The Voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Myron Cope, is dead

[QuadzillaXXX]

Myron Cope dead at 79
By The Tribune-Review
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

His high-pitched screech was the most unlikely to serve as the voice of Steeler Nation.

Yet for more than three decades, Pittsburgh's football faithful muted their televisions and turned up the radio to hear the beloved icon known simply as Myron.

Hall of Fame Steelers broadcaster Myron Cope died this morning at a nursing home in Mt. Lebanon, said Joe Gordon, a former Steelers executive and a longtime friend of Cope's. Cope had been treated for respiratory problems and heart failure in recent months, Gordon said.

He was 79.

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The diminutive creator of the "Terrible Towel," Cope entertained and informed fans with his manic style of color-commentary on the Steelers Radio Network from 1970 until June 2005.

"Myron touched millions of people throughout his life, first as a tremendous sportswriter and then as a Hall of Fame broadcaster," Steelers chairman Dan Rooney said. "Myron was also a very close friend. His contributions and dedication to Steelers football were incredible. His creation of The Terrible Towel has developed into a worldwide symbol that is synonymous with Steelers football. He also helped immortalize the most famous play in NFL history when he popularized the term 'Immaculate Reception.'

"Myron was a very passionate person who truly cared about others and dedicated much of his personal time to help numerous charities."

Cope is survived by two grown children, Danny and Elizabeth. His late wife, Mildred, died Sept. 20, 1994, after a long illness.

"Myron symbolizes everything that is great about Southwestern Pennsylvania, and my thoughts and prayers go out his to family," Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said this morning. "Today, the entire Steeler Nation mourns the loss of great man and a great Pittsburgher."

An acclaimed newspaper and magazine writer who hosted his own nightly sports talkshow on WTAE Radio for 22 years, Cope said he wanted to be remembered as a writer.

He blended a knowledge of the game with an endearing sense of self-deprecating humor, once quipping that his nasal voice "falls upon the public's ears like china crashing from shelves in an earthquake."

Through the Steelers' first four Super Bowl championships, the listening public celebrated Cope's quirky on-air expressions -- "Yoi!" "Double-Yoi!" and "Hmm-hah!" are entrenched in the local lexicon.

"Myron is Pittsburgh," former Steelers coach Bill Cowher once said. "I remember when I first got the job here in 1992 having to go down to his studio and do his show that night and thinking, 'I remember listening to this guy when I was in my kitchen in Crafton.'

"My dad would be out there at night listening to his talk show, and I would be thinking, 'Why would you listen to that?' Then, I found myself listening to that."

Cope invented the best-known symbol of Steelers' pride, the Terrible Towel. The idea came before a playoff game in December 1975, when his boss at WTAE wanted a gimmick that would get the crowd at Three Rivers Stadium more involved.

Fans still wildly wave the black-and-gold cloths at Heinz Field and in bars and living rooms across the country. Cope sold the trademark for the towels in 1996 to Allegheny Valley School, an institution for the mentally and physically challenged. The school has brought in almost $1 million from sales of the towel.

"It became something that everybody in Pittsburgh could rally around," Noll said of the invention's impact.

Cope was born Myron Sydney Kopelman on Jan. 23, 1929, in Pittsburgh. He graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School -- briefly boxing at the age of 16 -- and the University of Pittsburgh before launching a career in print journalism.

He started out in newspapers, working first at the Erie Times. In the summer of 1951, Cope was hired by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where an editor suggested that his last name sounded too Jewish and that he shorten it. As Cope recounted in his autobiography "Double Yoi!", the editor began shuffling through the phone book and stopped at "Cope."

In 1960, Cope left the Post-Gazette to try his luck at freelance writing. He would always remember what his editor at the newspaper, Al Abrams, told him before he left: "Kid, you'll starve. You'll be back in six months."

Instead, Cope became a successful writer for Sports Illustrated and the Saturday Evening Post. During his time at SI, he wrote widely acclaimed pieces on the likes of Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) and sportscaster Howard Cosell. Cope was one of only two writers under contract for SI, the other being George Plimpton.

In 1968, Cope changed courses again and took a part-time job at WTAE Radio. He parlayed that into his job with the Steelers broadcast team in 1970 and into his career as a radio talk-show host.

Cope battled health problems for the last several years of his career, including severe arthritis, a chronically bad back, pneumonia and throat problems. He missed the team's first three exhibition games of the 2004 season while recovering from throat surgery and pneumonia. Then, he had to leave a game that season because of the after-effects of a concussion he suffered at home the night before, the result of a fall.

Prior to that, Cope had missed only five quarters of Steelers football: One quarter of a game early in his career to attend his brother-in-law's funeral and a game in 1994 after his wife died.

Steelers play-by-play announcer Bill Hillgrove said in 2005 it was hard to see his longtime broadcast partner struggle near the end of his career.

"We're going to have to work harder because nobody worked harder than Myron," Hillgrove said when Cope retired. "We're going to have to assume the responsibility of having his eye for news and knowledge of the game's history."

When Cope conducted his last radio show in 2005, the final caller was a first-time caller who had been waiting 13 years to say what Cope meant to her family.

