What are the biggest crowds the Steelers basketball team has drawn?
O’Malley: After one of our Super Bowl wins over Dallas, we played the Cowboys at the Civic Arena in 1976 and drew more than 9,000 fans. The game was for charity and sponsored by McDonald’s. When we went down to Dallas to play, though, the crowd was only about 400. By the way, the Cowboys had some very good basketball players and would sometimes clean our clocks. But their players didn’t seem very friendly. I think they were angry at us because we beat them in those Super Bowls. Another big crowd we played in front of was in Evansville, Ind., in 1978. It was a charity event for the Evansville University men’s basketball team, which lost all its players in a plane crash [Dec. 13, 1977]. We drew about 6,000 for that game. Over the years, we have played in front of many sellouts at high school gyms. Q. In your years doing this, which players stick out as genuinely nice guys? O’Malley: Franco Harris is just a gentleman. Hines Ward is just as nice as you see him on television. He’s always sm
