By Dan Gigler
(via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
As tourism slogans go, “come spend a gloomy humid morning in a rural Western Pennsylvania town, waiting hours to watch other people work” isn’t exactly a pitch that a travel agent might make to sell a vacation.
But it might entice Robert Hausman, his wife and three sons of Davenport, Iowa, whose field of dreams isn’t in their home state, but rather on the campus of a small Catholic college near Latrobe. The family of Steelers fanatics drove 650 miles Thursday to be among the first people in line Friday morning at Saint Vincent College for the first public practice of the team’s 2012 training camp.
They might have been first, too, if George Muentser of Jeannette hadn’t gotten the jump on them. Mr. Muentser was the first person to arrive, at 8 a.m., about four hours before the parking lot was open and seven hours before the team started practicing.
Mr. Muentser said this was the 41st camp opener that he has attended, and like the Hausmans, he plans vacation time around it. The draw?
“The black and gold are here,” he said.
“I was fortunate enough to meet, greet and shake hands with the original Steel Curtain here,” he said, pausing to wave his Terrible Towel at passing cars joining the line waiting to park. “I love it. I was sold from the first day. To know what Steelers Nation really is, you have to experience this.”
Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch concurs.
“There are a couple camps that people say are must-see experiences, and this is one of them. You have to. You have to come up here and experience Steeler[s] Nation because this is where it starts, and that carries all the way through to until we get to the Super Bowl, and it never stops.”
Plenty experienced it yesterday. They came from places like Fort Drum, N.Y.; Ocala, Fla.; Cumberland, Md.; Harrington, Del.; Neptune, N.J.; Williamsport; McKeesport; and even Cleveland.
Neither the Steelers nor the college keep an attendance count, but an estimated 1,500 folks came out on a hot, sticky weekday — and that’s considered a tepid turnout for the Steelers. In post-Super Bowl seasons, it would not be uncommon for nearly 10,000 fans to arrive for a camp opening, especially if it fell on a weekend.
Mr. Batch, a Homestead native and former Detroit Lions quarterback, said, “I never came down here as a kid, so my first time experiencing it was in 2002 as a player and it was amazing because there were more fans here on the first day of practice than there was probably total of what we had in Detroit,” for an entire training camp.
About 500 people were amassed and ready to go when the campus opened to the public at 1:30 p.m., and they filed past Patty Babsuci of Belle Vernon, who has worked at the college for 10 years and stepped out with a handful of co-workers on their lunch break to take in the sea of black and gold humanity.
“We’re not watching the Steelers, we’re watching the people,” she said, laughing. “It’s nice to see all the age groups. These are timeless Steelers fans that love their team. From 4 years old to 84.”
Or 1-to-68. Three generations of men from the Mt. Lebanon Keating clan were represented Friday. The patriarch Earl, came with his son, Brian, 35, who is visiting from Kissimmee, Fla., with his year-old son Danny in tow, and another grandson, Wyatt, 11, of Upper St. Clair.
The day reaches a crescendo about minutes after practice ends as the players make their exit off the field, past the throngs of adoring fans, hoping for an autograph or a picture. Bodies scurry as fans jockey for position — mostly in cordial fashion although some elbows might get a little sharper.
“MOM! I need a pen NOW! It’s TROY!” one panicked youngster yelled.
False alarm kid. It wasn’t him.
One father sounded like Pittsburgh Dad correcting his son who asked for an autograph from “Ike.”
“Make sure you say Mr. Taylor,” he reminded.
Mr. Batch acknowledged the passion of the fans and the efforts they make to attend. These are his people, after all.
“It’s just really something when you see diehard Steelers fans — they want to see what you’re about. They’re the ones who keep us on our toes out here on these hot days that you don’t want to practice, because you know — maybe this is the only time that these folks will have an opportunity to see you, so you want to put on a good show for them.”
Kristin Hausman appreciates that, since training camp pre-empted a visit to relatives in Eastern Pennsylvania.
Laughing, she said: “This came before family.”
