The 1933 Pittsburgh Pirates was the debut season of the team that would eventually become the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team was founded after Pennsylvania relaxed its blue laws that, prior to 1933, prohibited sporting events from taking place on Sundays, when most NFL games took place. The new squad was composed largely of local semi-pro players, many of whom played for sports promoter Art Rooney. Rooney became the Pirates owner, paying the NFL a $2,500 fee to join the league. Except for a brief period in 1940 and '41, Rooney would remain the franchise's principle owner until his death in 1988. The Rooney family has retained a controlling interest ever since. The team would take the field for the first time on September 20 against the New York Giants at Forbes Field, losing 23–2. The following week, the team would get its first win, defeating the Chicago Cardinals at home 14–13.
The team would finish 3–6–2 for the season.
Famous quotes containing the words pittsburgh, pirates and/or season:
“The largest business in American handled by a woman is the Money Order Department of the Pittsburgh Post-office; Mary Steel has it in charge.”
—Lydia Hoyt Farmer (1842–1903)
“Power first, or no leading class. In politics and trade, bruisers and pirates are of better promise than talkers and clerks.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The theater is a baffling business, and a shockingly wasteful one when you consider that people who have proven their worth, who have appeared in or been responsible for successful plays, who have given outstanding performances, can still, in the full tide of their energy, be forced, through lack of opportunity, to sit idle season after season, their enthusiasm, their morale, their very talent dwindling to slow gray death. Of finances we will not even speak; it is too sad a tale.”
—Ilka Chase (1905–1978)