Rooney named his franchise the Pittsburgh Pirates in honor of the Steel City's Major League Baseball team. The team had to play early and nighttime weekday games until a new Pennsylvania law allowed them to play on Sundays.

The Pirates that day lost their first game in the League 23-2 to the New York Football Giants at old Forbes Field. It would take the upstart team only a short time to find victory, though, as the very next week, the Pittsburgh Professional Football Club defeated the Chicago Cardinals 14-13 in the friendly confines of Forbes Field. In the early 1940s Rooney changed the team moniker to the Steelers. NFL Team origin