Pittsburgh lost a legend today

[iris5426]

I know there are a lot of people on this board with Pittsburgh connections, so I wanted to share the sad news that Myron Cope passed away today at the age of 79...he was a legend, and he'll be dearly missed. My terrible towel is at half mast! :-(

Here's an article:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7846200?forum_key=StoryComments&topic_key=7846200

For those of you who don't know, he was the color guy for the Steelers for 35 years and was one of a kind! He invented the Terrible Towel and was also a great journalist. Until he retired in 2004, it was tradition in my house to turn down the TV during a game, and turn up the radio to listen to Myron, Billy and Tunch. Myron was always telling great stories and inventing fun words like Yoi!, and Steelers radio hasn't been the same since he retired. He was a great man.


:toast: to Myron!!

[Avalux]

1. Oh no....

I used to listen to Myron as a kid during the Steeler dynasty - I absolutely loved him and his quirky voice. What a great guy he was, a real character.

Godspeed Myron. :cry:

[tabasco]

2. He was a sweet, sweet guy.

I met him once at Cope's Cabana after a game and he was as nice as he could be.

[zbdent]

3. I will fly my terrible towel at half mast

[TwilightGardener]

4. I can't believe it--one of the voices of my childhood. RIP, Myron! You were an

institution in da 'Burgh, an' at.

[Sheets of Easter]

5. Triple yoi! I'll miss you, Marh'rn!

:cry:

Today, God is waving a Terrible Towel...

[demodonkey]

6. Yoi, yoi, yoi! Terrible towels at half-mast everywhere.

Sad day.

:cry:


All yunz fellow Picksburgers K&R this thread for Myron Cope on Sports, please.

[hootinholler]

7. How many time I rolled my eyes when I heard

This is Myron Cope, on sports.

My sister used to confuse him with Howard Cosell, lol.

Rest easy Myron!

-Hoot

[Freedomofspeech]

8. A true Pittsburgh legend...

he did so much work for special needs children.

[Sheets of Easter]

9. Here's a link to some classic Cope-isms:

http://www.networksandwebapplications.com/myron/misc.html

Another factoid- Cope was also partially responsible for Jerome Bettis' nickname "The Bus."

[jtrockville]

15. Can't find "This is Myron Cope on Sports". I'd like to hear that one more time.

[iris5426]

20. Thanks for sharing this!!

Brought a smile and a tear at the same time...

[napi21]

10. I grew up listening to Myron too! after I moved from Pgh. I listened to the

Steelers via streaming radio. It was a sad day when he left radio, and an even sadder one today. My Pgh. friends used to laugh about Myron's voice all the time, and firmly believed he would never have been the sports figure he was if it were anywhere else but Pgh! I know a few local friends had come here while I had the Steeler broadcat on the net, and each one said the smae thing. "WHO IN THE WORLD IS THAT?" I somply told them "You wouldn't understand."

[iris5426]

21. Yes

Myron is/was definitely a Burgh thing, lots of people never understood what we saw in him :)

[Yellow Horse]

11. Kick for Cope. How about some recommendations in his memory, Pittsburghers? He was 1 of the Greatest

[Sheets of Easter]

13. LOVE the smilie!

:thumbsup:

[iris5426]

23. Best. Smiley. Ever. nt

:D

[ThomWV]

12. What a voice.

[OneGrassRoot]

17. "This is Myron Cope on sports." One of my fondest memories...

of growing up in Pittsburgh during the 70's.

His distinctive voice will resonate within many of us forever.

[NoPasaran]

14. I remember Myron from when I went to college in Pittsburgh

Saw him once, in a Murray Avenue deli.

[Botany]

16. From an old time Brown's fan

Sorry about your loss.

The times I heard him .... I loved him because sometimes it seemed
like Myron was in a world of his own and he wanted us to join him
in his wonderful world ..... Go Steal lears!

http://media.ohio.com/images/browns+16.jpg

[OneGrassRoot]

18. That is very kind of you...

very kind indeed. Thank you, from this Pittsburgh native and Steelers fan. :)

[AnnieBW]

35. Your team had a special Cope nickname

The "Cleeve Brownies". I still call them that.

