ou don’t need to love football in orderto enjoy Art Rooney Jr.’s glowing tribute to his famousfather. “Ruanaidh: The Story of Art Rooney and HisClan” is first and foremost about people—the odd andirascible, the magnificent and flawed, the drunk anddevout—in the orbit of one of the greatest “people per-sons” ever to grace our city, Steelers patriarch ArtRooney. The clan of the subtitle refers not only toRooney’s five sons, but also to his siblings, spouse, in-laws, nieces, nephews, friends, fans, employees andhangers-on; in short, all who hailed Art Rooney as “TheChief.” It’s a terrific story and a worthwhile read underany circumstances, but as background to the Rooneyfamily drama recently played out in the national media,it is fascinating.

Arthur J. Rooney (1901–1988), the son of a saloonkeeper on Pittsburgh’s North Side, was a quick-witted,street-smart operator blessed with prodigious athletic

ability, abiding religious faith and a can-do attitude.His early career conformed to the Horatio Alger modelof the day: a youth with luck and pluck who attractedthe attention of a successful mentor. In Rooney’s case,that man was Republican State Senator Jimmy Coyne,who made Rooney his lieutenant in the predominantlyIrish-Catholic First Ward. From Coyne, he learned theimportance of establishing connections, trading favorsand making people feel special—an activity at whichhe excelled. Rooney supposedly had the ability to recallthe name of everyone he ever met, and he maintaineda postcard correspondence with hundreds of peoplethroughout his life. He was famous for attending wakesand funerals nearly every day to pay his respects toacquaintances, their relatives and sometimes evencomplete strangers.

As Rooney’s reputation grew, so did his business>>

by s a n d r a l e v i sreading room

Ruanaidhby Art Rooney Jr. www.artrooneyjr.com ($21)

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C L A N D E ST I N YThe story of Art Rooney and his era

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interests. As both a sportsman and anentrepreneur, he had fingers in many pies:football, of course, as well as boxing, base-ball, bootlegging, gambling, construction,real estate and horseracing—his other greattalent. A couple of big wins at Saratoga dur-ing a single week in 1936 provided the foun-dation of his fortune, which was valued atapproximately $200 million at the time ofhis death. “Yep, I like horses,” he onceremarked, “but I like people more.” Andwhy not? As described by Art Jr., with theassistance of former Pittsburgh Presscolumnist Roy McHugh, the people withwhom Rooney associated were exceptional-ly colorful and infinitely interesting.

Among the most memorable charac-ters: his brother Dan, a.k.a. Father Silas,the two-fisted missionary who knew athing or two about fervor; Uncle Jim, thehard-drinking mama’s boy who spoke inconfidential asides and couldn’t sleep untilhe had given away all his money; Art’sbride, Kass, an elegant lady with a flair forthe well-placed expletive; gluttonous Chris

McCormick, who’d sooner miss a trainthan a steak; Radio Rich, an unofficialmascot who never removed the transistorfrom his ear; fan Joe Chiodo, who decorat-ed his sports bar with brassieres and riskedhis life to defend Rooney’s good name; the“Paraclete of Kaborgia” a “prophet andmessenger” sent by God to play for theSteelers; Coach Buddy Parker, obsessedwith privacy and the number 13; WaltKiesling, who had an unhappy talent formisjudging quarterbacks; and the idiosyn-cratic individuals who formed the famedSteel Curtain.

Readers familiar with Rob Zellers andGene Collier’s 2003 play, “The Chief ”(recently released in book format from theUniversity of Pittsburgh Press), may recog-nize some of the material, but good storiesbear repeating, and their repetition in noway diminishes the value of this book.“Ruanaidh” goes well beyond the scope ofprevious works on Rooney, providing thehistorical, cultural and familial context nec-essary to create a real 20th-century saga.

Ruanaidh (pronounced Ru-ah-nee) is

the Gaelic version of Rooney, meaning“redhead.” It is an apt choice of title, evok-ing as it does the traditions of Irish legendthat are very much part of the story. The300-plus vignettes and character sketchesassembled in “Ruanaidh” are presented inan informal, conversational manner resem-bling an oral history. They sometimesinclude a message or a moral, but are con-cerned primarily with conveying images ofan enchanted past, unencumbered by his-torical research. (The author wisely issuesa disclaimer early on, referring verification-seekers to the official biography of ArtRooney by Rob Ruck and MaggiePatterson that is due out next year). If atouch of blarney finds its way in, so muchthe better.

In some respects, “Ruanaidh” evenrecalls the Ulster Cycle mythology ofIreland’s Heroic Age—stories of a warriorsociety centered around the royal court atEmain Macha in the first century A.D.(Coincidentally, Emain Macha was estab-lished by Macha Mong Ruad, one of thegreatest redheads in Irish history.) In this

<<

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version, however, the king is of course ArtRooney, and his kingdom the North Side.His stronghold is the big house on NorthLincoln Avenue, within sight of ThreeRivers Stadium; the house, incidentally,in which Steelers chairman Dan Rooneynow resides. The warrior society of ancientUlster has its equivalent in both the boxingring and the gridiron, where manly mendo battle for honor and glory (and eventual-ly, pretty hefty salaries) in Pittsburgh’sown working-class heroic age. And, as inany great legend, the actions of ancestorssow the seeds of contention for futuregenerations.

hroughout his life, Art Rooneywas accustomed to being the “alpha dog.”As the oldest of eight children, he feltresponsible for his siblings and acted in amanner that often resembled noblesse oblige.Accordingly, his decision to name his owneldest son, Dan, heir to his position with

the Steelers and its attendant prestigeappears to have been less about favoritismthan the age-old tradition of primogeni-ture. But just as Art’s good intentionsincurred the resentment of some of hissiblings and in-laws, Dan’s status andprivilege apparently engendered somehostility among his brothers. All ofRooney’s boys were weaned on football;all revered their larger-than-life dad andsought his approval. It therefore seemslikely that filial resentment—that age-oldcurse—plays a part in the current protract-ed dispute over the value and ownershipof the brothers’ shares in the Steelersfranchise, a full 20 years after their father’sdeath.

Unfortunately, Art Jr. makes no suchstatement in “Ruanaidh,” and actuallydivulges next to nothing about his brothersand their interrelationship. In a book thatis built upon fantastic personalities, welearn very little about the characteristicsof Art Rooney’s sons. Art Jr. shares someof his own feelings about his father, muchabout his personal experience with the

Steelers, and a hint of the tremendousdisappointment he felt when fired—by hisbrother—from his position as head scoutfor the team (in which capacity he wasnominated to the Football Hall of Fame).But brothers Dan, Tim, Pat and Johnappear only tangentially. The currentdiscord is never mentioned, except by theinclusion—as an appendix, and withoutpreamble—of two documents from ArtSr. The first is a 1974 Christmas cardexpressing pride in his son and exhortinghim to maintain a close-knit family. Thesecond is a 1987 letter concerning the fairdistribution of stock in the football club.Armchair detectives will enjoy readingbetween the lines of this fine work todeduce for themselves the causes of thecurrent strife and predict its outcome. Thestory of Art Rooney may have ended in1988, but the saga of his clan continues. PQ

Sandra Levis is a freelance writer livingin Point Breeze. For more of her reviews ofbooks of regional interest, visit PQ bookblogat pittsburghquarterly.com.

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