A pencil drawing of the late Art Rooney Sr., founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is displayed at the Verostko Art Center at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. (Massoud Hossaini | TribLive)
Story by JEFF HIMLER
Tribune-Review
August 3, 2025
No matter where you look on the Saint Vincent College campus, it’s hard not to find the influence of the Rooney family.
From Rooney Hall and Chuck Noll Field to the Verostko Center for the Arts and the under-construction Dunlap Family Athletic and Recreation Center, the Rooneys — and by extension the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise — have left a lasting legacy at the Unity college.
It’s also clear that the college, founded by Benedictine monks in 1846, has had an impact on the Rooneys, from Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr. to his grandson and current Steelers President Art Rooney II.
The relationship comes into focus every July and August, when the Steelers take over the scenic campus at the foothills of the Laurel Highlands for training camp. But the connection between the Rooney family and the college runs deeper than a Lynn Swann go-route.
“It’s been a family relationship and an ongoing connection,” said the Rev. Paul R. Taylor, president of the college and member of the Saint Vincent monastic community. “Over the years, with training camps here, we’ve gotten to know the whole Rooney family.”
Some of Art Rooney II’s sharpest memories at Saint Vincent involve Terry Bradshaw, Joe Greene and sore hands.
“I was there from the very beginning of our days at Saint Vincent,” said Rooney, who joined the college’s board of directors in 2014 and today serves as board chairman. “I remember the first day Joe Greene came to practice and the first day Terry Bradshaw started training camp.
“One of my jobs was to warm up Bradshaw, catching passes. He was blistering my hands, he threw the ball so hard.”
Many Rooneys, he said, have served as ball boys during training camp through the years, himself included.
“There are always some Rooneys around training camp,” he said.
On the first day of training camp, Art II can be found in the Saint Vincent Archabbey Basilica.
“Every year the first thing I do the first day we get there, I go over and say prayers,” he said. “It’s just a great opportunity to get closer to God and be around people who are saying a lot of prayers every day for us.”
Taylor celebrates Mass in the basilica on the first Sunday during training camp. The service draws Steelers personnel, fans and local parishioners.
“It’s something unique to the Rooney culture and the Steelers culture, and it’s part of the Saint Vincent culture, that we have an opening Mass for the training camp,” Taylor said. “The fans will come early and fill the basilica with their Steelers jerseys on and Steelers paraphernalia. You can see a sea of black and gold in the pews.”
The relationship between Saint Vincent and the Rooney family dates to the first half of the 1900s. Those ties have only grown stronger under three generations of Rooneys at the helm of the Steelers franchise, built upon a foundation of shared faith and values.
Rooney Sr., who was born in 1901, came to Saint Vincent as a member of the Duquesne University Prep School football squad, Taylor said. He and his teammates played against Saint Vincent’s own prep school, which operated through 1974.
As an adult, Rooney was among the hundreds of men from throughout the region who came to Saint Vincent to attend Catholic retreats in the summer.
In the early to mid-2oth century, with the college students on break, “It was a big tradition,” Taylor said. “Our residence halls every weekend were booked with these retreats.
“Art Rooney, The Chief, would come to a summer retreat each year. When his kids started getting older, he brought his five children, too.”
Rooney Sr. didn’t forget Saint Vincent’s prep school team. In the 1930s, he presented the team with the silver Arthur Rooney Football Trophy — inscribed each year with the name of Saint Vincent’s outstanding player of the year, announced at an annual December banquet.
The Chief paid $2,500 in 1933 for the Pittsburgh franchise in the fledgling National Football League. Eight years later, in 1941, the Steelers made an initial, short-lived preseason foray to Saint Vincent, according to research by Archabbey and College archivist Guy Davis.
“During that season, 30 team players traveled daily from the Mountain View Hotel to Saint Vincent for a workout,” Davis said.
In 1957, Art Rooney Jr. — one of The Chief’s sons — graduated from Saint Vincent with a history degree. He went on to scout for the Steelers and served as the team’s personnel director from 1965 to 1986. Today he is one of the Steelers’ vice presidents.
Rooney Jr.’s brother, Dan, who served as Steelers president from 1975 to 2003, had a less agreeable experience at Saint Vincent — as a prospective student and potential player with its football team.
After graduating from North Catholic High School in 1950, Dan Rooney was looking for a spot at a Catholic institution of higher learning. He recalled in the 2007 memoir “My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and The NFL” that he had resisted enrolling at St. Bonaventure, so his father said he should attend Saint Vincent.
According to the book, Dan Rooney “wasn’t happy being there, mostly because it wasn’t my choice. What’s more, the football coaches there had the most complicated playbook I’d ever seen.”
It didn’t take long before he left and enrolled at Duquesne University, where he graduated in 1955.
By 1966, the Steelers began calling Saint Vincent their training camp home. Art Rooney Jr. has been credited with playing a crucial part in that.
Oland “Dodo” Canterna told TribLive in 2006 that the move was approved by the Saint Vincent monks after Canterna received a phone call from Rooney Jr. suggesting it. At the time, Canterna coached the college’s men’s basketball and baseball teams.
