Labriola on the Hall of Honor Museum

“Pro football began in 1892 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when former Yale star William ‘Pudge’ Heffelfinger was paid a notable sum of $500 to play in a single game for the Allegheny Athletic Association on November 12. For nearly the next three decades, pro football faced its ups and downs as the game was played primarily in small towns throughout western Pennsylvania and the Midwest.”

The National Football League wasn’t born in Pittsburgh. That happened in Canton, Ohio, on Sept. 17, 1920, when a group of men gathered at the Hupmobile showroom owned by Ralph Hay, also the owner of the hometown Canton Bulldogs, where the result was the formation of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) that would be renamed the National Football League in 1922.

Art Rooney Sr. didn’t join until 1933, and so his Pittsburgh franchise isn’t the oldest in the NFL, but the only ones left with more seniority in the league are the Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, Detroit Lions, and the one now known as the Washington Commanders.

Rooney’s NFL franchise is a storied one with a rich and successful history that’s also colorful in the manner of all of those that scraped and fought to remain viable through the remnants of the Great Depression, through World War II, and just generally through that period when professional football was not the glamorous and lucrative business it is today.

In August 2017, the Steelers announced the franchise was creating a Hall of Honor, and as President Art Rooney II explained at the time, “The Hall of Honor will serve as a tribute to the many individuals who have contributed greatly throughout the history of our franchise. This is probably long overdue, and we are excited to begin the process of recognizing these individuals and their accomplishments, both on and off the field, during an annual series of ceremonies.”

Almost four years later, in July 2021, meetings began regarding the construction of a museum located inside…