Steelers Announcer Myron Cope Dies

They don’t make ‘em like Myron Cope anymore. You rarely see truly unique voices like Cope in local sports broadcasters, because so few broadcasters aspire to be local in the age of ESPN and satellite TV. Sports are global enterprise today, and broadcasting moreso. Cope found his niche in an era when fans had only four channels on their TVs and still tuned into AM radio regularly to listen to games — when Cope’s nasally “Yoi!” and “Double Yoi!” were genuine enthusiasm, rather than the kitsch of a local bumpkin.

Myron Cope, longtime Pittsburgh Steelers announcer, Pete Rozelle Award winner and inventor of the famed Terrible Towel in the mid-1970s, died this morning after a long bout with heart and respiration trouble. He gave all the breath he could for the Steelers — 35 years is a long time for any career — and he just had no more breath to give. His legacy, though, will be swung from the rafters every autumn Sunday in Pittsburgh…