Double Yoi! Steelers’ fans miss Cope

There’s little left to be said about that little guy from Pittsburgh, the one who had the obnoxious radio voice yet captured the hearts and souls of Pittsburghers for many years.

Myron Cope, who stood only 5-foot-4 and was a symbol of the Pittsburgh Steelers for 35 years, passed away Feb. 27 in a nursing home in Mount Lebanon, Pa. He was 79.

Cope was a dynamic personality, one that could rile the opposition while, at the same time align the will of the Black and Gold.

He has been called just about everything there is to say about a great football announcer, good and bad. He was brash, a terrific color man, horrible voice, dynamic, legendary, Steelers’ main man, intelligent, colorful, one of a kind, philosopher. You name it.

But there was another word that described Cope — charitable. He raised millions of dollars for charity through the sales of his Terrible Towel.

“We had a truck load of his towels coming in one day and they were gone in no time,” said a middle-aged Pittsburgh businesswoman. The TerribleTowels are the best known symbol of any NFL team.

He teamed up for broadcasts along with teammate Bill Hillgrove and often times when Cope got carried away “a little” it was Hillgrove who smoothed things over.

Cope was not only a football broadcaster. He was a writer and he authored several books on sports personalities such as Muhammad Ali, Roberto Clemente and Howard Cosell. He also wrote articles for Sports Illustrated and The Saturday Evening Post.

He had been branded, too, as being an expert on the Steelers. He came to the Steelers in 1970, at the same time as Terry Bradshaw.

With the two of them on board, along with a number of other standouts, the Steelers won four Super Bowl championships during the 1970s. Cope had the distinction of working with two coaching greats, Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.

Dan Rooney once told Cope that he was part of the Steelers team. Said Rooney, “The Terrible Towel many times got us over the goal line.”

Cope, who appeared as one of the principal speakers at a Mercer County Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet in West Middlesex, Pa., several years ago, at times made up his own language, which highly pleased Steeler fans. “Yoi” meant approval of an outstanding play. “Double Yoi” meant an exceptional play.

It could be said that Cope combined football with show business. He made football sort of a vaudeville act.

One Steelers fan said the other day, “His voice was a Pittsburgh thing. It was the only way to listen to a Steelers game. He could have run for mayor of Pittsburgh and won. He had a unique style of broadcasting and Pittsburgh fans loved him.”

Cope was diligent, a perfectionist. One story he passed along at a banquet stuck with me. He said he and his family at one time lived in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. When they first moved there, they lived at the bottom of the hill and as time progressed and the family became more structured, they moved up the hill.

Myron, today you have reached the top of the mountain.