from yesterday's Trenton Times:
Go Stillers !
Mercer has its share of Steelers fans
Black and Gold invasion
Thursday, February 02, 2006
By MARK ECKEL
NFL
If you noticed more black and gold than usual in the area over the past week, do not be alarmed, the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the Super Bowl.
One year removed from a deluge of green and silver, thanks to the Eagles' appearance in Super Bowl XXXIX, Mercer County's "adopted" team, the Steelers are headed to Super Bowl XL and it's having a local impact.
Why the Steelers in this area?
Interviews with various fans provided two reasons for interest in the team from Western Pennsylvania in Central New Jersey.
One is the influx back in the 1960s of steelworkers from the Pittsburgh area who transferred to the steel mills in Fairless Hills, Bucks County. Those families settled either in Bucks or across the river in Mercer and brought their Steelers roots with them.
"My Dad lived in Ellwood City, just outside of Pittsburgh, worked in the mill, and loved the Steelers and the Pirates," Trenton native and current Mercerville resident Dave Costa said. "When he moved here, he kept his teams and naturally we became Steelers and Pirates fans, too."
That's not the only factor, however.
It involves the old bandwagon. Several of the fans dressed in black and gold this week are in their mid-30s to 40. When they started watching football -- probably in the mid-1970s -- the Steelers were in the midst of their four Super Bowl wins in six years.
The local teams, the Eagles, Giants and Jets were not exactly powerhouses during that Steel Curtain dynasty.
"The first football game I really watched, I was 10 years old, and the Steelers beat the Vikings to win their first Super Bowl," life-long Hamilton Township resident Brian Martin said. "I've been a Steelers fan ever since."
If the Vikings would have won that game, who knows, instead another of the many local Steelers fans was born.
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Tim Kline is another, and he's trying to convert some more.
Kline is a fifth-grade teacher at Alexander School in Hamilton Square, where his classroom is made up of Eagles, Giants, Jets and a few Packers fans (that's a story for another week).
This week they have become Steelers fans, or the ones who don't want to get a good grade have become Seahawks fans.
"We're having a lot fun with it," Kline, who has made tough fifth-grade subjects such as advanced math fun for his students by incorporating sports themes. "I think more of the kids are going to watch the Super Bowl this year, because of what we're doing."
The students are learning about charts and graphs and statistics based on the Steelers and Seahawks.
So how did Kline, who resided in Allentown during his formative years, that's the one in New Jersey not the steel-oriented one in Pennsylvania, become a Steelers fan?
"When I first started watching football, they were the team," the 37-year-old teacher said. "Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, that defense, there was no reason not to like them. I couldn't be an Eagles fans. Eagles fans are too obnoxious."
Kline is still looking to make his first trip to Heinz Field, but sees at least one Steelers game in person a year, either in Philadelphia, the Meadowlands or in Baltimore. There is one problem, though.
"The last six times I've gone to see them, they've lost," he said. "Last year they were 15-1. I was there for the one loss in Baltimore."
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Tim Lloyd, another local Steelers fan who grew up in Trenton and now lives in Florence, takes it one step further.
"I buy Baltimore Ravens season tickets every year just to make sure I see the Steelers game," he said.
Lloyd, 34, became a Steelers fan the same way as most. He just started a little bit later.
"The first football game I watched was the 1979 (season) Super Bowl when they beat the Rams," he said. "I was a Steelers fan that day and never changed."
Lloyd wishes he could change his plans for Sunday.
"I'm having this big party at my house," he said. "It's been planned for a long time before I realized Pittsburgh was going to be in it. Now, I wish I hadn't done it."
Lloyd watched the Steelers' late drive to the playoffs, then their unlikely trip through the postseason to get to this point.
"I'm a fan, and I thought they would find a way to make the playoffs, but even I didn't think they would win three straight on the road. The Indy game, that was the one I worried about the most."
Pittsburgh's win over the Colts has been this generation of Steelers fans answer for the Immaculate Reception, even though that Steelers lost the next week.
"The Colt game was incredible," Lloyd said. "When (Jerome) Bettis fumbled, I thought I was going to throw up."
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Costa, 50, was born in Trenton after his family moved east. He never gave up on his team, even though he was in a mix of Eagles fans.
"My cousins, who were here, were big Eagles fans," he said. "They always tried to get us (to convert), but actually my Dad converted one of them. I think he went back, though, under pressure."
Costa says is tough at times rooting for a team that isn't in the immediate area, despite the fact through the world of the Internet any team can be a local team.
"Around here it's so much Eagles and Eagles fans, it does make it tough," he said. "But I've stayed with the Steelers the whole way. And after last year with the Eagles going to the Super Bowl, and all of that, it's nice to see the Steelers there this year."
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Martin, who bleeds black and gold and treats the Steelers the same way Eagles fans treat their team, would agree.
"What a year," the 40-year-old owner of Alison's Auctions, said. "The Colts game was a season in its self."
Martin watched that game in his Hamilton home, as he has most Steelers games the past few years.
"We used to all go to Champions (a bar in Trenton)," he said. "There was a huge Steelers contingent there every week. Then the Sunday Ticket (from DirecTV) came around. I just sit home and watch them every week."
It keeps him away from the Eagles and Giants fans, but he says, that was the fun part.
"I enjoy going at it with Eagles fans or Giants fans," Martin said. "I have two borthers, one is an Eagles fan and the other is a Giants fan. That's probably another reason I became a Steelers fan."
He also has a theory that we'll be able to check in the future.
"When you're a kid, you're impressionable," he said. "Those Steelers team made an impression on me and it lasted. I think if you do another story like this in 20 years, you'll find there are a lot of New England Patriots fans in the area."
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Contact Mark Eckel at meckel@njtimes.com.
thanks for posting that, that is just great stuff!