Indiana County fan preserves Steelers history, 1 news clipping at a time

Jul. 31—Ed Griffith's wife, Joyce, rarely has to wonder where he is.

The Indiana County man's daily routine includes hanging out in his basement man cave, adding to the more than four decades of news clippings he has saved to document the Steelers and other favorite regional sports teams and figures.

"I spend two to three hours here, but that means I don't spend two or three hours drinking in a bar somewhere," said Griffith, 86, who lives in White Township. "It keeps me out of trouble."

Griffith has filled more than 40 binders with Steelers articles and images through the years.

That's just part of his sports collection, which also includes clippings, autographs, photos and memorabilia from baseball, hockey and auto racing greats. It overflows five large bookcases and creeps over the surrounding walls.

The collection survived and has continued to grow even after he and Joyce downsized and moved from their former home in the nearby town of Creekside.

"I guess you just get addicted to it," Griffith said of his desire to compile Steelers and other sports news coverage. "I suppose there's people who think I'm crazy. I might be."

Paging through history

His wife doesn't begrudge him his hobby. She points to his use of the family printer to preserve portions of news articles that are printed back to back.

"He complains if I use the printer too much because you have to buy ink for it," she said. "But he can copy all the articles out of the newspaper that he wants, and I don't say a word."

When Griffith isn't prepping new clippings to keep his collection up to date, he often browses through older scrapbooks, revisiting the milestones and achievements of his favorite football team.

"If there's nothing else to do, I'll just come down, pull out one of the books and leaf through it and look at all the stuff," he said. "When somebody has passed away, I look back and see what they did."

One of Griffith's earliest Steelers clippings is a printing of the 1980 roster, filled with familiar names from the team's 1970s prime: Terry Bradshaw, Rocky Bleier, Franco Harris, Jack Lambert and Joe Greene.

He has a full binder devoted to each of the Steelers' 2006 and 2009 Super Bowl wins and another volume focusing on retired quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Among his favorite clippings are Steelers Super Bowl celebratory photos.

"I really like the parades and Hines Ward with the (2006) Super Bowl trophy," he said.

That's the year the wide receiver won the Super Bowl MVP award. Five years later, Griffith said, "We watched him win on 'Dancing with the Stars.' "

Pandemic persistence

During the 2020 season, Steelers games against the Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans were postponed when members of the opposing teams tested positive for covid-19.

But the pandemic didn't stop Griffith from keeping up with his clippings.

"During covid, our kids told us, 'You have to stay home,' " his wife said. "But he would sneak down to the BiLo (supermarket). He had to have the newspaper."

Griffith compiled, created or sought out most of the items in his collection. That includes a homemade version of the Terrible Towel he customized with a black marker, adding the names of players from various eras, before he began purchasing official versions of the black-and-gold rallying cloth.

He was gifted an autographed photo — complete with a certificate of authenticity — of quarterback Kordell Stewart, who played with the Steelers from 1995 to 2002.

Griffith never obtained an autograph from the late Franco Harris, but he was able to snap photos of his son, Scott, with Harris when they attended a 1994 event at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

He said Harris suggested the impromptu photo session as an alternative to an autograph after his son approached the legendary running back.

"I have a couple of pictures of him standing with Franco," Griffith said.

Before his attention turned to the Steelers, Griffith's collecting craze was focused on baseball cards and player autographs while he was growing up in Marion Center, Indiana County.

He sent away to get autographed postcards from several star players, just for the cost of postage, including a signed 1949 card from Yankees star Joe DiMaggio.

"That was before the players made mega-bucks," Griffith said.

'Somebody else's problem'

He said an uncle, the late John Neal Griffith of Indiana, inspired his collecting habit. A native of Jeannette, the elder Griffith donated his items — including 17 boxes of autographs from American and European celebrities — to the special collections at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania library.

It includes cards signed by baseball legends Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson and actress Judy Garland.

"My uncle collected everything," Griffith said.

He also shared a cousin's interest in collecting baseball cards.

"He and I started together when we were teenagers," Griffith said. Eventually, "He put his two kids through college with his baseball cards."

Griffith lost his cards when his mother cleaned out the attic after he moved out of the house and married Joyce.

An Army veteran, retired power plant maintenance worker and former bus driver for the Indiana Area School District, Griffith hasn't been to a Steelers game or summer training camp at Saint Vincent College in a while. But he still keeps dialed-in to the latest Steelers developments through his clippings.

One of the most recent additions to his collection is an article detailing outside linebacker Alex Highsmith's $68 million contract extension.

Griffith is planning to hold onto his clippings as long as possible.

"Somebody asked me, 'What are you going to do with all those books?'" he said. "That's going to be somebody else's problem."

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .