Shock Forward Recently Visited Hometown for Grand Opening of Museum
Cash Gathers With Pittsburgh Greats
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Swin Cash was dressed to impress.
Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Shock All-Star forward Swin Cash recently visited her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a grand opening of a new sports museum that featured over 700 Pittsburgh Greats. Posted below is the story courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Sports Museum Gala
Monday, November 15, 2004
Western Pennsylvania, long synonymous with steel and sports, has watched its landscape change through the decades. There's no better place to monitor the seismic shifts of time than the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, and, in the end, it is sports that has survived. Friday night the history center unveiled its new Smithsonian Wing containing the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, which is quite literally the stuff of legends.
How many cities can boast so many greats under one roof? That was especially true during the Black Tie Tailgate Party for 700 that celebrated the grand opening of the museum with all the excitement of yesterday's Steelers game.
The head-swiveling infected even the most jaded guests. There was World Series winner Bill Mazeroski, hockey legend Mario Lemieux, Superbowl champs including Franco Harris, Mike Wagner, Joe Greene and Andy Russell, not to mention Ernie Holmes, Dwight White and Randy Grossman, racing star Chip Ganassi, track and field Olympians Roger Kingdom and Herbert Douglas Jr., Josh Gibson's son Sean, basketball heroines Swin Cash and Suzie McConnell Serio, Olympic swimmer Anna Mae Gorman, and maybe more tucked away on the different floors where dinner was served.
The history center has never had such a blowout bash, a big, fun party with a great dance band (Onyx from Washington, DC) all orchestrated by Audrey Brourman. Raising $27 million during the course of a four-year capitol campaign led by Alain Belda and Marty McGuinn, with John Bitzer and Woody Turner as vice-chairs, is something to celebrate. The loyal support enjoyed by the history center under the leadership of its CEO, Andrew Masich, is testament to the high regard in which history is held by the people who make it. They were present in abundance Friday, representing every facet of life in Pittsburgh. Nadine Bognar served as gala committee chair, and board chair Glen Meakem welcomed guests as the museum was dedicated, which caused a polite stampede to see it in all its glory. There was more wandering through the exhibits, after an elegant dinner served impeccably by the Duquesne Club on tables centered with ice sculpture filled with frozen trophies. And then the new Education Center came to life once more with drinks, a dessert buffet, more dancing and a shared sense that Pittsburgh truly is the City of Champions.
Proud to be there were Mayor Tom Murphy with Mona, County Executive Dan Onorato with Shelly, sports museum curator Anne Madarasz, Smithsonian National Museum of American History director Brent Glass, Dan and Pat Rooney, Kevin McClatchy, Art and Greta Rooney, Ken Sawyer, Grace Compton, Robert and Jan Barensfeld, Dick Simmons with Virginia Moyles (they're getting married on Thanksgiving day), Alcoa's Bill O'Rourke and Kathy Beuchel with Fred Egler, Audrey and Tim Fisher, David Hillman, Lou Astorino, Frank and Linda Gustine, Nellie Briles, Jamie and Melinda Edwards, Chuck Tanner, Prosser and Sandy Mellon, Susan Santa-Cruz and Art Stroyd, Chuck and Marianne Noll, Ralph Kaiser (who has a hall of trophies named after him!), Congressman Tim Murphy, Dan and Debby Booker, Ralph and Ruth Anne Papa, Betsy and Bob Kampmeinert, Kevin and Kristin McMahon, Bill Dietrich and Jane Treherne-Thomas, Rany and Jay Ferguson, Tod and Mary Caroline Hunt, Michael and Julie Langley, Dave and Joanna Littlefield, Paul and Roxanne Martha, Mary Lynn and John Majors, and proud Debbie Masich with mother-in-law Mary Friedlander.
The Sports Museum Gala
Monday, November 15, 2004
Western Pennsylvania, long synonymous with steel and sports, has watched its landscape change through the decades. There's no better place to monitor the seismic shifts of time than the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, and, in the end, it is sports that has survived. Friday night the history center unveiled its new Smithsonian Wing containing the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, which is quite literally the stuff of legends.
How many cities can boast so many greats under one roof? That was especially true during the Black Tie Tailgate Party for 700 that celebrated the grand opening of the museum with all the excitement of yesterday's Steelers game.
The head-swiveling infected even the most jaded guests. There was World Series winner Bill Mazeroski, hockey legend Mario Lemieux, Superbowl champs including Franco Harris, Mike Wagner, Joe Greene and Andy Russell, not to mention Ernie Holmes, Dwight White and Randy Grossman, racing star Chip Ganassi, track and field Olympians Roger Kingdom and Herbert Douglas Jr., Josh Gibson's son Sean, basketball heroines Swin Cash and Suzie McConnell Serio, Olympic swimmer Anna Mae Gorman, and maybe more tucked away on the different floors where dinner was served.
The history center has never had such a blowout bash, a big, fun party with a great dance band (Onyx from Washington, DC) all orchestrated by Audrey Brourman. Raising $27 million during the course of a four-year capitol campaign led by Alain Belda and Marty McGuinn, with John Bitzer and Woody Turner as vice-chairs, is something to celebrate. The loyal support enjoyed by the history center under the leadership of its CEO, Andrew Masich, is testament to the high regard in which history is held by the people who make it. They were present in abundance Friday, representing every facet of life in Pittsburgh. Nadine Bognar served as gala committee chair, and board chair Glen Meakem welcomed guests as the museum was dedicated, which caused a polite stampede to see it in all its glory. There was more wandering through the exhibits, after an elegant dinner served impeccably by the Duquesne Club on tables centered with ice sculpture filled with frozen trophies. And then the new Education Center came to life once more with drinks, a dessert buffet, more dancing and a shared sense that Pittsburgh truly is the City of Champions.
Proud to be there were Mayor Tom Murphy with Mona, County Executive Dan Onorato with Shelly, sports museum curator Anne Madarasz, Smithsonian National Museum of American History director Brent Glass, Dan and Pat Rooney, Kevin McClatchy, Art and Greta Rooney, Ken Sawyer, Grace Compton, Robert and Jan Barensfeld, Dick Simmons with Virginia Moyles (they're getting married on Thanksgiving day), Alcoa's Bill O'Rourke and Kathy Beuchel with Fred Egler, Audrey and Tim Fisher, David Hillman, Lou Astorino, Frank and Linda Gustine, Nellie Briles, Jamie and Melinda Edwards, Chuck Tanner, Prosser and Sandy Mellon, Susan Santa-Cruz and Art Stroyd, Chuck and Marianne Noll, Ralph Kaiser (who has a hall of trophies named after him!), Congressman Tim Murphy, Dan and Debby Booker, Ralph and Ruth Anne Papa, Betsy and Bob Kampmeinert, Kevin and Kristin McMahon, Bill Dietrich and Jane Treherne-Thomas, Rany and Jay Ferguson, Tod and Mary Caroline Hunt, Michael and Julie Langley, Dave and Joanna Littlefield, Paul and Roxanne Martha, Mary Lynn and John Majors, and proud Debbie Masich with mother-in-law Mary Friedlander.