The Terrible Towel Doesn't Belong to the Steelers

Every fall, millions of gold and black towels spin above NFL stadiums whenever the Pittsburgh Steelers take the field. Almost none of the people waving them know who actually owns the trademark - and it isn't the team.

A Radio Man's Last-Minute Gimmick

In 1975, Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope was working the Steelers' flagship radio station, WTAE, when a producer asked him to come up with a gimmick for an upcoming playoff broadcast.

Cope's answer was simple: he asked fans to bring a plain gold dish towel to Three Rivers Stadium and wave it during the game.

The Steelers beat the Baltimore Colts on December 27, 1975, with an estimated 30,000 towels twirling in the stands. The team went on to win the AFC Championship the following week.

By the time the Steelers reached Super Bowl X, the towel had an official name. Cope's daughter, Elizabeth, had a habit of calling her father's promotional ideas "terrible" - and the label stuck.

The Trademark Cope Gave Away

The Terrible Towel became one of the most recognizable props in American sports. But in 1996, Cope did something no team owner or league executive would ever expect from a beloved local icon.

He signed over full ownership of the trademark to Allegheny Valley School, a nonprofit in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, that provides care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

From that point on, the Steelers themselves no longer controlled the rights to their own rally towel. Allegheny Valley School - now known as Merakey Allegheny Valley School - did.

His Silent Voice

Cope had a personal reason for choosing that particular school. His son, Danny, was born with severe autism and never learned to speak. Danny lived at Allegheny Valley School for years, cared for by staff there while his father built a broadcasting career known for having one of the loudest voices in Pittsburgh.

Cope's daughter, Elizabeth, later told the New York Times just how much the towel meant to her brother.

"It's almost like the Terrible Towel is Danny's silent voice."

Cope spoke openly for years about raising a nonverbal child and about the isolation many families of children with autism face. Giving away one of the most valuable trademarks in sports was, for him, a way to make sure his son - and everyone else living at the school - would be provided for long after he was gone.

Every Towel Still Pays It Forward

Myron Cope died in 2008, but the arrangement he set up never expired. Every officially licensed Terrible Towel sold since 1996 sends proceeds straight to Merakey Allegheny Valley School.

The school says it has now realized more than $9.5 million from licensed Terrible Towel products - money that funds programs for hundreds of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the same kind of care Danny received.

In December 2025, the Terrible Towel marked its 50th anniversary. It is still waved at every Steelers home game, sold in nearly every Pittsburgh gift shop, and packed in the luggage of Steelers fans who moved away from the city decades ago.

Half a century after Cope first asked fans to bring a dish towel to a football game, the trademark still belongs to the school where his son lived - and the towel is still speaking for him.