It was May 25, 1991, and the Penguins had just claimed the Stanley Cup for the first time. My mom, reasoning that it wasn’t a school night, decided it was appropriate to take her 11-year-old son to the old Pittsburgh International Airport to celebrate. We weren’t alone, as 40,000 other Western Pennsylvania residents joined us.
An unforgettable thought entered my mind that night: Pittsburgh fans are a little different.
Twenty years later, I stood at the new Pittsburgh International Airport, this time as a reporter. Once again, I wasn’t alone. A few hundred Penguins fans gathered at the airport that evening because of rumors that Jaromir Jagr was on a flight from New York and possibly on the verge of signing with the Penguins.