Jerry DiPaola: Cope Turns 76 Today

Steelers announcer will celebrate birthday in style

By Jerry DiPaola
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, January 23, 2005

Myron Cope turns 76 today, but he may not have time for a traditional birthday party.

No matter. Those swirling, yellow Terrible Towels rising out of the mass of 65,000 or so people at Heinz Field will serve as his candles. The action on the field -- his 12th broadcast of an AFC Championship game featuring the Steelers -- will be the cake.

There a few places on earth he would rather be on his birthday than calling a Steelers game for the team's radio network. The fact that he made it this far in his 35th season is a testament to his love for the game and the team, but -- more significantly -- to his undying work ethic.

"He's a firehorse," said Steelers play-by-play man Bill Hillgrove and Cope's partner for 11 years. "You ring the bell, and he answers."


That's one of the highest compliments you can pay to a man, who was and is a gifted writer and has turned into a sports icon in western Pennsylvania without ever rising above 5-foot-5 inches tall.

He will join broadcast partners Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley today, despite recent bouts with back problems, throat cancer, pneumonia and a concussion. He showed up at Heinz Field earlier this season with dried blood on the back of his head, the result of a fall at home.

He left that game early, but only after Ilkin urged him to get to the hospital.

"He was in no condition to do a broadcast that day," Hillgrove said. "But that's his job -- to broadcast Steelers game."

And Cope plans to keep doing it for as long as he believes he is able.

"He has really struggled this year with his voice," Hillgrove said, "but when the adrenaline kicks in, he is fine."
Cope admits that the job and the travel have been a challenge this season.

"Because of my age" he said. "But I think I still got it.

"People have asked me if the Steelers win the Super Bowl, will I retire? It has nothing to do with when I retire. I will retire when I feel I am no longer capable or when my bosses feel I'm not capable.

"The problem is it is still an effort for me to speak."
Cope said throat surgery last July shrunk his vocal chords, but he is contemplating an offseason procedure in which doctors will inject fat from his belly into his throat.

"The problem with that is you have to shut up for three weeks," he said. "If I can avoid it, I will."

Meanwhile, he is trying to quit smoking, but he has been a smoker "since I was a kid."

"I enjoy every smoke I ever had," he said. "The only warning was that it would stunt your growth, and I'm proof of that theory. Smoking helps me concentrate, and it has helped me make a thousand deadlines."

Cope, who has called five Super Bowls, revels in the Steelers' successes, but Hillgrove said, "He is really not a homer in the true sense of the word. He is very pro-Steeler, but if they stink, he will tell you that."

He is proud that he invented the Terrible Towel, but he is prouder that he donated its trademark rights nine years ago to the Allegheny Valley School for severely retarded people and people with multiple handicaps.

Cope is qualified to compare this season's Steelers team to the four that won Super Bowls in the 1970s, but he doesn't like to do it. Pressed on the subject, he said today's team might be "even money" to defeat the 1974 team, the Steelers' first champion.

"This team could give them a battle," he said. "For one thing, (defensive linemen) Aaron Smith and Casey Hampton look to me like two guys who can play on just about anybody's line. I think they could give Dwight White and Fats Holmes a battle. Who would win? I don't know."

Cope is most impressed by what he calls "the harmony" on the current team.

"It is amazing with this team. Apparently, New England has the same kind of harmony," he said. "The teams from the '70s had the same kind of harmony."

Cope remembers Joe Greene as the keeper of the peace.

"If someone got out of line in the locker room, all it took was a cocked eyebrow from Joe, and they would shut up," he said. "Fats would occasionally be a problem, but nothing that Joe couldn't correct."

Cope believes the Steelers will win today.

"I like the Steelers at home and I don't think the quarterback (Ben Roethlisberger) will freeze," he said. "He had the jitters (last week against the Jets), but he didn't fold."

Whatever happens, Hillgrove said, "You can always expect the unexpected (from Cope). The bottom line is he is always entertaining. He sees the world funny. That's his gift."

Jerry DiPaola can be reached at trsp20@aol.com or 412-481-5432.