FROM START TO FINISH
Football history flooded Three Rivers, spawning a wave of trivia
It was a run of the mill result against a run of the mill team at the end of a run of the mill season, but it was anything but a run of the mill game 20 years ago. To hear Richard Huntley on the other end of the phone, you’d think it happened yesterday.
He’s even quick to correct the designation that he’ll always be the man who scored the final touchdown at Three Rivers Stadium.
“I scored the last two touchdowns at Three Rivers!” Huntley said, beaming. “People don’t realize
that. That should be a trivia question: Who scored the first touchdown and who scored the last touchdown at Three Rivers?”
The first was Jerry LeVias, a 22-yard catch from Charley Johnson, but given that they were Houston Oilers, that’s not very exciting. The first Steeler to score there isn’t much more memorable. Wide receiver Ron Shanklin’s 15-yard reception in garbage
time to narrowly avoid a shutout didn’t even come from the right Terry; it was backup quarterback Terry Hanratty who did the honors.
No, it’s a lot more fun to relive Huntley’s distinct place in history. Because while the stadium opened to football with a thud, it closed with a bang.
“Man, it’s 95 degrees in Charlotte, and I’m getting cold chills when you say that,” said Huntley, soon to be 48 and “doing awesome; I’m still alive!”
When he was 28, Huntley spent a rainy December afternoon rushing for 56 yards and two Steelers touchdowns in a 24-3 rout against Washington. On the last day of football in that building, the Steelers improved from a .500 team to 8-7, but their season would go nowhere. And yet, what a magical day it was, 58,183 on hand to say goodbye, all of whom would be rewarded with a fitting result based on the 30-year body of work within those walls.
While Huntley gets to be the trivia answer, it was another Steeler who should get credit for authoring the biggest play on the final day. Hank Poteat, a reserve cornerback who was a rookie third-round pick out of Pitt, did his best work that year as a punt returner. He saved his best work and first NFL touchdown for a time when the Steelers needed a spark to break open a 3-3 game, providing a little excitement in the dreary rain.
“Until this day, when people think of me as a Steeler, that’s what they connect me to, that last game,” Poteat said. “So, I’ll never forget, because people haven’t forgotten about it.”
Poteat’s stopping, starting, cutting, weaving 53-yard return became the longest on a punt at Three Rivers, with almost no time to spare. One thing Poteat got to do two years in a row was close down a beloved venue in style.
A year earlier, he was a star for the Panthers when they upset Notre Dame, 37-27, in the finale at Pitt Stadium. The closing of that home meant the Panthers would have to take up full-time residency at Three Rivers and wouldn’t you know? Pitt managed to put a bow on college football there the right way, too, with a 38-28 win against rival West Virginia in a Backyard Brawl that took place at the neighbor’s house.
“That was obviously exciting — even more than closing down the stadium — for us was the rivalry with West Virginia,” said Jeff McCurley, starting center that year for Pitt and one of 10 players honored on senior day. “They got us pretty good the previous couple years. That was great to go out there and be able to get them back and exact some revenge.”
Another senior who walked with McCurley was
Peabody High School’s Kevan Barlow, who offered up 274 rushing yards and four touchdowns to the Pittsburgh football gods in the last college game at Three Rivers.
There weren’t many college games over the course of 30 years, but they often turned out well for the local team. Pitt was 7-4 there, mostly thanks to a 5-1 mark while playing its entire 2000 season away from Oakland. But the North Shore was the site of some fine moments in program history, from a 24-7 “road” victory against Penn State in the penultimate game of Pitt’s 1976 national championship run to another win against the instate rival in 2000, a 12-0 shutout that for 16 years stood as bragging rights until the two schools finally renewed their series.
“It’s cool to look back at some of the highlights at Three Rivers Stadium and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we did win there,’ ” said McCurley, a Mohawk High School graduate who was particularly fond of the Penn State game.
“That game felt like a Steelers game — a Steelers playoff game, really. You had a packed crowd, an intense atmosphere, and that was awesome.”
There would be no Steelers playoff games in 2000, but that team finished strong to go 9-7 and set the stage for a 13-3 record and AFC championship appearance a year later in the shiny new confines of Heinz Field. One person who wasn’t around to see it was Huntley, whose final time suiting up in Pittsburgh was Dec. 16, 2000.
Both he and Poteat had ancillary motivations to perform that day. Huntley was trying to prove himself worthy of a spot behind Jerome Bettis in the backfield beyond that season. Poteat had his father in the stands, plus looked forward to playing against one of his childhood idols, Washington cornerback Deion Sanders.
But the two of them still have vivid memories of seeing a host of Steelers legends lining the field for one last time before their longtime sanctuary came crashing down. Huntley was a pro himself but could hardly contain his excitement seeing the likes of Rocky Bleier, Franco Harris and Joe Greene. Occasionally, he’ll sit in his “man cave” in Charlotte and watch footage from that season on DVD, and he always enjoys the ending.
“That’s one of those games you just let go and have fun. You don’t worry about what’s going to happen, what the result’s going to be. You just play, and that’s what I did,” Huntley said
“That was fun, man. There was nothing like playing in Pittsburgh. Nothing like it.”