Three decades later, Joe Haering has never gone back and watched it. The Pittsburgh Gladiators’ 45-16 ArenaBowl I loss to the Denver Dynamite is too dispiriting, too deflating.
Never mind that he has roamed miles of sidelines while coaching in five different football leagues. That Aug. 1, 1987, defeat at Civic Arena still stings.
“I wanted to win it so badly,” Haering said recently. “It was one of the most disappointing things in my career because I wanted it for us, the team, and I wanted it for the city of Pittsburgh.”
It was a disappointing denouement to the Gladiators’ inaugural campaign in the startup Arena Football League.