O'Hara man savors lifetime of Steelers memories as member of chain gang

The Immaculate Reception, he was there.

The Steelers 1979 AFC Championship game victory over the Houston Oilers, he was there.

The infamous Mud Bowl game in 2007 between the Steelers and the Miami Dolphins, yes, he was there, too.

For 50 years, Leo Pilarski, 78, has been prowling the sidelines during the Steelers home games as a member of the chain gang — the stoic sideline fixtures who hold markers 10 yards apart to measure a first down and a sign to indicate the down.

“It was so much fun,” Pilarski said of his time on the sidelines.

Sunday was the Steelers’ last home game of the 2019 season, and the last game for Pilarski. At the end of this season, the longtime O’Hara resident and father of four boys will put down the marker he has been holding up for years. His sons will assume the family sideline hustle.

His oldest son, Darrin Pilarski, will take over as leader of the crew. Younger sons, Chris and Eric Pilarski, also work the sidelines. His other son, Tim Pilarski, lives in Florida.

Leo Pilarski’s voyage into the world of professional football started when he was in the stands during a Steelers game at the old Pitt Stadium. He looked down and saw someone he recognized working the sidelines.

“I yelled ‘Hey Moe,’ ” Leo said.

And, sure enough, it was Moe Pearlstein, Pilarski’s boss at Morewood Auto Body in Bloomfield.

Sometime later, as the Steelers moved into Three Rivers Stadium, one of the chain gang members quit. Pearlstein asked Pilarski if he’d like to work the games.

His first time on the sidelines was a Monday Night Football game when the Steelers played the Bengals on Nov. 2, 1970, at Three Rivers Stadium.

“I remember, they had Eric Crabtree from Pitt,” Pilarski said, smiling as he talked about old-time players such as Crabtree.

He remembers watching Lynn Swann and John Stallworth making unbelievable catches during the Steelers dynasty teams of the 1970s. His favorite player was Mel Blount.

“He played football,” Pilarski said. “They changed the game because of him.”

Pilarski said players from decades ago would sometimes come over and talk with the crew working the sidelines. Today’s players are different, Pilarski said.

“They’re more business,” he said.

But they, too, find some time to have fun.

Pilarski said that, during a Monday night game this year, JuJu Smith-Schuster took time to joke around with a couple of the younger members of the crew, including his son, Eric.

As this season winds to a close, Darrin Pilarski is ready to take over the leadership role from his father. But he’s going to miss those Sunday afternoons and Monday nights with his dad.

“It’s going to be strange not having him there with us,” Darrin Pilarski said.

Watching football games probably will become a new experience for Maggie Pilarski, Leo’s wife.

“She’s used to watching the games in peace and quiet,” Darrin Pilarski said.

While Maggie Pilarski will be happy to have her husband of 56 years with her for all of the home Steelers games, it’s easy to tell she is a bit sad to see him leaving a position that brought him so much joy.

She said friends sent the Pilarskis photos, magazine covers and football cards over the years. Each photo has a professional football player in the forefront, and in the background stands her husband, holding his down marker. A friend sent them a framed photo of Ben Roethlisberger being tackled on the sideline with the ball bouncing away from him. Standing right there by the ball is Pilarski.

The friend typed a caption below the photo, “Ben Roethlisberger and Leo Pilarski.”

Maggie Pilarski also has packed away a Louis Lipps football card. There’s the photo of Lipps running with the ball, and in the background stands Leo.

“People send us all kinds of things,” she said.

Leo Pilarski, a lifelong auto body repairman, former Little League baseball coach, umpire and Kerr Athletic League president, smiled as his son and wife looked through the memorabilia of his life on the chain gang.

They bring back fond memories of some of the greatest moments in NFL history, like the Nov. 26, 2007, game against Miami that became nicknamed the “Mud Bowl.” There were high school games and a Pitt game days before, Pilarski said. There wasn’t time to returf the field, so new turf was put over the old turf. Then it rained.

The field didn’t drain. A punt infamously stuck in the mud like a golf ball plugging into a wet fairway. (The Steelers won, 3-0.)

Pilarski also remembers that 1979 AFC Championship battle against the Oilers played on the artificial turf of Three Rivers Stadium. That 27-13 win by the Steelers led to a Super Bowl victory over the Los Angeles Rams.

And, of course, Pilarski remembers the Immaculate Reception, at least the little he saw of it.

Pilarski says he was holding the down marker on the visitor’s side at Three Rivers Stadium that day, Dec. 23, 1972. The turf, he said, had a huge crown to help with drainage. He said he saw the pass but couldn’t see what happened with Franco Harris.

So he turned to the Raiders’ George Blanda and asked him what happened.

“He said, ‘They just kicked our butts,’ ” Pilarski said.