Dan Rooney was a North Sider to his core
As successful as he was in professional football, Dan Rooney always knew there was much more to think and care about, and his passion for the North Side was legendary.
He and his wife, Patricia, moved back to his stately boyhood home on North Lincoln Avenue in 1993, after their nine children were grown and gone from their house in Mt. Lebanon. Back then, such a move wasn’t trendy; his brothers told him, “It’s pretty bad when a new McDonald’s improves the standard of living in the old neighborhood.’’
But he and Patricia had met at St. Peter grade school a half-mile away and were married in 1952 at St. Peter Church. If they walked home from Mass on a summer day, they might pass Gus Kalaris’ iceball-popcorn-and-peanut stand, “On the North Side Since Your Dad Was a Lad,’’ which they’d frequented as children. So their return felt as easy as a return to a love seat. At the Christmas parties they’d throw each year, you’d find family and coaches and politicians but also the Rooneys’ new neighbors and North Side friends they’d had since they were children.
I know this because I live in their slice of the North Side, known as Allegheny West. Just a couple of blocks wide and five streets deep, it really should be called “Over By the Community College.’’ That’s what every direction-giver has to say eventually.
In this realm, “Mr. Rooney’’ was called “Dan,’’ and that suited him fine.
Take the Sunday afternoon about 15 years ago when my preschool daughters and their mother were just down the hill at the Carnegie Science Center. While my family was playing there, the Steelers were losing a close one across Allegheny Avenue at Heinz Field.
Walking down the hill to see if I could surprise my girls, I bucked a