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Sunday, January 12, 2003

By Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- For thousands of Pittsburgh Steelers fans, this place turned into "Heartbreak Hotel."

At least they'll have fond memories of Music City to take home after probably wanting to forget how the Black and Gold lost a playoff thriller in overtime.

The Steelers went down in the game, 34-31, and ended their season, when the Tennessee Titans kicked a 26-yard field goal -- after a controversial call by the officials -- on their first possession in overtime.

The fans converged on Nashville from such places as Uniontown, Eighty Four and California, Pa., locally and from as far away as Glastonbury, Conn., Jackson, Miss., and Baltimore.

Although they left disappointed, they received a warm, Southern welcome that they didn't anticipate when they came streaming into town, many of them days ago.

Who knew there would be such a Steelers presence in Tennessee, complete with food, drink and fight songs, even the polka?

Hundreds of fans from Pittsburgh bought tickets off the Internet (at a cost, generally, of $100 to $170 each) and drove to the game, many through blizzard conditions on Friday night.

Others simply showed up, hoping to buy tickets from scalpers.

And many of them sauntered past a tailgate put together by the Pittsburgh Club of Memphis, which had snagged a primo position next to the Coliseum, facing the river.

Before Willi Dye ever knew where Pittsburgh is, before he ever ventured away from his birthplace of Memphis, Tenn., he was all about the Steelers.

The way Dye tells it, he didn't have a choice: "I was raised by my older brother, who passed last year, and he raised me up to be a Steelers fan."

Ever since, "Steelers Willi," as he is better known, has tried to surround himself with kindred souls. A couple of years ago, he became a card-carrying member of the Pittsburgh Club of Memphis.

Yesterday afternoon, at the club's tailgate before the Steelers-Tennessee Titans playoff game, he became part of an even bigger group.

"We don't know these people," Sharon Overman said of all the Steelers fans who passed by the tailgate. "But that doesn't matter."

After the game, she was disappointed but not angry.

"There's always next season," she said. "I don't feel too much in the doghouse." Her husband Bob interrupted: "I feel that bad."

"But it wasn't as bad as last year against New England," the last time the Steelers were ousted from a run for the Super Bowl, Sharon Overman argued.

The Pittsburgh Club of Memphis' tailgate was adorned with an American flag, Steelers flag and Steelers windsock. A brand-new professionally-made large banner announcing "We're baaaack" was visible to anyone coming over the bridge from Nashville's business district.

There wasn't much in the way to block the view.

"Can you believe this?" asked Joe Knorr of Eighty-Four, waving the hand not holding his beer at the practically empty parking lots. "If this was Pittsburgh, can you imagine?"

Knorr knows dedication. His brother, Bud, lives in Glastonbury, Conn., but he hasn't missed a Steelers home game in 17 years, meaning that over those years he has driven about 217,000 miles to watch the team.

The Knorrs moved on, and another cluster of Steelers fans took their place. Rob Ritz of Uniontown, who once spent the night in a U-Haul truck on General Robinson Street and still couldn't find a spot in a parking lot in the morning, thought the Titans fans were particularly apathetic.

"It's because they haven't had a team that long," he figured. "They haven't been through the good and the bad."

It was also because most Titans fans can't tailgate near the Coliseum. Those parking lots are reserved for season-ticket holders. So most Titans fans do their tailgating across the river.

"Here they all drive up in limousines 10 minutes before the game," Richard Patronie of Memphis said.

The fans from Memphis were just as appalled as the genuine Pittsburghers, although they are more accustomed to it.

Bob Overman moved from Johnstown in 1964 to attend the University of Tennessee; much to his surprise, he stayed. His residence, however, doesn't affect his allegiance. "Once a Steeler, always a Steeler, you know."

In the early 1990s, Pat Garrison formed the Pittsburgh Club of Memphis, now 300 strong. "The only thing we have in common," Sharon Overman said, "is the Steelers."

More than half have never even left Tennessee, let alone visited Pittsburgh.