Photo: Lucas Bucht on Unsplash
For 30 years, the Pirates and Steelers shared one big concrete circle on the North Shore. Three Rivers Stadium wasn't pretty, but a lot of Pittsburgh's best sports memories happened inside it.
Built for two sports
Ground was broken in April 1968 on the former site of Exposition Park, and the stadium replaced Forbes Field in Oakland. The $55 million stadium opened on July 16, 1970, and the Pirates lost that first game to the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2.
Three Rivers was one of several look-alike "cookie-cutter" stadiums of the era, along with Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, and Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Sections of lower-level seats moved to convert the field between baseball and football, and the playing surface was artificial turf the entire time.
The championships
The Pirates won the World Series in 1971 and 1979, clinching both in Baltimore. The 1971 Series also brought the first World Series game ever played at night, Game 4 at Three Rivers, a 4-3 Pirates win.
The Steelers turned the place into a fortress. They won four Super Bowls in six seasons in the 1970s, and they sold out every home game from 1972 until the stadium closed. Across 31 seasons there, including the postseason, they went 182-73 at home.
The moments
On December 23, 1972, Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in to beat the Oakland Raiders in the playoffs. The Immaculate Reception is still the most famous play in Steelers history.
A few months earlier, on September 30, 1972, Roberto Clemente got his 3,000th hit at Three Rivers. It was his last regular-season hit. He died that New Year's Eve in a plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
The stadium also hosted baseball's All-Star Game in 1974 and 1994, and Pitt played its home football games there in 2000.
The last games and the big bang
The Pirates played their final game there on October 1, 2000, a 10-9 loss to the Cubs. The Steelers closed the place out on December 16, 2000, beating Washington 24-3 in front of 58,183 people, with about 50 former Steelers on hand and Franco Harris standing a few yards from where he made the catch.
On the morning of February 11, 2001, crews set off 4,800 pounds of explosives, and Three Rivers came down in about 19 seconds, in a $5.1 million implosion. Thousands watched from Point State Park, Mount Washington, and rooftops around the city. PNC Park opened that spring, and Heinz Field, now Acrisure Stadium, opened that fall.
What's left
In recent years, visitors near Acrisure Stadium could still find a marker for the spot where the Immaculate Reception happened and one of the old stadium's gate pylons.
Sources
- ESPN, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium imploded
- ESPN, Steelers close Three Rivers in style
- WPXI, On this day: the Steelers' last game at Three Rivers
- KDKA, 20 years later: remembering Three Rivers Stadium
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Three Rivers Stadium went out with a bang
- Tribune-Review, Three Rivers Stadium falls quickly, without incident
- Steelers.com, Steelers by the decade: 2000s