Since the late 1800s, sports have played a key role in shaping the very character of western Pennsylvania. The area's largest city, Pittsburgh, boasts well-known professional sports teams in baseball, football, and hockey. In fact, no other city of comparable size has had such success in sports at the professional level, earning bragging rights and the nickname "City of Champions." Sports Memories of Western Pennsylvania is a salute to the athletes, coaches, announcers, and fans, both professional and amateur, who together created a rich sports history for western Pennsylvania.

Clevelands Slovaks can best be characterized as survivors. Many survived ethnic persecution and poverty so they could have a chance at something better. Beginning with a small core of immigrants seeking work aboveground rather than in the coal mines of neighboring states, Clevelands Slovak community grew through a giant chain migration. Their neighborhoods flourished close to their jobs and their churches. Many of the ancestors of todays Slovaks came to the United States classified as Hungarians. In their hearts, though, they knew what they were and what language they spoke. They held on to...

No other city in the United States is home to more Slovaks than Pittsburgh. It is estimated that close to 100,000 Slovak immigrants came to the area in the 1890s looking for work and the chance for a better life. The hills and valleys of this new land reminded newcomers of the farms, forests, and mountains they left behind. They lived in neighborhoods close to their work, forming numerous cluster communities in such places as Braddock, Duquesne, Homestead, Munhall, the North Side, Rankin, and Swissvale. Once settled, Slovak immigrants founded their own churches, schools, fraternal benefit...

Cleveland's Czech community is one of the area's oldest European ethnic groups, with a presence in the area even before the Civil War. It is almost a geographical accident that Czechs arrived in Cleveland, where they would have stopped on the way to Czech or Bohemian communities in Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin. From 1850 to 1870, the Czech community grew from 3 families to 696, according to The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Many found work making barrels for John D. Rockefeller's fledgling Standard Oil Company, while others found their way in professional life, including the arts. Their...

Since the mid-1700s, Pittsburgh has welcomed generations of immigrants. This region in southwestern Pennsylvania was once a magnet for European immigrants who carved out livings in steel, iron, glass, and other factories along its famous three rivers. Those immigrants built the city's ethnic neighborhoods: the Irish North Side, the Polish South Side, the Italian Bloomfield, as well as other immigrant enclaves in smaller cities and towns in the surrounding areas. The diversity of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods symbolizes a city truly rich in history and culture. Many notable Pittsburghers in...