Congratulations, Philster, Philly covers more area than Pittsburgh.
Oh, the Pirates and Penguins might leave? Umm…who cares? The city will get over it. Pittsburgh’s love of the Steelers trumps Philly’s fan-dom for all four of their sports teams combined. Having lived most of my life near Philly, I’m amazing at the level of fair weather fans and perennial bandwagon jumpers.
Hundreds of thousands of people across the country who have lived for even small portions of their lives in the Pittsburgh area bleed black and gold. How many Eagles fans are there outside of the tri-state area? Because I’m in Chester County (30 miles outside of Philly) and here it’s 50-50 between Steelers and Eagles fans. Head out towards Lancaster or up the northeast extension of the turnpike and the Philly faithful get scarce very quickly.
This is the truest thing I have ever read. Thank you, LOUNE.
/edit: On second thought, maybe I’ve read truer things. But as someone who lives in Philly and isn’t really into sports, the rabid and evil fandom gets old fast.
It’s funny that the guy should brag about cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. Did you know that a true Philly cheesesteak has Cheez Whiz for the cheese? If you want an actual cheese on your cheesesteak, you have to order it special, and you might get a bit of a dirty look when you do so.
I’ll take a Primanti Brothers capicola and cheese sandwich any day of the week and twice on Sunday over a cheez whiz cheesesteak. Of course, if you want the fries on the side, you have to order it special and you might get a dirty look.
I’m from Cleveland so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but in the interest of accuracy I count Philadelphia’s sports championships as follows:
NBA - 4: 1947, '56, '67 & '83
MLB - 5: 1910, '11, '29, '30 & '80
NFL - 3: '1960, '48 & '49. Four champions if you want to include the Frankfort Yellowjackets of 1926.
NHL- 2: 1975, '74.
The Philadelphia Warriors won 2 NBA titles before moving to California, while the A’s won 4 before moving to KC.
I haven’t counted major college titles, but off the top of my head I recall Villanova beating Georgetown in 1985 and Tony Dorsett’s mid-1970s Pitt Panthers winning college championships.
Also, Pat’s, Jim’s and Geno’s are all overrated. The place to go is Tony Luke’s, and theirs aren’t even as good as the ones I make. People often bandy about “true Philly cheesesteaks” and how they can’t be made outside of Philadelphia, blah blah blah. That’s true if you’re into lousy food. I can’t possibly make a steak as bad as they do in Philadelphia. Why? I don’t have the heart to serve food like that.
Come to Harrisburg. I’ll show you how it’s really done.
Now this is some good eats if you can overcome your initial shock at seeing it for the first time. I prefer corned beef, myself.
Pitt may lay claim to them but they’d get an argument. Notre Dame claims the 1929 championship, Southern Cal claims the 1931 title, both Alabama and Minnesota also claim the 1934 crown, LSU & Minnesota say they won it in 1936, and Cal claims a share with Pitt in 1937. I missed 1915, which Cornell claims to share with Pitt.
My source is Dan Jenkins’ articles “They’re Number One!” and “Ancient History”, published in Jenkins’ book, “You Call it Sports, But I say it’s a Jungle Out There”, (1989), ISBN 0671690213.
I also overlooked the Pittsburgh Pipers’ American Basketball Association championship of 1968. My apologies.
Also, prior to 1964 or so the NIT was still the premier Basketball tournament in college sports. Duquesne University in Pittsburgh won it once. Prior to 1939 the Helms Foundation declared a national collegiate basketball and football champion and Pitt won that twice in basketball. Penn also won it twice and Temple once. La Salle and Temple also won the NIT once prior to 1964.
Pittsburgh also produced three boxing champions Billy Conn, Fritzi Zivic and Paul Spadafora to Joe Frazier for Philadelphia.
Best cheesesteaks I’ve had (and I’ve had them everywhere) are both at the Jersey shore. Dino’s in Margate and the White House in Atlantic City. Best in Philly goes to John’s Roast Pork on Snyder, but they’ve taken a hit since Sarcone’s stop selling them their bread.
You cannae compare Pittsburgh to Philly for boxing, are you serious? Philadelphia is probably one of the most storied boxing cities in the world, let alone Pennsylvania. Bernard Hopkins, Matthew Franklin (a foundling named after the Ben Franklin blvd IIRC), Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Meldrick Taylor, Tim Witherspoon plus the aformentioned Smokin’ Joe - just a few world class fighters from recent years. Plenty of old time legends as well - ‘Philadelphia’ Jack O’Brien and Jersey Joe Walcott (recipient of the legendary ‘Suzie Q’ right hand from Rocky Marciano) spring to mind.
The greatest fighter from Pittsburgh has to be Harry Greb - makes many fight fans top five all time pound for pound lists.
As far as the OP goes, Philly gets the nod. Philster has it right - when you’re talking about sports towns its not about the championships, its about the fans and the city. The Steelers are a special team, so the hat is off there, but that’s it - it’s a one-horse town.
And the fans are the worst you’ll find anywhere. Chicago and Boston, as Philster pointed out, do have amazing fans. Philly fans, however, will boo and curse the team out if they’re trailing 5 minutes into the second quarter of the home opener. I feel bad, because I like a lot of players on the Philly teams across all the sports and I want them to win some championships, but Philly fans simply don’t deserve them. Most ungrateful fans in the country.
They boo’ed Donovan on draft day (I woulda loved to see how far you got with Ricky “The Toker” Williams). No wonder Donovan “choked” at the end of the Super Bowl. I wouldn’t have won it for Philly either.
Moved to the area about ten years ago and have had Eagles tickets for about eight years now. All I can say is that the Philly sports bandwagon has more people hopping on and off of it than the Broad Street Subway.
Name a sports figure from Donovan McNabb to Charlie Manuel to Allen Iverson. In the course of a couple of weeks, these guys can go from being goats to gods. And right back to being goats.
Jeff Garcia has no idea how lucky he is. He ended last season as a hero and then left so he never had a chance to fail in the fans eyes.
And Pat’s and Geno’s are grossly overrated. Their only redeeming quality is you can go 24 hours a day for a cheesesteak. That’s a good thing since you have to go there at 2AM to avoid standing in line behind dozens of tourists to get your steak.
I’m not exactly sure if I understand the point you are trying to make, but the Penguins had Mario Lemieux for his entire career. That alone makes for something special to any hockey fan. Add in Jagr in his prime, Ron Francis, and now Sidney Crosby, Malkin, and a host of young talent. There’s no way you can say that is not special. It’s also not fair! Bastards!
In Philly’s favour, they had the broad street bullies, the last team entirely comprised of Canadians to win the Stanley Cup, with Bernie Parent in net. Jesus saves, but only when Bernie takes a night off.