One night, she said, her family was sitting at the dinner table and Cope was signing off. He began his familiar closing with, "This is Myron Cope " and the woman's 8-month-old son chimed in "on sports." They were the child's first back-to-back words.

"That was perfect," Cope said after the show. "The kid's first words -- 'On sports' -- I never could have planned such a perfect last ca

[Randle Pat McMurphy]

Nothing is Cope-Aesthetic, nothing is Okel-Dokel in the Steeler Nation today upon hearing the news of the passing of legendary broadcaster Myron Cope. The long time voice of the Steelers and the creator of the Terrible towel will be sorely missed, you betchya.


For those of you who didnt have a chance to listen to Myron, read his written works, witness his love for city of Pittsburgh and its teams...well let me just say you missed the opportunity to witness a one of a kind.


The diminutive man with the voice which grated on you like the sound of someone scraping their nails across a chalkboard was almost run out of town when he first began broadcasting in Pittsburgh. But, his Copeisms, his anual Christmas carols, the Cope-ra-scope, his stuttering, spitting, and stammering when the excitement of the game overwhelmed him grew on me as it did most Pittsburghers. Got to the point where I religiously turned the sound down while watching the game on tv so I could hear the radio broadcast peppered with the Yoi!, Double Yoi's and other Copeisms.


I borrow a paragraph from Mike Prisuta:
The Steeler Nation knows and adores Cope because of that voice, the one Cope himself describes as "falling on the public's ears like china crashing from shelves in an earthquake." And Steelers fans have long embraced Cope as the team's analyst/mascot for the ages, as the man who got soaked with Jack Lambert in a Kennywood commercial; arranged for a myna bird to be placed upon Terry Bradshaw's ailing elbow; invented The Terrible Towel; and opened a Christmas carol by blaring "Deck those Broncos, They're just yonkos, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la, la-la."


Yet, Myron wasnt just the feisty, cantankerous voice of the Steelers, he was much more than that. As Jerome Bettis summarized it awhile back "He doesn't play, he doesn't put on a pair of pads, but he's revered probably as much or more in Pittsburgh than Franco (Harris), all the guys. Everybody probably remembers Myron more than the greatest players, and that's an incredible compliment." He was revered because he was a man who unselfishly gave to his city and never asked anything in return. A man who quietly supported the causes which were near and dear to his heart, every penny from the sales of his Terrible Towels was donated to charity.



As the Steel curtain comes down on on the life of Myron Cope, I am reminded of his voice uttering the words I got used to hearing at the end of each of his broadcasts: "This is Myron Cope on sports...."


Thanks for the memories Myron.

[ZIGGYSTARDUST]

Yoi !!!!! A sad day for all long standing Steeler fans... Class act... While bartending in Greensburg drew Myron a few beers at Bobby Dales on numerous occasions .... RIP...

[bill2266]

I Was Born In Pittsbugh Lived There 19 Years And Love Copes Voice On The Radio, While Watching The Game. Rip Cope, And Heres A Chat For You Here We Go Steelers Here We Go!

[ZIGGYSTARDUST]

Tribute tonight at Pens game ... Fans bringing their terrible towels..

[Randle Pat McMurphy]

Cant imagine what the funeral services and the procession will be like. If they are open to the public, then you will see huge crowds which will shut down the area where they are held. He deserves the city's goodbye.

[Romanowski]

Rip..

[bambino66]

I posted this in the Pro Football forum before I seen this thread...


R.I.P. Myron....

Not only has Pittsburgh been blessed with some great teams of the past but we have also been blessed to have some of the bigger characters in the booth.

The Gunner Bob Prince started the legend roll in my lifetime...I will never forget his last ever appearance in the booth...His final game was a one inning stint in which The Pirates put a 10 spot on the board. It seemed like The Buccos didnt want to make the last out so the old gunner could keep on going...He died a short time later...

Myron continued the legacy of characters in the booth with the invention of the world famous Terrible Towel...His catch phrases were part of everyday conversations in the heyday of The Steelers...YOI and Double Yoi...My favorite one though was how he coined The Bengals, The BUNgals....Final game at 3 Rivers against Washington Cope was getting on Dan Snyder and the sensitive one sent a rep to the booth to tell Cope to knock it off...Needless to say that sent Myron over the edge...LOL..

We now have Mike Lange who is a legend in his own right...The people of Fox Sports who let Lange go to replace him with Paul Steigerwald should never show thier face in public again....

I was just talking to a friend recently after Fats Holmes passed away and we were both saying its amazing how time flies...I can remember like it was yesterday watching those teams of the 70's and listening to Myron and Jack Fleming doing the call on the radio....The good old days, at times I wish they were back

[alby]

Originally Posted by bambino66

We now have Mike Lange who is a legend in his own right...The people of Fox Sports who let Lange go to replace him with Paul Steigerwald should never show thier face in public again....

that was a f'kn crime....It sucks cause you can't even mute the tv and listen to the radio broadcast while watching cause its not synced up.

Steigerwald should be ashamed of himself for taking the job imo.

not a steeler fan, but for those who never heard him he was as good as they get.

btw anyone hear the Myron clip they were playing on DVE today, about his health, played it at least 4 times, fk'n hilarious.