When the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans kick off the 2009 NFL season tonight, Heinz Field will be awash in a sea of whirling yellow courtesy of fans waving the famous Terrible Towels. They're as familiar as Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Bill Cowher and Ben Roethlisberger(notes) and have been part of five of the franchise's six Super Bowl victories. But what's the story behind the most famous towels in football?

While many great sports traditions arise organically (drinking milk at the Indianapolis 500, singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch), the Terrible Towel was conceived as a gimmick.

Myron Cope began announcing Steelers games in 1970 and five years later he was in a meeting with executives at the team's flagship radio station who wanted a marketing idea for the team's upcoming home playoff game against the Baltimore Colts. (The Steelers were defending Super Bowl champions at the time.) In 1979 Cope recounted the meeting in a piece in Sports Illustrated:

Advertising salesmen were hurriedly summoned to Atkins' office. Brainstorms erupted. "I've got it!" cried a salesman. "Chuck Noll's motto is 'Whatever it takes,' right?" Totally sober, the salesman proposed that we dress the 50,000 fans entering Three Rivers Stadium in black costume masks upon which Noll's motto would be printed in gold lettering. A phone call to a supplier of novelties revealed that 50,000 black masks could be obtained at a cost of 50¢ apiece, or $25,000. Vice-presidents Atkins and Garrett incisively concluded that black masks were not the crowd-pleaser we were looking for.

"What we need here," I said, "is something that's lightweight and portable and already is owned by just about every fan."

"How about towels?" Garrett said.

"A towel?" It had possibilities. "We could call it the Terrible Towel," I said. "Yes. And I can go on radio and television proclaiming, The Terrible Towel is poised to strike!' "

Cope promoted the idea on Pittsburgh television and radio stations and, to his surprise, 30,000 fans showed up to the game waving yellow towels they had brought from home. Because so many fans were buying yellow dish towels from department stores (and leaving sets mismatched towel sets), Gimbels began manufacturing "The Official Myron Cope Terrible Towel" the following year.

At first the towels were used exclusively for playoff games, but that tradition has since changed. Now fans bring Cope's towels everywhere, literally. The towel has been to the top of Mt. Everest, Iraq, presidential inaugurations, Olympics and even on Cope's coffin (he died last year). They are a frequent presence at Steelers road games (as Washington Redskins fans found out last year). You can even buy them on amazon.com with a variety of logos. 

Best of all, proceeds from sales of the Terrible Towels go to a Pennslyvania school for children with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, which Cope's son, who hasn't spoken a word in his life due to his disabilities, has attended since he was 15. Earlier this year the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Cope's towels have raised over $3 million for the Allegheny Valley School to buy things like specialized wheelchairs and computers that help children speak.

The towels will be a center of attention tonight, not just due to the tens of thousands of fans waving them in the stands, but because Titans running back Lendale White(notes) infamously stomped on a Terrible Towel last year and has vowed to do it again tonight.

Other popular stories on Yahoo! Sports:
• Lawyer may seek list of women from Steelers QB
• Jay-Z on the Nets' move to Brooklyn, wooing LeBron
• Oudin’s inspiring U.S. Open just the beginning

Sign up now for Fantasy Football '09 -- now with free live scoring