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MAULERS
TRIVIA |
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| The
Maulers first game was against the Oklahoma
Outlaws at Skelly Stadium in Tulsa. |
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| The
debut was not successful as the Outlaws won in a
defensive struggle, 7-3. |
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| KDKA-TV
Pittsburgh broadcast Maulers pre-season games as
well as two regular season games. |
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| The
first regular season telecast was at the Liberty
Bowl against the Memphis Showboats. |
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| The
second would turn out to be the Maulers final
game ever, a 26-2 loss to a fellow '84 expansion
team, the Jacksonville Bulls. |
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| WAMO-FM
106, Pittsburgh's urban station at the time, was
the flagship radio outlet for the Maulers. |
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Positioned
at the confluence of the Monongahela and
Allegheny rivers, Three Rivers Stadium was
to be a crowning jewel of Pittsburgh when
it was opened in 1970. As the home
for baseball's Pirates and the NFL's
Steelers, the stadium reflected the apex
of the "cookie cutter" era:
a period where cities, seeking to save
money in constructing sports facilities,
opted to build so-called
"multi-sport" facilities that
could accommodate both baseball and
football - and then building facilities
well-suited to neither sport.
In the case of Three Rivers, despite
moments of glory such as the Pirates World
Series wins of 1971 and 1979 and the
Steelers four NFL titles during the
1970's, the people of Pittsburgh quickly
fell out of love with the place that was
referred to as "The Atrocity by the
Monstrosity" (the monstrosity being
the Ohio River). By the time the
Maulers played their only USFL season
there in 1984, Three Rivers was seen as an
antiquated eyesore, and due to inadequate
parking and unfriendly staff at the
stadium, unless there was a very strong
attraction people most likely found more
reasons to stay away from Three Rivers
rather than go there. The only
consistent exceptions to this seemed to be
Steeler home games, Pirate home openers,
and Pirate playoff games, which regularly
sold out the stadium's seating capacity,
which varied from 49,000 to 57,000
depending on configuration and era.
After nearly three decades and lots of
political jostling, both the Pirates and
Steelers were to get new stadia, and the
decision was made to bring Three Rivers
down via implosion. Originally
scheduled for implosion in late February
2001, the desire to blow the place up was
so strong that the date was moved up two
weeks, to February 11, 2001. |
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THREE
RIVERS STADIUM |
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Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania |
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