by Chris Togneri , Pittsburgh Tribune Review

"Oh, it's the people," said Weyburne, 62, a Mt. Lebanon native who lived in Oakmont for 23 years before heading south in 2002. "I miss that small-town atmosphere and the friendliness of the people.

"Houses here are forever for sale, people come and go. In Pittsburgh, you lived in the same house forever, and you got to know your neighbors really well. It's different."

As their beloved Pittsburgh Steelers prepare to play the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl on Sunday, many transplants to the Tampa area agreed with Weyburne.

Sure, the winters back home were rough, and it's true that the roads they used to drive often are riddled with potholes. But for transplants here -- many of whom become melancholy when discussing what they left behind -- no 75-degree day can replace what they still call home.

"The older I get, the more I feel like I need to get back home," said Dick Dailey, 64, of St. Petersburg. "I spend more time thinking about Pittsburgh now than I ever did."

Fran Palek, 40, a Tampa banker who grew up in Latrobe, said that "when you grew up in Western Pennsylvania, you knew everybody. Down here, everybody is from somewhere else and no one is truly from here. I don't know any of my neighbors."

With the Steelers gunning for a record sixth Super Bowl championship, homesick natives of Western Pennsylvania are thinking about home -- and connecting with other transplants -- even more than usual this week.

"I have a license plate that says No. 1 Steeler fan," said Becky De Lacy, 65, who grew up in Latrobe and moved to St. Petersburg in 1974. "Not a week goes by that someone doesn't stop me to mention they are also a Steeler fan.

"I've had people wait by my car in parking lots to see who would get in because they saw the license and they were also Steeler fans. There's just a close camaraderie we find through the Steelers."

Of course, here in Tampa Bay Buccaneers territory, not every Steelers game is on television. So many transplants find a Pittsburgh-friendly bar -- and they are ubiquitous in the Tampa area -- where they watch games with several hundred other like-minded fanatics.

Weyburne watches games at a bar in Largo. "It's the next best thing to being at Heinz Field," she said.

The pub Dailey frequents is in Pinellas Park, though you wouldn't know it when the Steelers are playing. "They get so many of us in there, you'd think it was Munhall," he said.

Still, for some transplants, it's not enough.

Weyburne, who worked as a secretary in team founder Art Rooney's office from 1966-82 and still wears a Super Bowl ring her old boss gave her, said she would like to move back to the Pittsburgh area for at least half the year once her husband retires from the mortgage industry.

Until that day, "I try to go back at least once a year," Weyburne said. "And I try to get all my friends to visit me here."

Palek, too, thinks often about moving back home.

He has a 2-year-old daughter, and he wants her to grow up in the same friendly atmosphere he knew as a child.

"When you think about the schools, I want her to be in an environment where the teacher knows her name and cares," Palek said.

"I love it down here, but I think about moving back all the time, especially now that I have a daughter. It's the one place I would ever relocate to."

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