Three Rivers Stadium in the Seventies

This multi-purpose ballpark was home to dynasties in two sports during the Me Decade.

by Rich Watson

Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium was one of the so-called “cookie-cutter” stadiums of the sixties and seventies. Today these parks are remembered less fondly because of their similar design and their artificial turf. They remain a part of history, though, especially for Pittsburgh residents. 

Despite its look, 3RS’ first decade in existence was unforgettable. Legendary athletes from both baseball and football played there, who led their teams to winning seasons.

The confluence and the Golden Triangle

Pittsburgh was founded in 1758 at the joining of three rivers: the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio—the confluence.

• “Allegheny” is an anglicized version of the Lenape, or Delaware Indian, word “welhik-heny,” meaning “most beautiful stream.” The Allegheny Valley territory was in dispute during the eighteenth century. The French and Indian War was fought, in part, over it. After the Revolutionary War, the valley became part of the new United States. The river was used to transport coal and other commercial products through the upper Ohio Valley. In 1965 a dam built for flood control created a reservoir, but it also flooded parts of the Seneca Nation lands. In 1992, a 86.6-mile stretch of the Allegheny was protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. In 2008, Katie Spotz became the first person to swim the entire Allegheny.
• “Monongahela” means “falling banks,” also in Lenape. It flows south to north, like the Nile River. It, too, was disputed over during the French and Indian War. In the 1800s, the US Army Corps of Engineers built nine locks and dams along the river to make it more navigable. In fact, it was the first American river to be navigable its whole distance. The river also carried coal and other products. In 1956 a military plane went missing over the Monongahela.
• “Ohio” is the Seneca word for “good river.” It forms the border between Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to the north and Kentucky and West Virginia to the south. Native Americans used it for transportation and trading, with each other and with the original American colonists. By 1783, after several territorial disputes, the U.S. claimed the Ohio Valley region in a treaty. By 1849 the Wheeling Suspension Bridge expedited travel to St. Louis and points west. During the Civil War it was the “River Jordan” for slaves escaping to freedom. Today the Ohio is known for its pollution problems.

The triangular-shaped land mass formed at the intersection of rivers is Pittsburgh’s central business district. This is what’s known as the city’s “Golden Triangle.” 

3RS stood in the North Shore area beside the Allegheny River, just at the tip of the confluence, at 792 West General Robinson Street. It was meant for both the Pirates and Steelers.

Prior to Three Rivers Stadium 

For sixty-one years, the Pirates played in Forbes Field. They won three World Series there, including the dramatic 1960 contest against the Yankees, clinched by a walk-off home run in Game Seven by Bill Mazeroski. The Steelers also played there, for thirty years until 1963.

Plans for a new stadium developed as early as 1948, due to Forbes Field’s age and the Pirates’ desire for more revenue and better parking space. In 1958 the city approved building in the Northside area, beside the Allegheny. The Pirates sold it to the University of Pittsburgh, who leased it back to the team until a new playing field was built. 

Delays ensued, including changes in the design, funding debates, problems with the lights, and even theft. Finally 3RS opened on July 16, 1970, after the MLB All-Star Game. The Steelers started play on September 20.

The “cookie-cutter” stadiums

3RS was part of a trend in America of multi-purpose stadiums, derisively known as “cookie-cutters.” Fans compared them to big concrete donuts.

Their purpose was to accommodate baseball and football, as well as other events, such as rock concerts, with a minimum of adjustment. Many of them had AstroTurf.

Dan Epstein described them the following way in his book on 70s baseball, Big Hair and Plastic Grass:

Though they offered welcome improvements like additional restrooms, wider seats, and better sight lines for the fans… the circular layout of parks like Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium and Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium put a much greater distance between the fans and the field. Along with the physical intimacy of the older parks, the new stadiums also dispensed with quirky angles and visual characteristics in favor of an aesthetic of soulless uniformity; on TV broadcasts, it was often difficult to identify where a game was actually being played.

The 70s Pirates: from Clemente to Stargell and the Family

The Pirates began the seventies with three consecutive National League East titles. The 1971 team beat Baltimore in the World Series, four games to three, thanks to the heroics of players like Dock Ellis, Manny Sanguillen, Willie Stargell, Mazeroski, the star of the 1960 Series, and of course, World Series MVP Roberto Clemente.

On September 1 of that year, at 3RS, manager Danny Murtaugh fielded an all-black and Latin starting lineup for the first time in MLB history. They beat Philadelphia 10-7.

After Clemente’s premature death in 1972, the team erected a statue of him that went outside 3RS, to go with the one devoted to Honus Wagner. In 1998, the city renamed the Sixth Street Bridge for Clemente.

The Pirates won the NL East in 1974 and 1975, then in 1979, they faced the Orioles again in the World Series. Pittsburgh prevailed in seven games once more, thanks to stars like Dave Parker, John Candelaria, Kent Tekulve, Bill Robinson, and especially Stargell, the National League, National League Championship Series, and World Series MVP. 

The disco hit “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge became a rallying song for the team and brought them closer together.

The 70s Steelers

In 1969 the Steelers were 1-13. With their first-round draft choice, the number-one overall choice, they chose quarterback Terry Bradshaw. In subsequent seasons, they drafted, among others, Mean Joe Greene, Mel Blount, Franco Harris, Jack Ham and Lynn Swann. 

The team won the first of seven AFC Central titles in the seventies in 1972. That season, there was a playoff game against Oakland at 3RS. With less than thirty seconds remaining, Harris, in his rookie year, scored the winning touchdown on what history refers to as “the Immaculate Reception.” 

They lost to Miami the next week, but two years later, the Steelers faced the Raiders in the playoffs again, this time in Oakland. After losing 10-3 after three quarters, the Steelers rallied for three fourth-quarter touchdowns to win  the AFC title, 24-13. Then they beat Minnesota in the first of four Super Bowl victories in the seventies.

Later years and the implosion of Three Rivers Stadium 

Subsequent years of the 3RS era were less prolific. In 1990-92, with Barry Bonds, the Pirates won three NL East crowns in a row. The Steelers, meanwhile, won an AFC title in 1995 before losing to Dallas in Super Bowl XXX.

By the nineties, cookie-cutters fell out of fashion. Newer baseball parks deliberately adopted a more retro look meant to bring back quirky angles and greater intimacy and individuality. Now the cookie cutters are gone from MLB, though some who grew up during that era now pine for that look. Some even see beauty in them amidst all the faux-retro ballparks.

In Pittsburgh, a push for a new stadium began. A 1997 voter referendum to hike the sales tax in Allegheny County and other counties, to pay for new stadiums for the Pirates and Steelers, failed. A revised funding proposal passed in the Pennsylvania State House and Senate.

The Pirates’ last game in 3RS was a loss to Chicago on October 1, 2000. They moved to PNC Park the next year, a little east of the 3RS site. The Wagner and Clemente statues followed, along with ones for Mazeroski and Stargell.

The Steelers’ final game in 3RS was a victory over Washington on December 16. The next year they moved to Heinz Park, on the opposite side. In 2012, the Steelers erected a plaque in the parking lot commemorating the Immaculate Reception, approximately on the spot where Harris made it.  

On February 11, 2001, Three Rivers Stadium imploded. Office buildings, a parking lot and a concert venue stand there now, plus a marker from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. 

Not bad for a stadium less than universally loved by its own fans.

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Did you see a game at Three Rivers Stadium?