“There are rigid specifications for a training camp, and Saint Vincent College in Latrobe fills the bill,” Art Jr. wrote in the 2008 book he penned with former Pittsburgh Press columnist Roy McHugh, “Ruanaidh: The story of Art Rooney and his clan.” “It’s off the beaten path — rustic but not without amenities, removed from big-city distractions but accessible to the Steelers’ fan base.”
Since the Steelers’ arrival in 1966, the Saint Vincent campus has seen improvements that have benefited its students and the team — with the Steelers and the Rooneys counted among frequent financial supporters.
Rooney Hall, which houses about 180 students when class is in session, is where the Steelers players sleep — with the added amenity of air conditioning. That luxury wasn’t always available, even while the team was winning Super Bowls during the 1970s. Named for the team’s founder, it was constructed in 1995 at a cost of $5 million, with the Steelers donating funds toward the project.
Alternately accommodating Steelers training camp and Bearcats football games, Chuck Noll Field was dedicated on Aug. 2, 2007, representing a major upgrade from Saint Vincent’s previous football facility at the same site.
The Steelers, together with Dan Rooney and wife Patricia, provided support for the improved facility. Additions included a tw0-tier press box, concession stand and 1,050-seat grandstand.
Before that, for many spectators, Taylor said, “It was blankets and picnic baskets.”
Currently under construction is the $20 million Dunlap Family Athletic and Recreation Center, which will house fitness programs, indoor sport courts and a recreational track.
The Steelers, along with several other contributors, have donated funds toward that building.
Art Rooney Jr. and his wife, Kay, also have donated a collection of Steelers and Rooney family art and images to Saint Vincent’s art center.
“The Steelers and the Rooney family have been very generous and wonderful partners over the years,” Taylor said. “It’s personal, the friendships that we have for one another.”
The feeling is mutual.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful small college campuses in the area,” Art Rooney II said. “Our family has been happy to be part of it, along with a lot of other donors and families that have stood by Saint Vincent and made contributions.
“I talk up Saint Vincent any chance I get.”
Taylor said Art Rooney II’s assistance to the university goes beyond his work on the board.
“He’s been very helpful in continuing to engage external constituents with us, so that people can see what unfortunately is sometimes called a hidden gem,” Taylor said, adding, “We monks don’t like to brag a lot.”
Art Rooney II embodies the Saint Vincent-Steelers connection, providing leadership on the college board of directors as well as in the Steelers’ front office. He became a member of the college board in 2014, was appointed vice chairman in 2020 and took on the chairmanship the following year.
Rooney said he joined the board at the suggestion of Taylor and of the late Douglas R. Nowicki, who was then Saint Vincent’s archabbot. Rooney serves on the panel alongside the current archabbot, the Right Rev. Martin de Porres Bartel, and several representatives of Saint Vincent’s monastery and seminary, as well as local community leaders.
“It’s been a rewarding experience,” Rooney said. “The dedication of the Benedictines, I get to witness that firsthand. It’s a really great asset of Saint Vincent, being that close to the monastery.”
In addition to attending training camp, Rooney travels to Saint Vincent for at least four college board meetings each year and for other special occasions, including groundbreaking and dedication ceremonies for campus improvements.
Saint Vincent board member Timothy Hudak is a 1984 graduate of the college, a Penn Hills resident and a partner in the law firm Eckert Seamans. He said Rooney II, who holds a law degree from Duquesne University, is fully engaged in his role as board chairman while still presiding over the Steelers organization.
“He’s very strong from a strategic-thinking perspective … in terms of what we’re doing to make the college sustain and grow and to continue to improve,” Hudak said.
Unity resident Bibiana Boerio, who has served on the Saint Vincent board for about a decade, leads its strategic planning committee.
The Derry Township native, who held various positions with the Ford Motor Company and its financing subsidiary between 1976 and 2003, said of Rooney, “He knows how to run a board, with the right balance of being engaged but not micromanaging.”
Hudak and Boerio see the relationship between the college and the Rooneys and the Steelers organization as a win for all involved — particularly when it’s time for training camp.
“It’s good for the players, who get to live outside their own bubble,” Boerio said, noting they may encounter fans at Saint Vincent who can’t normally make it to a Steelers game.
For Saint Vincent, she said, training camp exposes the college to new audiences through the fans it draws in person as well as those who see the campus setting in the background of media coverage.
“It’s never bad to see your college featured in a pro sports video,” Boerio said.
“It’s a tremendous value to the branding and marketing of Saint Vincent College,” Hudak said, “especially the training camp component.”
Rooney said the ties among the college, the Steelers and his family are strong and show no sign of fading.
“There aren’t that many teams left in the NFL that actually go to a training camp,” he said. “A lot of them have their own fancy facilities that they stay in year-round. But we think the atmosphere at Saint Vincent, both for our fans and our team, is something special.”
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter @jhimler_news
Massoud Hossaini is a Tribune-Review photographer. You can contact Massoud via email at mhossaini@triblive.com or via Twitter @massoud151
Louis B. Ruediger is a Tribune-Review photographer. You can contact Louis via email at lruediger@triblive.com or via Twitter @louisruediger
Chaz Palla is a Tribune-Review photographer. You can contact Chaz via email at cpalla@triblive.com or via Twitter @ChazPalla