[livetohike]

19. "Bye now!" We'll miss you Myron

:toast:

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

22. I lived near Pittsburgh for 5 years and graduated from Pitt Law

This is very sad news and quite a loss for Da Burgh.

[iris5426]

24. Kicking for Myron...

[Sheets of Easter]

25. Here, use this.

:D

[iris5426]

26. Nice!

:D

[Dulcinea]

27. I'm wearing my black & gold today in his honor.

Godspeed, Myron. You will be missed by so many.

[datadiva]

28. My terrible towel is at half mast

Sad day for Steelers Fans everywhere.

[Bunny]

29. He was quite a guy.

He was a hell of a writer, and also he was a journalist in the truest sense of the word. RIP, Myron.

[RamboLiberal]

30. Yoi and Double Yoi it is a sad day in Steeler Nation

He was best known as the squawking talisman of Steelers football and had the good fortune of arriving on the scene just as the ballclub was escaping some four decades of losing. Cope hit the glory road sprinting in 1970 and never lost momentum for the next 30 years. Locally, his celebrity dwarfed many of the players, even those of Super Bowl pedigree, and was surpassed by only a very few.

"He was a true celebrity," said Roy McHugh, the former columnist and sports editor of the Pittsburgh Press. "In the '70s, he and I went to closed circuit telecasts of big fights at the Civic Arena. One night as we were leaving we fell in step with Billy Conn. We couldn't get three or four paces without people wanting Cope's autograph. Conn they ignored."

Regardless of the ever-more-corporate-imaged NFL he'd walked into, Mr. Cope remained a wag and raconteur of a sporting era from the other side of that transition. Though he was riding the new Pittsburgh wave of Dan and Art Rooney Jr.'s strictly business acumen and seasoned football calculations, he still had both feet in the smoke-filled rooms and occasional "toddy's" of Art Rooney Sr.'s world, which thrived on seat-of-the-pants adventurism.

Once at halftime in Cleveland, Cope found his intermission routine interrupted by an occupied restroom on old Municipal Stadium's roof, which is where the radio booths were situated. His long-standing para-military ritual of urinate, get a hot dog, and get back to the action now jeopardized, he improvised. Without being too graphic, let's just say that anyone walking by Municipal Stadium near that portion of the roof in the ensuing minutes had to wonder from where that sudden shower had come.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08058/860748-100.stm



Myron, I hope you are having a toddy tonight with your beloved wife Mildred and trading Steeler tales with "The Chief" Art Rooney.

[iris5426]

33. Thanks for sharing this...

I tried to look at it earlier when someone emailed it to me, and the Post Gazette server was down! Must have been too many fans wanting to read about Myron :)

[PA Democrat]

31. “Hmm-hah!” We will miss you Myron!

Myron Cope was much more than a broadcast legend. Myron was the father of a son with autism and did a lot of charity work for the disabled. In fact, he signed over the rights to his infamous Terrible Towel to the Allegheny Valley School which serves children with mental and physical disabilities. Myron was a Pittsburgh treasure and will be greatly missed. A big K & R for Myron.

[Psyop Samurai]

32. Yoi! Thanks for posting, iris...

This increasingly homogenized world lost a lot of character today.

Never having been a sports fan, I hadn't appreciated Myron the way I'm sure many did.

Then I had the good fortune to meet him in real life. He was an exceedingly gracious man - really made a good impression on me.

Godspeed, Myron.

O8)

[AnnieBW]

34. This is My-ron Cope

Awn sports. My dad used to listen to his show every night when we were doing the dishes after dinner. Myron used to get on my nerves when I was a kid, but I grew to appreciate him after I left the 'burgh.

Here's in Ahrn for ya, Myron! Okey-dokel!

:beer: