Gene Collier
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
gcollier@post-gazette.com
Twitter: @genecollier
First Published: October 8, 2023, 5:30 a.m.
As the Steelers attempt to disentangle their nettlesome modern problems, it’s useful to note a couple of contemporary anniversaries in the rich history of their franchise.
Or at least it’s a diversion.
This season marks the 90th anniversary of Pittsburgh’s entrance into the National Football League, which likely could not have happened without the footballers in one iconic Rooney family photo taken on the North Side 100 years ago this fall.
Thanks to the hypertalented artist and sculptor Ray Sokolowski of Mt. Lebanon, that photo became a sculpture near the start of this century, and this month the third iteration of Ray’s work has brought the men in that century-old photo to their full artistic life.
You can see them, the sandlot team The Chief called the Hope Harveys, on display along with more than a dozen stunning Sokolowski paintings at the Mark Rengers Gallery in Sewickley through Oct. 21.
“I was blown away by this,” Rengers said earlier this week. “Blown away that there’s not just one amazing sculpture here, but 23.”
Twenty-two uniformed men in one long line — and one seated front and center — most with a big H on their chests, the Chief on the left in a jacket and bow tie, each a separate sculpted piece in Hydrocal Hydro-Stone cement. The gleaming white finish caught the sunlight of Western Pennsylvania’s autumn afternoon as it invaded the gallery’s front windows.
“Their pants are all different; these uniforms were cobbled together, and their wives and girlfriends probably sewed on the H’s,” said the illustrator Kathy Rooney, who is Ray’s wife of more than 30 years and the youngest daughter of that seated figure, the then 14-year-old Vince Rooney, one of The Chief’s younger brothers. “They used the firehouse near my grandfather’s saloon as their dressing room. You can just imagine my uncle’s thinking about how to get this football team started. He walked a block to that firehouse because he probably knew some of those guys, probably told them they could even play on the team.”
The Hope Fire House was how the team got its name, or half of it. The other half was because the team’s unofficial doctor was Doc Harvey. Obviously.
Not only were the early Hope Harveys not necessarily built to come from behind, they were not necessarily built to finish the game. The Chief’s wife once commented that the Harveys never lost because if they were behind in the second half, they’d just start a fight that ended the proceedings.
So yeah, a fight might break out, or, okay, perhaps a small riot.
But the Hope Harveys, soon enough, were more than a ragtag sandlot outfit. The Chief, who starred as a mercurial running back, also ran the whole operation. His promotional gifts were such that within a few years, he had the Hope Harveys in games against teams that made up the NFL in its infancy. Those would include the Canton Bulldogs, who had a notable if past-his-prime mercurial running back of their own, a fella named Jim Thorpe.
Canton won 3-0 that day, in 1926, but Rooney’s Hope Harveys put Pittsburgh firmly in the NFL’s expansion consciousness. They’d be in the league seven years later, first as the Pittsburgh Pirates, then, starting in 1940, as the Steelers.
But this Sokolowski sculpture is at the root of not only the Steelers but of the region’s whole immigrant football heritage. Some of their names appear on the original photo: Sweitzer, Patkush, Wright, Wayhart, McGuigan.
“I worked on each figure moreso than the first,” Sokolowski said. “I spent three, four weeks on each one, so this has more definition than the first one.”
That first one, presented in cold-cast nickel resin and completed in 2003, was purchased by the late Joe Hardy for display at Nemacolin, where it remains. A second version was bought by a Boston investment banker who’d seen the Hope Harveys at Nemacolin. With this third effort, the team feels as though it’s taken on even more historical heft.
“Ray and I have been contacted by so many descendants of the team members who knew stories of how their ancestor once played football with Art Rooney,” said Kathy. “I have collected so many of these stories. Frank Wayhart’s grandson John came from Chicago to see it. The Wayhart family knew only vaguely their grandfather’s association with the team. They discovered Frank in one of our online promo photos. They were so grateful.
“There are so many stories like that. The Hope Harvey team is still here.”
The Steelers are said to be considering adding Sokolowski’s newest edition to their Hall of Fame collection. Might be prudent. You never know what might give you a boost.
The Hope Harvey Football Team, 1923 is now on view at the Steeler's Hall of Honor Museum.