STEELER NATION MEET THEIR 1992 MVP
BARRY FOSTER 1992 MVP
Saturday October 23rd. Our last full day in Pittsburgh. I phoned Dan Edwards and he told us to come over to the stadium at 1300 as the players would be leaving for Cleveland at 1430. We had arranged to present the Steelers UK's MVP trophy for 1992 to Barry Foster, so our expectations were high.
On the way to the stadium, we popped into our favourite sports card shop where I picked up media guides from 1974 & 1975 at £8 each. Before Ebay, this was the only way I could purchase old media guides. I also brought photos of Rod Woodson and Barry Foster that I was about to put to good use.
As we entered the Steelers front office, DJ Johnson and Rod Woodson were walking out. Media guides were thrust at Rod and I asked him to autograph a photo for Colin Channing back home. No one took any notice of poor old DJ, so I felt better about greeting him with "Hello DJ"' when we first met. At least it let him know we knew who he was, even if nobody did ask him for his autograph.
We waited in the lobby after being told that Barry had popped home, but would be back shortly. Kevin Greene walked by and said, "Nice shirt!" to James who was wearing #91. Dwight Stone came in and inquired "How's it going?" Neil O'Donnell walked through before Bill Cowher came by.
It was very difficult to remain seated with all the personalities walking about, but our lads behaved themselves immaculately. It would have been no surprise if one of them had gone off, uninvited, looking for autographs, but they remained reserved. Well, we were British.
Our patience and politeness was rewarded when one of the coaching staff came out and told us to go and get something to eat and drink. The lunchroom that had earlier seated the Steelers now became our banquet hall. We passed Rod and DJ again on the way to eat and I also bumped into Mike Fabus, who admired my Steelers UK Supporters sweatshirt.
Finally, the man himself arrived. Barry nervously inquired if we were who he thought we were before we presented him with his trophy on behalf of the club. He thanked all the members for his trophy and signed autographs for us. He also posed for photos and I think was a little surprised that we didn't make further demands upon him.
The guys dispersed outside to seek more signatures as the players were boarding the buses to travel to Cleveland. Yes James did get Kevin Greene's. "Anyone who wore his shirt deserved his autograph," Kevin said.
I had taken a photo of Bill Cowher leaving his hotel in Barcelona the previous summer and had it enlarged so I asked Dan Edwards if he could get the coach to sign it. He did and it now takes pride of place in our house. I presented Dan with a little gift from the club in appreciation of the help he gave us. He was very surprised and grateful.
We then watched the team embark on the journey that we were due to take in less than twenty-four hours time. We took our last photos of the stadium before going back to the hotel to prepare for the Penguins vs St Louis Blues game that evening.
The crowd of 17,101 for the hockey game was the largest in Penguins' history. They saw the Pens give up the win with just thirteen seconds of the game remaining. It went into overtime but the score remained even at 3-3. It snapped a 13 regular season home winning streak. We were obviously disappointed, but our minds began to turn to the amazing adventure that we were about to take the next day.