BOLIVAR, Pa. — For many pro athletes, lasting 10 years in the spotlight is quite a career. Many find ways to remain involved in sports for years to come after their playing days are over, but even those years as a broadcaster or coach tend to be numbered.
Not for Dick Groat. A full 66 years after he first suited up for the Pirates in 1952, the hometown hero from Swissvale remains a fixture on the Pittsburgh sports scene, and he has no intention of slowing down.
Groat, 87, has spanned generations in Pittsburgh's sports consciousness. Older fans remember him patrolling the infield at shortstop for the Pirates, where he won the National League MVP award and batting title in the team's 1960 championship season. To a younger crowd, Groat is the ever-present voice on the radio beside Bill Hillgrove during Pitt basketball broadcasts, a role he has filled since 1979.
But to try and pin down Groat to just one thing doesn't do justice to the career of a man who is, quite possibly, the best multi-sport athlete ever to come from the Steel City.
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