Déjà vu: Steelers, Penguins play the Jets on the same day. How rare is this quirk?

Cameron Hoover / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sunday brings an interesting scheduling quirk, as both the Steelers and the Penguins prepare to face the Jets.

Not the same Jets, of course — the Steelers host Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets on “Sunday Night Football,” while the Penguins head to Canada to face off against Mark Scheifele and the Winnipeg Jets.

Most people will react to this with a simple, “Huh, that’s neat.” But if you’re anything like us and enjoy the silly minutiae of sports trivia, the logical next question becomes: “Has this happened before?”

Six pairs of franchises currently share the same name in the United States’ four major sports. The Sacramento and Los Angeles Kings don’t apply here because Pittsburgh doesn’t have an NBA team.

That leaves us with five current ones:

• Arizona and St. Louis Cardinals

• Texas and New York Rangers

• San Francisco and New York Giants

• Carolina and Florida Panthers

• New York and Winnipeg Jets

The Houston and Edmonton Oilers once existed at the same time, too.

So we took some time to look back through the histories of the Pirates, Penguins and Steelers to see if this had happened before — if two of Pittsburgh’s major professional sports teams had played games against two teams with the same name on the same day.

Leaving room for any research snafus, we found four in the entire history of Pittsburgh sports. Interestingly enough, none involved the Penguins, which means Sunday’s Jets fest will be their first such involvement.

So let’s take a trip down Pittsburgh sports history’s memory lane and check out the other four times this scheduling oddity has happened.

Sept. 30, 2007

Arizona Cardinals 21, Steelers 14
St. Louis Cardinals 6, Pirates 5

Coincidentally, this loss to Arizona marked Mike Tomlin’s first as coach of the Steelers after they had started 3-0 in his first season since taking over for Bill Cowher. Under Ken Whisenhunt, who had been the Steelers’ offensive coordinator for Cowher, the Cardinals rode a huge performance from Pitt alumnus Larry Fitzgerald (10 catches for 120 yards) to the win.

Ben Roethlisberger threw two touchdowns to Santonio Holmes — perhaps a precursor to the next season’s Super Bowl. Uniontown native brothers Gene and Tony Steratore officiated the contest in Glendale, Ariz.

The Pirates, meanwhile, were in the midst of another terrible year, 68-94 at the time of this particular loss to the Cardinals at PNC Park. Former Pirate Kip Wells got the win for St. Louis, while Bryan Bullington was handed the loss for Pittsburgh. Bullington surrendered a home run to Scott Spiezio in the fourth inning.

Nyjer Morgan, Cesar Izturis, Xavier Nady, Steve Pearce, Jose Castillo and Carlos Maldonado all had two hits apiece for the Pirates. The two teams combined to use 18 pitchers, and nine of them completely just ⅓ of an inning — or less, in the case of John Grabow.

Sept. 20, 1964

Steelers 27, New York Giants 24
San Francisco Giants 4, Pirates 3, 11 innings

Coach Buddy Parker’s Steelers picked up their first win of the 1964 season at Pitt Stadium on this day following a training camp that peculiarly took place at the University of Rhode Island. The Steelers fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter but staged a comeback thanks to quarterback Ed Brown, who ran for two touchdowns and threw another to John Henry Johnson.

Johnson and Jeannette’s Dick Hoak, a 1968 Pro Bowler, combined for 101 rushing yards. Hall of Famer Y.A. Tittle completed 7 of 16 passes for 132 yards and an interception for the Giants. The Steelers finished the year 5-9.

The 1964 Pirates were an average team, but pieces of their future World Series-winning clubs were present. Giants second baseman Hal Lanier won the game for San Francisco on a walk-off single off reliever Al McBean. Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry started the game for the Giants and tossed 10 innings of three-run ball. Willie Stargell went 2 for 4 with a two-run homer.

Bill Mazeroski and Bill Virdon both got two hits for the Pirates, while Roberto Clemente finished 0 for 4 with a walk. Willie Mays (1 for 1 with three walks) and Orlando Cepeda (0 for 5) were also in the lineup that day at Candlestick Park for San Francisco.

Sept. 8, 1940

Steelers 7, Chicago Cardinals 7
Pirates 16, St. Louis Cardinals 14; Pirates 5, St. Louis Cardinals 4 (doubleheader)

Now we’re starting to throw it way back. The Steelers and Chicago Cardinals took to the gridiron for some hard-nosed, smash-mouth football at Forbes Field. The Steelers’ only touchdown in the game came on a 45-yard pass from Billy Patterson to Duquesne alumnus George Platukis.

Offense was hard to come by that day, as the Steelers picked up just three first downs all afternoon and the teams combined for seven turnovers. The Steelers ended the 1940 season 2-7-2 under coach Walt Kiesling.

Game 1 of the Pirates-Cardinals doubleheader marked an offensive explosion at Sportsman’s Park. Five Pirates had three or more hits, including future Hall of Famer Arky Vaughan. Maurice Van Robays and Debs Garms whacked home runs for Pittsburgh. The Cardinals also saw some history in that game, as Hall of Famer Johnny Mize became the first player to ever record four three-home run games.

Game 2 was a bit more measured, mostly because the teams only played five innings. Vaughan and Bob Elliott knocked in all five of the Pirates' runs, and Max Butcher picked up the save. The Pirates finished the year 78-76-2 under the management of Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch.

Sept. 15, 1940

Steelers 10, New York Giants 10
Pirates 10, New York Giants 3; Pirates 4, New York Giants 3 (doubleheader)

That’s right — this scheduling rarity that has only happened four times in Pittsburgh’s history happened twice in a week. This also means, of course, the Steelers tied their first two games of the season. Patterson only completed 2 of his 8 pass attempts, but one of them was a 26-yard touchdown to Lou Tomasetti. That and a 48-yard field goal from Monessen’s Armand Niccolai were enough to earn a tie.

The Pirates, though, swept another doubleheader on this day at Polo Grounds. In their 10-3 Game 1 victory, they were propelled again by Van Robays, who hit a two-run homer. The lowest non-pitcher batting average in the Pirates lineup that day was .270. Rip Sewell threw a complete game to move to 15-3 for the Pirates.

In Game 2, the Pirates rode home runs from Garms and Elbie Fletcher. Vaughan made his whopping 47th error of the season at shortstop, and Hall of Famer Mel Ott went deep for the Giants.