Legacy
Several of the prominent members of the original Latrobe professional football teams, including Brallier, Ryan, Abbaticchio and Peck Lawson, lived around Latrobe for many years. Ed Abbaticchio, outside of football, also played National League baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and in between played in Boston for the club that is now the Atlanta Braves. John Brallier practiced dentistry in Latrobe, and the others were generally employed in locally. Brallier later spent 20-years as a school director, from which he retired at the end of 1931. In 1979, John Brallier was voted one of the "Best Pros Not in the Hall of Fame" by the Pro Football Researchers Association.
After World War II, the success of baseball's Hall of Fame spawned plans for a similar football hall. At that time, Latrobe was recognized by the National Football league as the birthplace of professional football, and Brallier was given a lifetime pass for NFL games. However the Hall of Fame was awarded to Canton, but homage was paid to Latrobe's status when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers played an exhibition game there on August 29, 1952. The event also honored the early pro player survivors.
Today Latrobe is home to the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp, located at Saint Vincent's College.
Read more about this topic: Latrobe Athletic Association
Famous quotes containing the word legacy:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)