Myron Cope 1929-2008

In Ohio you grow up a Buckeye fan...after that all else is pretty much fair game when it comes to sports. You like the Reds or the Indians, you like the Bengals or the Browns...you get the Cavs and the Blue Jackets, but there are packets of fans throughout Ohio that for whatever reason they enjoy another team. In Southeast Ohio there are a rabid group of Steelers fans...hell my best friend was a Steelers fan and loved Greg Lloyd, and every Sunday afternoon there were three guarantees: A Bengals game, a Browns game, and a Steelers game.

As a younger person you sat through the awful Bengals games, the horrible Browns games, and occasionally the Steelers teams were pretty decent. In my home however the Steelers were the most hated group of people since the Nazis. My father hated the Steelers with a passion. He was a Browns fan, and apparently the two don't mix.

One more thing you could count on...turning the sound down on your television during a Steelers game and cranking up the A.M. radio and listening to the highly excitable Myron Cope and his partner Bill Hillgrove, but mainly it was to listen to Cope.

Even if you didn't like the Steelers, Cope could get you pumped for a game. Sometimes you had to turn it down a notch or two because Cope apparently forgetting he was broadcasting would simply yell things just as a fan would.

One Sunday my best friend Allan and I were driving down the road and we knew the Steelers were on. We turned up the sound, and let Cope wash over us...little did we know Myron Cope almost killed us. Allan was driving...when all of the sudden Cope screams "OH MY GOD...HE'S BEATING HIM LIKE A SALAMI!" We both started laughing so hysterically that Allan began swerving all over the road. We had to pull over and in order to prevent a 57 car pileup.

Another time Myron Cope informed us that a player got hit so hard that his teeth had been knocked into the 13th row.

He would stutter, he would stammer, he would argue with whoever was in the booth with him. I haven't talked to Allan face-to-face for while but I know to this day if I looked at Allan and uttered the phrase "hmm-hah....WHAT?!?!?" We would both know it was a tribute to Cope.

For the love of God this man invented the terrible towel, and then gave all the trademark and ownership rights to Allegheny Valley School where Cope's son attended because of his severe autism.

Today I will mourn the loss of unique broadcaster. Tomorrow I will go on with my life, but I know the world is a little less exciting without Myron Cope in it.