The Steelers and the Pirates were not the Steel City’s only championship team during the 1970’s. Pittsburgh also had the Triangles – a co-ed, six-player World Team Tennis promotion that played at the Civic Arena and brought home a title in 1975 with the help of Grand Slam champions Evonne Goolagong and Vitas Gerulaitis.
Western Pennsylvania sports fans didn’t care much for the Pittsburgh Condors of the American Basketball Association. But this odd little team has become a cult favorite of ABA collectors and nostalgists thanks to its short life span, deeply weird storylines and some great-looking-but-very-rare memorabilia. The Condors were chaotic from start to finish, greeting Pittsburgh with a botched Name The Team contest and playing their final “home” game in Tucson, Arizona two years later.
The Pittsburgh Stingers were part of a brief attempt by Pittsburgh Penguins owner Howard Baldwin to create a year-round team sports & entertainment operation out of Pittsburgh Civic Arena, using the organizational infrastructure of the Penguins. At the same time Baldwin entered the Stingers in the Continental Indoor Soccer League in the summer of 1994, he also launched the Pittsburgh Phantoms of Roller Hockey International. Both the Stingers and the Phantoms filled empty summer dates at the Civic Arena. During this same time period, Baldwin also produced his first Hollywood film – the big-budget Jean-Claude Van Damme thriller “Sudden Death” – in which the Muscles from Brussels battles terrorists in the Civic Arena during the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Spirit were Pittsburgh’s indoor soccer team at the Civic Arena from 1978 until 1986. During their peak years in the early 1980’s, the Spirit was owned by Pittsburgh Penguins owner Edward DeBartolo and frequently drew better crowds than the Pens. That dynamic changed with the NHL debut of Mario Lemieux in 1984 and the Spirit closed their doors in the spring of 1986.
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