Pittsburgh/Oakland Success Notes

The titles won in the past week by teams from Pittsburgh (the Penguins) and Oakland (the Warriors) are not the first such instances of Pittsburgh and Oakland having simultaneous champions.

In fact the simultaneous titles, evokes memories of a great six year period (1971-1976) when teams from one of the cities won titles every year, a combined eight by five different teams.

Additionally the football teams from the two cities met in the AFC playoffs for 5 straight seasons from (1972-1976).

The Oakland A’s won three straight World Series crowns (1972-1974), titles preceded by the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1971, Roberto Clemente and Steve Blass led W.S. triumph.

After the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1974 NFL season and Golden State Warriors in the 1974-1975 NBA season won crowns, combined with the aforementioned ’74 A’s, the two cities had three of the four major sports league champions. The other was the NHL Philadelphia Flyers.

Subsequently the Steelers in 1975 and Raiders in 1976 made it three straight NFL crowns for the two cities, one less than the four straight baseball crowns by the Pirates and A’s (1971-1975).