King Trades Orange for Yellow as ‘Voice’ of Steelers Football

By KRISTIAN CONNOLLY
COOPERSTOWN

No team in National Football League history has more Super Bowl victories than the six earned by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Over the 50 years since the franchise won its first Lombardi Trophy, only two broadcasters served as the “Voice of the Steelers.” Now there will be a third.

Cooperstown’s Rob King is next up in the Steelers’ radio booth following the announcement last month that he’s been chosen to fill the seat vacated by retired Pittsburgh broadcasting icon Bill Hillgrove.

King, a 1983 Cooperstown Central School graduate whose sports media career began when he covered a few CCS basketball games for this paper in the late 1980s, is elated about calling the action for one of the most-storied franchises and fervent fan bases in American sports.

“It’s thrilling,” said King last week while on his way to Latrobe, Pennsylvania for the first day of Steelers training camp. “It’s a big responsibility that I take seriously. If you’re the play-by-play voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers, you’re a conduit between the team and the fans.”

King then added, “It’s not lost on me, for a moment, how cool it is [to be named the ‘Voice of the Steelers.’] … I’m extremely excited about the opportunity. I really am. I mean, I’m driving out to Latrobe now, and I could not be happier.”

In announcing the hiring of King, Steelers team President Art Rooney II said, “Rob has done a great job in his 25-year career in the Pittsburgh market and is much respected among his peers in the business. We are excited for Steelers Nation to hear his unique perspective and excitement of making our fans feel they are in the stadium witnessing the action on the field. He has big shoes to fill with the legendary broadcasters that have come before him, but we are thrilled to have Rob step into his new role to bring Steelers football to our fans across the world.”

King told “The Freeman’s Journal” that he’s grateful to Rooney and the Steelers organization “for having faith in me.”

The “voice” of a team is someone who fans continually invite into their own lives, often for hours at a time. Fans rely on that voice to help them “see” and feel what’s happening with their favorite team and players, and for many people listening, that voice becomes an old and trusted friend, of a sort.

King brings the knowledge gained from a career having witnessed the transitions that occur—both within teams and among fan bases—when a great and revered player or team figure retires, and “the new guy” is brought in to take his place.

So now that it’s his voice that will occupy a special role within Steelers Nation, and now that he finds himself in the position of following a legend into the broadcast booth for one of the most famous and ardently followed teams in sports, is King ready for what’s next?

“Part of the nature of sports is that great players move on,” said King. “In Pittsburgh, those great players are still revered. Pittsburgh is wonderful about not forgetting its legends.”

He later added, “I hope that the fact that I’ve been here in Pittsburgh for almost a quarter of a century will help me in my new role. I acknowledge that hearing my voice will still be new, though, after fans have listened to, and grown a connection with, the great Bill Hillgrove for three decades. I take the responsibility to the fans very, very seriously.”

Fans like Rob Locke, of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, located just outside of Pittsburgh and known as the hometown of NFL legend Joe Namath. Stopping in Cooperstown with his family for just a few hours last Thursday, Locke—clad in a Pittsburgh Pirates T-shirt depicting the great Roberto Clemente—was surprised when he was stopped on the street by a stranger and asked where he resided. Upon hearing the name “Rob King,” Locke’s eyes instantly flashed with the spark of recognition, and after the additional surprise of learning that King hails from the “Home of Baseball,” Locke gave a ringing endorsement to the Steelers’ choice.

“I’ve seen Rob King lots of times, I think he does a great job, and I think he’s a good man for the job,” Locke said before heading into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

King wore “the orange and the black” while playing varsity football for three years at CCS, and later played Division III ball at Washington University in St. Louis. On the way to calling Steelers games on the radio, King’s professional journey included TV work for sports departments in Utica, Syracuse, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh, and he has called the land of the “Black and Yellow” home for more than two decades.

So how did the Steel City put its iron grip on King?

“I could write a book on what makes Pittsburgh so great, but I think it comes back to the people,” said King, sharing a sentiment similarly expressed last month during former Pirates manager Jim Leyland’s Hall of Fame induction speech. “They love sports, as I do. The city is the most courteous city I’ve ever lived in, but there is an absolute honesty here as well. It’s a hard-working honesty, and an honesty that people will share with you about what they think of you.”

King’s wife, Meghan (Johnson), has longtime family ties to Cooperstown and went to school in Edmeston. The couple has two children, a daughter, Cooper, and son, Schaefer. King’s mother, Marion, continues to reside in the area. As King prepares to embark on his next professional adventure, he’s grateful that the path he has traveled has its origins in Otsego County and has led to something special in Western Pennsylvania.

“It’s been a long and wonderful journey,” said King. “I feel blessed that it started in Cooperstown and has taken me to Pittsburgh—two of my favorite places in the world.”