Men of Iron and Steel

"The Steel Valley High School football program was turning 11 years old in 1982, but was still barely past the crawling stage.

The baby steps were a few winning seasons, but rarely did this program even show signs of teeth in its first 10 years. The Ironmen were more like Papermen. Steel Valley had a 32-game losing streak from 1972-75 and another 18-game winless streak from 1978-80.

Then all of a sudden, things turned magical for the Ironmen in the fall of 1982. Steel Valley put itself on the WPIAL map, won a championship with a perfect 13-0 record and used football to galvanize the people in the Mon Valley steel towns of Homestead, Munhall and West Homestead.

This is the 30-year anniversary of the 1982 Steel Valley Ironmen. While winning the WPIAL Class AAA title that year was an extraordinary feat for a program that suffered through so much losing, it was the Ironmen's makeup that made it one of the special teams in the WPIAL over the past 40 years."