Dale Lolley loved his family. He was dedicated to 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. He loved music, could quote lyrics from George Harrison or sing along when his Pearl Jam selection played on the jukebox. He was a diligent journalist, who could do it all, from writing to editing to putting together the sports section for the morning newspaper.
And he also had a passion. Writing about 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."
Dale Lolley, husband, father, friend, journalist who became an integral contributor on all of the Steelers media platforms, died on Wednesday, Sept. 17 following a battle with cancer. He was 56.
Mr. Lolley 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 2 ½ years before transferring to Pitt-Johnstown and graduating in 1991.
His first job out of college was as a sportswriter at The Derrick, a daily newspaper in Oil City, Pa. His work was noticed, and that led to being hired by The Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pa. From there, Mr. Lolley was hired as the Steelers reporter for DK Pittsburgh Sports. He was a regular contributor to Steelers Digest, the team's official publication, starting with its inception in 1988, and began as a fill-in for shows on the Steelers Radio Network starting in 2008.
In 2014, Mr. Lolley was asked to join Steelers Nation Radio, 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.
In Sept. 2022, Mr. Lolley joined the Steelers as a Contributing Writer/Editor, which entailed everything from covering all of the team's games – at home and on the road – to broadcasting from the NFL Combine and the NFL Owners Meetings, to being in attendance every single time the Steelers President, or General Manager, or Coach, or starting quarterback, or newest No. 1 draft pick stepped up to a live microphone and spoke to the fans. And that's exactly how Mr. Lolley viewed the work: speaking 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 is survived by his wife, Amy, and children Noah, Tanner, and Madeline.
During his time with the Steelers, Mr. Lolley did radio, made videos, helped birth and grow a podcast, even did a video version of that podcast. But in his soul, he was a writer. On deadline from a rickety high school press box, or from a Super Bowl Media Room where he had just done an exclusive interview with newly-elected Hall of Fame member Troy Polamalu, Dale Lolley was a writer. And he was good at it.
And so this will conclude with something Dale Lolley once wrote 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.'"
