When Dan Rooney served as ambassador to Ireland during President Barack Obama’s first term, he would often receive phone calls from the Irish and British sports press. Such was his renown as an American sports ownership legend that the ambassador to one of the United States’ top allies was in demand at times as much for his sports insights as for any political issue of the moment.
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Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney on stage to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award.
PhotoS by: ROXXE IRELAND AND MARC BRYAN-BROWN
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“[T]he fact that I was Irish and associated with American football, especially the Steelers, I had a lot of action from the press and attended many press conferences,” said Rooney in remarks that he prepared as the recipient last week of a SportsBusiness Journal/Daily Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was presented at the 2014 Sports Business Awards, which were held Wednesday night at the New York Marriott Marquis at Times Square.
Rooney, the fifth recipient of the award, was introduced by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. A record crowd of more than 800 people showed their appreciation by giving him a standing ovation. After thanking the industry and SportsBusiness Journal/Daily for the recognition, Rooney’s son John read his father’s prepared remarks.
“The BBC, the London Times, and the Irish Times called me often for quotes about sports matters in America,” Dan Rooney said in the prepared speech. “The major soccer league once asked my thoughts on the Rooney Rule,” he said of the rule named after him in the NFL that requires minority candidates to be interviewed for head coaching and front office openings. “Did I feel it could work in the Premier League? I explained the rule, and then explained my thoughts on how to make it work.”
Rooney in his remarks took the audience back 100 years, to before the NFL, to before radio, to set the stage for the pivotal moments that would make his league the top league in America.
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ABOVE: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell accompanies Rooney, with SBJ/SBD Publisher Richard Weiss. BELOW: Rooney, wife Patricia, and sons John and Jim with Goodell.
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Rooney noted the broadcast by radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh in 1920 of the news that Warren Harding had won the presidency, then a year later airing a Pirates-Phillies game, the first sporting event broadcast over radio.
The Steelers came to life in 1933.
“[B]y then, everyone in the business understood the impact that live broadcasts could have on our sport,” Rooney said.
By the 1960s, as the NFL grew, it took the key steps that would ensure its success: pooling TV revenue equally among the teams, and selling rights to a single broadcaster.
“Before the end of 1961, [Commissioner] Pete Rozelle had a deal to make CBS the NFL’s first exclusive television broadcast partner, and the league would be paid $4.65 million each year for two years,” Rooney said in his remarks. “During the 1966-67 seasons, the new television contract netted the 14 NFL teams $14.1 million a year for two years. That’s all 14 teams splitting the pot, which worked out to about $1 million per team per year.”
Rooney’s dad, Art, founded the team, but it was under Dan that the Steelers won six Super Bowls. Rooney established himself as three commissioners’ go-to owner for advice and counsel, and cemented the Steelers as one of the top brands in all of sports.
Franco Harris, the Hall of Fame running back for the Steelers who attended the event to honor Rooney, said what made the Rooneys so special is how they treated the team like family.
“They care,” Harris said. “They cared about you as a person. And you hear [lots of] things about pro sports … but the Rooneys treated it more like a family.”
