Such a Small Area; So Much Talent

I was born and raised in the state of Connecticut.   My grandparents on my mothers side lived in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called Aliquippa.   I was lucky enough to have parents that fostered my relationship with my grandparents.  Aliquippa was close to 600 miles from where we lived in Connecticut yet we made that trip at least once a year.  It was always a lot of fun.  My parents,  two sisters and I would jump into the car full of excitement.    This was a great time.  The trip to see my grandparents via car took about ten hours, so it was a real opportunity for the 5 of us to talk and be around each other with just us.  No friends, no television, no computers or smartphones back in those days.   Just us.  So we would talk and talk and talk during that ten hour journey.     We'd always talk about Aliquippa, our grandparents, the amusement parks we'd be visiting, how much fun we would have.  A topic that would come up on occasion is all the great football players who were born and raised in Aliquippa.    We would talk about it in awe - how could so many great players come out of this little town?    As I got older, I found out even more phenomenally talented people came from not only Aliquippa - but in the surrounding area as well.   Just recently, my mother visited me.   After she left, we talked on the phone.  She had this area on her mind and went back to that old family topic - discussing some of the world famous names that were born and raised here.   The conversation inspired me.  I thought, yeah, there are a lot of famous people from this area, however,  could I come up with not only 20 famous people from this area, but twenty people who rose to the absolute top of their professions?  I believe I have.  I'll provide the names, where they were born, and what their biggest accomplishment was.  Rather than using Aliquippa (a town few people have ever heard of) as the reference point, I am going to use Pittsburgh since its the closest major city and a city that everyone is aware of.  These twenty people I list here were all either born, raised, or born and raised within a 40 mile radius of Pittsburgh.   And they are:

Bill Cowher:  Crafton, PA.   Head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers for 14 years.  Won Super Bowl 40.

Jim Kelly:  Pittsburgh, PA.  Great quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.  Only QB in history to bring his team to 4 consecutive Super Bowls.

Joe Montana:  New Eagle, PA.  Won 4 Super Bowls in the 1980s with the San Francisco 49ers.

Joe Namath:  Beaver Falls, PA.  Won Super Bowl 3 with the New York Jets.

Dan Marino:  Pittsburgh, PA. One of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.  He went to one Super Bowl with the Miami Dolphins.  He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Pete Maravich:  Aliquippa, PA.  Nicknamed "Pistol Pete" he has been called the best ball handler of all time.  He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987.

Henry Mancini:  born in Cleveland, Ohio, raised in West Aliquippa, PA.  Mancini won 20 Grammy Awards and 4 Oscars during his career.  He is probably best known for creating "The Pink Panther Theme".

Mike Ditka:  Aliquippa, PA.   A great and renowned football player.  He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.  Probably best known as the head coach of the 1985 Chicago Bears.  A very popular team, they won the Super Bowl that year.

John Kasich:  McKees Rocks, PA.  Kasich is currently the Governor of Ohio.  He ran for President in 2000 and 2016.

Terry Francona:  New Brighton, PA.  Currently the manager of the Cleveland Indians, Francona won 2 World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox.

Dick Allen:  Wampum, PA.  A great baseball player, Allen won the 1964 Rookie of the Year award and the 1972 Most Valuable Player award.

Marvin Lewis:  McDonald, PA.  Lewis is currently the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.   He's probably best known as the Defensive Coordinator of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.  The 2000 Raven defense is generally thought of as one of the all time best.

George Blanda:  Youngwood, PA.  Blanda played professional football for longer than anyone else in history (26 seasons).      He holds the all time record for extra points kicked.   He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of fame in 1981.

Billy Conn:  Pittsburgh, PA.  Billy Conn was the World Light Heavyweight boxing champion from 1939 to 1940.

Tony Dorsett:  Rochester, PA  A great football player, he won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys in 1978.  He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of fame in 1994.

Arnold Palmer:  Latrobe, PA.  Considered one of the greatest golfers of all time.  Palmer won the Masters Tournament 4 times.

Johnny Unitas:  Pittsburgh, PA.  A three time NFL champion (1958, 1959 and Super Bowl 5), Unitas is one of the greatest Quarterbacks to ever play the game.  He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in  1979.

Honus Wagner:  Carnegie, PA.  Wagner was an all time great baseball player.  He was the National League batting champion 8 times.  He led the league in stolen bases and runs batted in 5 times.  He was elected to Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.

F. Murray Abraham:  Pittsburgh, PA.  Abraham has been an actor in motion pictures from 1971 to the present.  He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1985 for his performance in the 1984 film "Amadeus".

Andy Warhol:  A world famous pop icon and artist.  He was born in Pittsburgh, PA.

Michael Keaton:  Movie actor, earned an Academy Award nomination for the film "Birdman".  Born in Coraopolis, PA.

We've come to the end here and I think I've saved the best for last.  This is a man who was an incredible innovator and probably one of the best known entertainers of my generation.  Just about every GenX'r grew up with this man.   And who is he???  Mr. Rogers.  Fred Rogers was born in Latrobe, PA.  He was a leader in the field of children's television programming.  He won countless awards for his show - "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood".  I couldn't think of a better individual to put the icing on the cake of this article.

UPDATE:  I discovered there were two more amazingly talented people that rose to the top of their professions and would have qualified for this article:  Mark Cuban (born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA), the self made tech billionaire who is probably best known as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.  And the actor Jeff Goldblum, who was born in Pittsburgh, PA.

 

PS:  I'd  like to add three more All-Pro football  players to this list:  Ty Law, Darrelle Revis and Sean Gilbert.  All 3 were born and raised in Aliquippa, PA.

 

And there you have it.  As the title says:  Such a Small Area; So Much Talent.   I can't think of another 40 mile radius in this country that has produced such incredibly talented people.  However,  I welcome any other opinions.....