Dale Lolley was a writer and editor for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He passed away on Wednesday, September 17, following a battle with cancer. He was 56.
Lolley was a dedicated and involved man within the community. He was a part of youth baseball, both as a board member and coach of the Washington County Founder’s PONY League and with his involvement in the Pony League World Series. Lolley was a big fan of music. He could quote lyrics from George Harrison or sing along with his Pearl Jam selection played on the jukebox.
Lolley loved writing and talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I’ve spent more than half of my life covering the team. If I’m not writing about them, I’m talking about them. It’s what I do,” Dale wrote for Steelers.com in 2022. “There have been hundreds of wins and losses, plenty of AFC Championship games, Super Bowl wins and losses along the way. And thousands of stories. At the end of the day, it’s always about the stories. It still is. Now, after spending the past three decades telling those stories and talking about the team on other platforms, I’ll be doing so with the Steelers on a regular basis across their media platforms, which includes writing about the team on a year-round basis. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be doing so.”
Lolley was a husband, father, friend, and journalist who became an integral contributor on all of the Steelers’ media platforms.
He was born in the Clarion County town of Fryburg, Pa., in 1968. A 1986 graduate of North Clarion High School, Mr. Lolley started as a biology major at Pitt-Titusville for two and a half years before transferring to Pitt-Johnstown and graduating in 1991.
His first job was for a daily newspaper in Oil City, Pa, where he was a sportswriter at The Derrick. His work got noticed and that led to him being hired by The Observer- Reporter in Washington, Pa.
From there, he was hired as the Steelers reporter for DK Pittsburgh Sports. He also began to fill in for shows on the Steelers Radio Network starting in 2008.
Mr. Lolley was asked to join Steelers Nation Radio in 2014. It was a new project that had the team getting into digital radio, and there he paired with Matt Williamson to make “SNR Drive with Dale & Matt” a highly popular, five days a week podcast that was informative and engaging.
Mr. Lolley joined the Steelers as a Contributing Writer/Editor in September of 2022. This job entailed covering the team’s games, broadcasting from the NFL combine, and the NFL Owners Meetings, to being in attendance every single time the Steelers President, coach, general manager, quarterback, or newest No. 1 draft pick stepped up to a live microphone and spoke to the fans.
“We do this because Steelers Nation really is much more than a nation,” Mr. Lolley wrote. “It’s a worldwide phenomenon that only continues to grow with each passing day. We do it because of the passionate fanbase that is second to none.”
Mr. Lolley did radio, made videos, and helped birth a podcast during his time with the Steelers. He even did a video version of that podcast. In his soul, he was a writer.
Mr. Lolley wrote a message as he left DK Pittsburgh Sports for his job with the Steelers.
“It’s been a great run here, one I’ll always recall fondly. All apologies to George Harrison: ‘All things must pass. None of life’s strings can last. So, I must be on my way. And face another day.'”
