BLACK & GOLD CHEERLEADERS?
YOU BET!

I know this is a question that often crops up when Steelers fans getting to talking about their team; why haven't they got cheerleaders? But they did in their early days, so who were these ladies?

Pittsburgh-Live.com posted last year;
"As the National Football League's first official cheerleaders, they arrived the same year John F. Kennedy became president and went away the year a man walked on the moon. In many ways, their existence was also symbolic of the type of changes that would characterize that turbulent era.

But most of all, the cheerleaders, who were all Robert Morris Junior College (now Robert Morris University) students, represented the Steelers and the southwestern Pennsylvania hometowns from which most came. In all, nearly 60 women were Steelerettes. "

The full article can be found on Pittsburgh-Live.com.

I know that since I have been following the Steelers from the early eighties, cheerleaders did not exist. I remember the Terrible Towel being the mascot at the first game I went to in 1991.

The days of the cheerleaders were long gone... until 1997. Following the Steelers to Scottsdale, Arizona for Super Bowl XXX and what do we find?

When we visited their training complex at Scottsdale Community College, we discovered some young ladies who were going to become the Steelers' cheerleaders on the Sunday.

They were being interviewed by the Pittsburgh media while we were waiting for the team to arrive. The full story of the UK fans' trip to Super Bowl XXX can be found here.

With the recent surge of interest in the Steelerettes, their web site has now arrived online.

Steelerettes.com has a full listing and photos of all the young ladies who were cheerleaders from 1961 until 1969. In addition there's the stories and photos from their recent reunions.