Revamping & restoring: New family-owned pizza restaurant to open at familiar NSB location
VOLUSIA

Steeler Nation? Yes, it's real ... even in Daytona

Ken Willis
ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
Bruce Pyle is the owner of The Steelers Store in Ormond Beach. [News-Journal/Nigel Cook]

You hear a lot about a Gator Nation, Red Sox Nation and, yes, NASCAR Nation. It can be overused and, in many instances, an over-exaggeration.

But Steeler Nation? That seems to be a real thing.

The Pittsburgh Steelers face the Jacksonville Jaguars in an NFL playoff game Sunday. The Steelers, playing in Pittsburgh's Heinz Field, have the official “home field advantage.” But even around here, only about 90 minutes south of Jacksonville, you can’t help but feel the Steelers actually have a “home nation advantage.”

“I can’t think of anywhere I go that I don’t see Steeler fans,” says Bruce McNorton.

McNorton is a Daytona Beach native who spent nine seasons in the NFL with the Detroit Lions. Since his 1990 retirement, he’s been a member of the scout staff for the Steelers, focusing on college talent. He’s often found under a Steelers cap, which serves as both shade and ice-breaker.

The greeting never changes. “Go Steelers!”

“Everywhere I go,” says McNorton, talking about Steeler Nation while visiting friend Bruce Pyle at Pyle’s “Steeler Store” in Ormond Beach.

Yes, Steeler Store … Ormond Beach.

“That guy is coming over from Orlando to get two or three jerseys,” Pyle says after finishing a phone call.

Sure, you can get Steelers jerseys at a sports merchandise store in Orlando. Practically anywhere, actually. But Pyle’s store, in the Tomoka Plaza on Nova Road, has a large selection of player-specific jerseys that’d be hard to find outside of Pennsylvania — rookie receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster’s No. 19 is the current best seller, while Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Lambert’s No. 58 tops the nostalgia sales.

“People come in here and they’re just amazed at what all we have,” says Pyle, a Pennsylvania native and retired Department of Defense worker who opened his store eight years ago.

An eight-year run (and counting) for a little store that sells nothing but Steelers items.

“I’ve got a lot of regulars,” he says.

Migration

There was a time when it was good to be the Steel City. But the growing global steel crisis finally enveloped Pittsburgh and surrounding areas in the mid-1970s.

The city’s population, which pushed 700,000 in mid-20th century, dropped nearly 20 percent between the 1970 and ’80 U.S. Census, and kept dropping to today’s estimated 300,000. Neighboring Youngstown (Ohio), at 64,000 today, is about one-third of its 20th century peak.

“It wasn’t just the Steel industry, there were many industries that supported steel. They all just dried up and collapsed,” says David Bellotti, 57, who first left Pittsburgh for Washington D.C., then moved to this area in 1988.

Bellotti was a teenager when another transformation accompanied the steel crisis. Prior to the 1970s, Allegheny County’s sporting passion belonged to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the baseball franchise with a history of success far beyond anything the local NFL team had ever accomplished. In fact, the Steelers weren’t even the most popular football team — that distinction belonged to the Panthers from the University of Pittsburgh.

But as steel was crumbling and people began leaving, among the small number of people entering the town were men named Chuck Noll, Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, Terry Bradshaw and others who, while wearing the black and gold, turned Pittsburgh into a football town. As the exodus continued outside the football stadium, the football town developed a very long reach.

“If you remember, when Joe Namath won the (1969) Super Bowl for the Jets, the NFL really grew in popularity,” says Bellotti, who lives in New Smyrna Beach. “As the NFL took off, the steel mills were crashing, and then the Steelers took off.”

Under Noll, who became coach in 1969, the Steelers went from perennial doormats to champions. They won four Super Bowls between the 1974 and 1979 seasons.

“Since the town was dying, they were the only thing there to be proud of,” says Bellotti.

As the fan base spread from its hub, another facet of a sports fan’s rooting interest did its generational thing.

