'Special' Hill District corner named after Pitt basketball great Sam Clancy

Sam Clancy estimates that Tim Grgurich had dinner at his home near the corner of Bedford Avenue and Roberts Street in the Hill District “60 or 70 times.”

Luckily for the former Pitt basketball coach and tireless recruiter of the mid 1970s, the university’s compliance department looked the other way. Or, perhaps, NCAA rules were different in those days.

In any case, when Sam’s mom, Rosie, wasn’t serving dinner to Grgurich, she sat outside and watched legendary basketball coaches such as Bobby Knight and Dean Smith drive by the house. They were hoping to build a connection with her son, one of the most coveted players in the country in 1977.

Clancy is proud to say he grew up on that street corner and learned to play basketball first at Letche Elementary School, a block and a half away, then at Fifth Avenue and Brashear high schools and, later, at Pitt.

Pittsburgh City Council honors the great Sam Clancy. pic.twitter.com/YV9XrmK03Z

— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) June 21, 2023

And so it was decreed Wednesday morning by Pittsburgh City Council that Saturday will be Sam Clancy Day, and a street sign at the corner will be unveiled in his honor at 11:30 a.m.

“It was a special corner,” Clancy said before a ceremony in the City County Building.

Clancy said he had loving parents, Jerry and Rosie, who were deeply involved in his life, but they had help in raising their boy.

“When I grew up, it was a total community involvement,” he said. “My mom and dad raised me. But aunts and uncles had a hand. The neighbor down the street had a hand. Up street had a hand. No matter who you were, you got the love and support from that neighborhood.”

He laments how times have changed.

“I’ve been gone a long time, and I know there are some parents who are still trying to do that,” he said. “I also know there are a lot that fell by the wayside in supporting every kid, not just their own.”

Which is why the neighborhood group, Uptown 2.0, has decided it’s long past time for Hill District youths to have the same opportunities Clancy and his friends had in their formative years.

“We came together the past couple years, to try to reunite baseball with the city,” Uptown 2.0 member Andre Hilliard said. “We felt it was only right to highlight some of the individuals we looked up to in the Hill District.”

A street was named for former West Virginia quarterback Major Harris last year, and there are plans to honor former Schenley High School basketball star Maurice Lucas.

“There hasn’t been baseball on the Hill for over 25 years,” Clancy said. “When I grew up, everybody played baseball, except for me. I struck out every time.

“They want to get baseball started again. That’s why they came to me. They said kids today don’t know their past, and I was honored that they chose me to be one of the guys to make it happen.”

Clancy is happy to give back to the Hill.

“I’m not who I am because of just (being) Sam Clancy,” he said. “I’m who I am because of the people who were around me.”

He said his first basketball coach in fourth grade was Letche’s girls gym teacher, Janine Brown.

“I tried to play the violin, but I wasn’t very good,” he said. “That’s why she turned me on to basketball.

“She said, ‘C’mere. I want to show you something.’ She put the ball in my hands and said, ‘You should be playing this game.’

“She taught me how to make a layup. In sixth grade, I started dunking. I was excited about playing because she would play against the men’s gym teacher all the time after school. They played one-on-one, and she was kicking his butt. She was little, short, round woman, but she was athletic and had skills.

“All through my professional career, I kept in touch with her. If it wasn’t for her, who knows what I’d have been doing? Probably working in the steel mill with my dad.”

Clancy led Fifth Avenue to a state championship as a junior in 1976, and, when the school closed the next year, he was a member of Brashear’s first graduating class. Along the way, his teams won five City League championships.

When it came time to pick a college, he narrowed his choices to Ohio State, N.C. State and Pitt. He picked Pitt — those dinners mattered — and turned into one of its all-time greats. He is 12th on the school’s career scoring list (1,672 points) and first in rebounds (1,326). He’s the only player in Pitt’s long history to reach four digits in both categories. Presently, he is director of Pitt’s Varsity Letter Club.

Clancy was drafted by the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, but after his one season in the Continental Basketball Association, he was chosen by the Seattle Seahawks in the 11th round of the 1982 NFL Draft. He hadn’t played football since high school, but, for a man of his skills and strength, it didn’t matter.

He played for the Seahawks, Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts and recorded 30 sacks in 10 NFL seasons. He also played for the USFL’s Pittsburgh Maulers and Memphis Showboats.

He practiced with the Pitt football team one spring but never joined the team. Earlier, on a basketball recruiting visit to Ohio State, Clancy was approached by football coach Woody Hayes.

“Ohio State was tempting because of Woody Hayes,” Clancy said. “He said, ‘Son, I know who you are. If you come here to The Ohio State, you can play football and basketball.’ ”

Hayes failed to woo Clancy, who also was considering N.C. State while leaning strongly toward Pitt.

“The reason I wanted to go there (N.C. State), I think they were doing something illegal,” he said. “Everybody on the team had a Corvette. I passed up the Corvette for Pitt.”