As their team hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in January, Hoboken’s Pittsburgh Steelers fans embraced and celebrated in the hallowed halls of…Texas Arizona?
That’s right, the bar across from the PATH station in Hoboken houses a large group of Steel City rowdies every time their team hits the field.
While this area would naturally seem to host a lot of Giants and Jets fans, it’s the transplants from other states who feel a need to stick together in local bars and root on their hometown teams.
Pittsburgh power
Ray Powers isn’t from Pittsburgh; he’s from Brooklyn. But he has kept the Steeler-faithful in Hoboken happy over the past few years by convincing local bar owners to adopt the group on Sundays.
“I’m a Brooklnite, but a lot of people migrated here from western P.A. over the years,” he said, noting the deteriorating economic conditions in the old steel towns.
Powers is the leader of the “Steelers in Hoboken” club; they meet every Sunday (or Monday, and sometimes Thursday) to watch the Pittsburgh game.
Powers took the reins from the two founding members in 2003. Those two guys – Ben and Dave – started a small club in 2000 that met at the Liberty Bar on 14th Street.
Ben and Dave have since “graduated,” as Powers calls it, and the club has outgrown its original surroundings.
In 2004, they moved to Texas Arizona to accommodate the Terrible Towel-waving Steel City fans.
“We were frustrated that you could see every Jets and every Giants game,” he said, but not his beloved Steelers.
Powers said the group started with eight people and grew to “consistent crowd of 200 every Sunday.”
Powers got involved in 2003 after almost missing a game between Pittsburgh and then-undefeated Philadelphia in Week 8. He said he couldn’t find a bar anywhere in town to show the game. He trekked to his family stomping grounds in East Rutherford with his brother after missing the first quarter.
Never again, he said to himself. “We have to find a place where we can watch the game,” Powers said at the time.
Expectations for this year?
“You come off a championship and you just want another one,” he said. “But the hardest thing to do in sports is repeat.”
Entering Eagles country
Sports fans from Philadelphia have a place to call home at Mulligan’s.
The bar on First Street houses a flock of Eagles backers for every game.
Sean Iaquinto, the head of the Eagles Club, said the group came about six years ago and has only become stronger since then.
“It’s not like we’re voting for Michael Vick for president.” – Sean Iaquinto
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The Eagles Club is in their third bar, Iaquinto said, and they hope to stay there. The idea for the club was actually sparked by the Pittsburgh football crew.
Eagles fans started to gather at McMahon’s Brownstone, then moved to Dippers (now Mikey Squared), and finally ended up taking over the bar at Mulligan’s.
Iaquinto said while searching for a place in Hoboken, some bars wanted to charge $20 per person to watch the game.
Then he happened to ask a friend and local Bud Light beer rep for a lead that turned up the part-time soccer pub, Mulligan’s.
“God bless Anheuser Busch,” he said, while commending the bar’s owner Paul Dawson for adopting the group. “We’re like the Democratic Republic of Eagles.”
Almost 100 fans show up, he said, depending on the week.
This year, his team signed one of the most polarizing characters in all of sports, Michael Vick. The then-highest-paid player in football was jailed for two years after the FBI uncovered a dog fighting ring he was running. Now he’s back.
What does the Eagle lover say?
“The big disconnect is the difference between forgiveness and condoning an action,” Iaquinto said, who said his family is full of animal lovers, himself included. “I forgive the man, but that doesn’t mean I condone the actions.”
No matter what, he’s sticking by his team.
“At the end of the day, it’s not like we’re voting for Michael Vick for president,” he said.
New Jersey, New Jersey
And what of those who continue to root for the local teams?
Giants fans can stop in any number of bars to see their game, joining the crowds that congregate at Black Bear and Green Rock. Some may still be waiting for the long-ago promised (and unlikely ever to be delivered) street naming of Eli Manning Way. They can even hop one of the new train routes to the Meadowlands to watch the game in person.
Jets fans? They are well represented among the long-time residents of Hoboken and have plenty of options to watch their team. They even have a fanatic who drives around in a Jets-themed truck.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.