“My kids have never lived in the state of Pennsylvania,” says Bellotti. “They were born in Maryland, went to school here in Florida. And they’re both diehard Steeler fans.”

Steel City South

For an extra dollar, Julie and Joe Mialki will top your sandwich with French fries, or, for $10.99, top a large salad with fries and steak.

“That’s our Pittsburgher salad,” says Julie. “It’s a Pittsburgh thing. You put fries on everything.”

That’s just part of the Pittsburgh vibe at the Mialki’s long-standing Port Orange eatery, Giuseppe’s Steel City Pizza. The décor is dominated by the black and gold of their hometown’s big-league franchises — not just the Steelers, but also the Pirates and NHL Penguins.

It’s never more in-your-face than on Sundays in the fall and winter, when the Steelers' game is on every television throughout the restaurant and Steeler fans are almost always wall to wall.

“We usually put some extra waitresses on the floor and extra bodies in the kitchen,” says Julie, who married Joe right out of high school and moved here in 1981. “We make sure we have plenty of Iron City and Iron City Light, because they do like to drink their beer from home.”

As for Sunday’s playoff game against the Jags, Julie Mialki doesn’t expect anything beyond the usual crowd of Steeler fans, regardless of the additional importance of January football.

“They’ll show up like they do every week, whether we’re winning or losing, in the playoffs or not,” she says.

She also offers no hint of anxiety, especially considering the Jags went to Pittsburgh in early October and routed the Steelers, 30-9. In fact, Mialki’s confidence is so strong, she never even considered any additional fanfare for this week’s game.

“We won’t plan anything big until we get into the Super Bowl,” she says without much doubt of her team's eventual and ultimate success.

At that time, she could visit Pyle’s Ormond Beach store, because he’s already ordered plenty of party plates and cups from his souvenir dealers in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.

“You gotta make the call early,” says Pyle. “I’ve got more stuff coming in. If you wait, you won’t be able to get it. I learned that through experience.”

What about us?

There is still a lot of elbow room on this area’s Jaguars bandwagon.

“Isn’t that tragic?” says Daytona Beach’s Eric Dunn, who was 2 when the Jags joined the NFL (1995) and 14 when they last made the playoffs before this year (2007, also the last time they’d had a winning record before 2017).

“I guess I became a fan because they were just the closest team to me,” says Dunn. The team’s proximity allowed him to finally buy season tickets this year and join the growing numbers in the team’s boisterous Duval County fan club, the “Bold City Brigade.”

“I wanted to experience a game with Jags fans,” he says. “Yes, there are a lot of them. But they’re all in Jacksonville.”

One true measure of a team’s local following can be found in the sports-collectibles shops.

“More Steeler fans buy memorabilia and cards, across the board, than Jags fans,” says Kyle Sheldon, who operates the KnT Sports Cards and Memorabilia in Ormond Beach. “You will see more Jags ‘fans’ pop up now that they’re in the playoffs and won a game.

“Unfortunately, the Jags fans don’t have the history of success like the Steelers. The Jag fan base is growing, but it’s got a long way to go to be like the Steelers in our area.”

A lot of areas can say that. But there are hopeful contenders. At Merk’s Bar and Grill in New Smyrna Beach, back by the restrooms, there’s a room devoted to Cleveland Browns fans, who gather there to watch their hapless team lose, week after week.

“We’ll go to Giuseppe’s sometimes and watch the Steelers,” says David Bellotti. “Or sometimes we’ll go to Merk’s. That’s a Browns hangout. They have their own room back there.”

Given the nature of sporting rivalries, Bellotti can’t resist a jab at Pittsburgh’s neighbor to the west.

“To get to the bathroom at Merk’s,” he says, “we tell everybody they have to go through Cleveland.”

Who: Jacksonville Jaguars at Pittsburgh Steelers

What: AFC Playoffs Divisional Round

When: 1 p.m.

Where: Heinz Field, Pittsburgh

TV: CBS

Sunday's Game