Apr 24, 2018 3 min read

Pittsburgh, unofficially and not surprisingly, is often recognized as the “City of Bridges.” A study about a decade ago determined that The Burgh has 446 of them, three more than the global runner-up, Venice, Italy.

That study missed one, a span not made of steel and concrete and besieged with potholes. Phil Coyne is a bridge to history – sports, social and local.

Coyne, 99, hung up his dust cloth earlier this month after serving as an usher at Pirates home games for 82 years. At 99, he was the oldest usher among the 30 major-league teams and will be celebrated for his dedication Friday by the Pirates, who will take on the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park that evening.

Actually, this will be more than a retirement party. Friday will be his 100th birthday. According to a recent personality profile in the New York Times, about 200 extended family members are expected to attend.

The man does go back a ways. He was hired in 1936, a teenager from the Oakland section of the city, who could easily walk to work at Forbes Field, but continued to endure after the team relocated twice along the North Shore: to Three Rivers Stadium in 1970 and to PNC Park in 2001.

A lifelong – and long-living – Pittsburgher, Coyne was born while World War I was still raging, and before Prohibition, talkies and the Great Depression. Woodrow Wilson was president then, and 17 others have followed him into the White House during Coyne’s lifetime.

He could not live only on an usher’s seasonal wages and was a machinist for many years, retiring in 1980 – 38 years ago. He is the last survivor among seven siblings.

Until two years ago, Coyne also was an usher for the Steelers. He worked at more than 6,000 games, the most famous being Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, which the Pirates won on Bill Mazeroski’s iconic home run. That was one of three World Series titles the Pirates won during his ushering career. The Steelers captured the Lombardi Trophy six times.

Coyne also witnessed a classic at Forbes the year before he was hired, when he was in the stands the day a broken-down Babe Ruth, hanging on with the Boston Braves, clouted the final three home runs of his nonpareil career.

Quotes attributed to him in an array of recent articles indicate that Coyne is still sharp, with a sharp wit. But apparently, he is struggling a bit physically, using a cane to walk.

Being an usher at sporting events is not easy, considering there are a number of boorish fans, some willing to engage others physically. Pleasing them and breaking up fights are unsavory aspects of the job, but Coyne had a reputation for handling himself merrily and gracefully.

He was honored twice last year, when Aug. 29 was declared “Phil Coyne Day” in Pittsburgh and on another occasion when Pirates president Frank Coonelly gave him a Pirates jersey with the number 99.

The third time, on Friday, should be a charm for a man who has been around for a full century.