This article is prefaced by a thank you to my sister Bonnie and to Greg Garber at ESPN.com for his excellent article about the Terrible Towel. Please go to http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&page=hotread20/garber to read his article in its entirety and watch a video of Myron Cope.

The Terrible Towel

When you see the throngs of Steeler fans in the stadium on Super Bowl Sunday waving those gold towels, think about this:

The Terrible Towel was created in the 1970s, by a couple of guys that worked at local radio station, WTAE.  General manager Ted Atkins, sales manager Larry Garrett and broadcaster Myron Cope set out to create a unique identifier to set Steeler fans and their team apart from their competitors.  After a couple of ideas were nixed due to cost, one of the guys, Garrett, suggested a towel since “everyone has a towel.”

The idea might never have gotten out to the masses, except for Myron Cope.

According to an article written by Greg Garber at ESPN, Cope relentlessly hyped the Terrible Towel in the days leading up to the 1975 divisional championship game against the Baltimore Colts at Three Rivers Stadium. He raved about it on his radio shows and he tossed towels at the anchor and weatherman on the 11 o’clock news.

“The Terrible Towel is poised to strike,” Cope said, everywhere he went. “Bring a yellow, gold or black towel to the playoff game, and if you don’t have one, buy one, if you don’t want to buy one, dye one.”

Sure enough, on the day of the game, an estimated 30,000 of the 50,000 fans in attendance pulled out their towels, waving and cheering when the defense ran onto the field. And, the fans waved those towels during the game, too, like when linebacker Andy Russell recovered a fumble and ran 93 yards for a touchdown. (And, yes, the Steelers won that game.)

And so, because of Cope’s tireless efforts, the Terrible Towel was born and would become the mainstay emblem of Steeler fans everywhere.

But, the story doesn’t end here. It continues with Cope donating his portion of the proceeds of the sales of Terrible Towels to charity, and, eventually signing over his copyright to the Allegheny Valley School in Coraopolis, PA, a school dedicated to providing residential, therapeutic, educational, vocational and social programs for children and adults with intellectual or developmental needs. 

To date, the Allegheny Valley School has received more than $2.5 million from sales of the Terrible Towel and related merchandise.

Myron Cope died last year (February 27, 2008), but there’s no doubt that he will be at this Sunday’s game in spirit and with every wave of the towel.

 So, now that you know, try not to get choked up when you see the best fans of the best team support their Steeler Nation.