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Legend has it that the Steelers were founded with money that Art Rooney won at a racetrack, betting on horses. Is the legend true? Well, it’s probably based on fact, but The Chief, as Mr. Rooney is still affectionately known in Pittsburgh, never confirmed nor denied the story. The story has been told over and over again, and knowing The Chief’s character, I’m sure there were some embellishments along the way. So what do we know?Well, we know something about Art Rooney’s background. He was something of a cad in his youth, adoring sports. He played semi-pro/minor league baseball and was an Olympic class boxer, having tried out for the 1920 Olympic team. His parents were, well, if not wealthy, at least comfortably established in the 20s and 30s, owning a local café and saloon on Pittsburgh’s North Side. He had some involvement with local politics, serving as a Row Officer in one of the local city commissions for a very brief time. Rather than, in his own words, “working an honest job,” The Chief became a professional gambler, promotor and a sportsman, using his contacts throughout the city with the political and business related movers and shakers.We also know that, at the time, Pittsburgh was the prime target of the fledgling NFL for a team. In the 20s and 30s, the Steel industry boomed, and Pittsburgh was something like the 5th largest city in the country. Football was (and still is) king in Western Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers were a huge draw (for the time) nationally, winning national championships on a regular basis, defeating their arch-rivals at Notre Dame and Fordham. Jock Sutherland and Pop Warner were national figures from the region, and football royalty.The only thing blocking the fledgling NFL from setting up shop in Pittsburgh were the Blue Laws in PA - because the NFL played on Sunday, Pittsburgh couldn’t field a team (it was illegal to work on Sunday.) In 1933, PA repealed its Blue laws, and The Chief paid the NFL $2500 for the franchise, which he named the Pirates (just like the baseball team.)This is where things seem to diverge from the historical record and enter the realm of legend and tall tales. The story seems to be that Wellington Mara, a friend of Art Rooney and owner of the New York Giants, had been bugging the Chief to use his contacts to get the blue laws repealed. Mara and Rooney, according to the story, went to horse racing tracks in NYC together on a fairly regular basis, and had a personal bet that, if a longshot horse paid off, Rooney would buy the team and convince the lawmakers he knew to get the Blue Laws repealed. The long shot came in at Belmont Park, and Rooney won $160,000. The rest, as they say, is history.Or is it?Well, the reality is that The Chief did win $160k at a horse race, and that PA did repeal its blue laws in ’32 or early ‘33. It’s also true that the Maras and the Rooneys are a close knit family (several Maras have married Rooneys, including the union that led to Kate and Rooney Mara’s birth.) It’s also true that the Rooney family was (and still is) one of the biggest operators of horse racing tracks in the USA, a business that Dan and Art II didn’t divest themselves of until the 21st century because of NFL bylaws. Several of the Chief’s other children and grandchildren still operate those businesses today.But the Steelers were founded in 1933, and the legendary horse race win didn’t occur until 1936. Something just doesn’t work with the timeline. Like every tall tale, parts of it probably have some kernel of the truth, especially with The Chief’s involvement in local PA politics, and his friendship with Wellington Mara. But like every tall tale, the fiction is better than the truth, particularly when you’re talking about a personality as big as The Chief’s.If you’re interested in some further tall tales about the Steelers, I recommend the one-man play “The Chief,” by Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. He wrote the play about 15 years ago, piecing it together from tall tales told in the Post-Gazette’s news room, and it is out on video. I had the privilege of seeing it in its original run, with Tom Atkins (Mr. Hundsucker of “Lethal Weapon” fame,) playing the role of The Chief. (Not a plug - I have no financial interest in the video or the Steelers. I just think it’s a great play.)