Western Sports Museum “Fun Facts”

• Sports Museum spans 18,500 sq. feet of exhibit space on two floors of the History Center, features over 75 interactives, and has over 25 exhibit sections.

• “Overture Video” is 6 minutes long.

• had two Negro League teams: the and the .

• Golf in dates to 1887 when Mickle Fox developed and 8- hole course in Foxburg, Clarion , after learning the sport at St. Andrews in Scotland.

• Over 700 golf courses operate across Pennsylvania, more per capita than any other state.

• Delvin Miller, an internationally recognized harness racer from near , PA, competed for over 8 . Miller efforts led to the legalization of pari-mutuel betting in Pennsylvania, including that conducted at his track, The Meadows, in Meadowlands, PA.

• By 1900, 16 colleges and universities in Western Pennsylvania and the panhandle of West had football teams.

• The Classic, a race held in the streets of , proved integral to the rise of Tour de France Lance Armstrong.

• Bicycle racing ovals were built in Pittsburgh’s parks during the late nineteenth century, providing areas for early competitive bike riding.

• Chip Ganassi’s Indy race car, in At the Races in the Sports Museum, did not fit in the museum’s large elevators, so was disassembled and then reassembled for exhibition.

• John Woodruff, an African American student from the , won gold in Track and Field at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

• Professional football was born on the in 1892, fueled by an intense rivalry between the and Allegheny Athletic Association (AAA). The AAA recruited former phenoms to play in a game held on November 12, 1892. Chief among them was William “Pudge” Heffelfinger, an All-American guard at Yale who was brought from for the game. Paid the sum of $500 to play, Heffelfinger delivered victory, scoring the only in the game.

• In 1897, the Latrobe Athletic Association team played a full season with only professional football players.

• In 1933, purchased and NFL franchise the he named the (the team became the Steelers in the 1940s). The team struggled until the 1970s when Dan Rooney became the driving force behind the team and his brother, Art Rooney, JR, head of draft recruitment. That decade, they won four Super Bowls.

• Hockey was first played in Pittsburgh in 1895, with the first hockey facility, , opening in 1899. The Gardens offered 26,000 square feet of artificial ice.

• By the , Pittsburgh had produced three middleweight boxing champions. Between July, 1939 and November, 1941, five Western Pennsylvania boxers won championships in five of eight traditional weight classes.

• As early as 1903, the Western Pennsylvania League began play with six teams.

• In 1972, when Title IX was enacted by Congress, 295,000 girls participated in high school sports nationwide. Now more than 2.8 million girls participate.

• On July 17, 2000, a 1909 baseball card featuring Pittsburgh Pirate Honus Wagner, sold for $1.265 million. Wagner’s card was one of the Buck Duke American Company’s “White Borders” card set featuring 523 major and minor league players. Only 60 of the Wagner cards are known today.

• The “White Borders” Honus Wagner card measure 2 5/8 inches by 1 ½ inches- small so that it could fit as an insertion in packs of cigarettes.