally gonna understand”
Circa 1981 Charlie Daniels-In America
"Saints preserve us. What do they feed you Irishmen in
Pittsburgh?” asked the little Irishman of John Wayne in
the 1952 Republic Pictures classic The Quiet Man.
“Steel my friend! Steel and pig iron furnaces so hot a man
forgets his fear of hell and when you’re hard enough and tough
enough, other things, other things,” replied Sean Thorton the
Irish heavyweight boxer from Pittsburgh, Pa.
Just why had Western Pa. and Pittsburgh, Pa. become a
breeding ground for “World Champions” and contenders? Was
it the black and smoggy air from the steel mills that filled the sky
that somehow made you strong? Was it the water that no doubt
contained soot, chemical and sediments from the coke ovens and
furnaces poured into the rivers?
Imagine a time in the 1920’s through the 1940’s.
Imagine Pittsburgh, Pa. Her streets filled with immigrants fleeing
from starvation and oppression from a hundred countries like
Germany, Italy, Ireland and Poland. These strong willed people
had the guts to get onto a boat headed to a strange and foreign
land with only the hope of a better life for their children’s
children and the iron willed constitution to make it happen.
This was the heritage, the blood line of Conn, Zivic and the
Yarosz bothers. The weak had been weeded out and only the
strong could survive in industrial America. The great industrialist
himself Andrew Carnegie was the son of a Scottish family that
was as poor as church mice. By the time the young boy Carnegie
was done he would be the richest man ever to live. He was a
Pittsburgher.
“Stay in the house or go outside and fight,” said Fritizie Zivic
of his boyhood in “Irish Town” in Lawrenceville, Pa. The streets
were tough and you had to be tough to survive them.
And finally, during these trying times two great variables made
a man ready for life inside the ring. The Great Depression was
on and sometimes the only work a guy could get was getting his
nose broken in a prize fight.
Then there was the work that made Pittsburgh and its men
who they were. Steel and Coal. “Steel and pig iron furnaces so
hot a man forgets his fear of hell,” said John Wayne. Life inside
the mills and mines was rough. Fourteen hour days beneath the
ground mining out coal would fill your lungs with back coal dust
that would in time kill you. Never seeing the light of day or a
breath of fresh air.
Melting steel and iron oar into the skyscrapers of the world;
The Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Building, The San Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge. The steel and iron that fought WWII. All
made with steel and iron forged by the men of Pittsburgh.
You could die in the mill, easy! Fall into a vat of molten lava
and you were gone before you knew what hit you. Heat that
would make hellhounds from Dante’s fifth circle melt would be
your “work station” for ten hours a day.
To enter the ring at Duquesne Gardens or Exhibition Hall
to earn a couple of bucks was nothing compared to life inside
the mills.
Pittsburgh was a town of contenders and champions because
it was in their blood, in their heritage, in their veins.
And still today, Pittsburgh is one of the toughest towns in
America. Take no crap from anyone, anywhere, anytime. And if
you have a problem “Jag-Off” we can take it outside.
