49ers set up shop in Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — In a city that's halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, one house on a neighborhood street is liable to be full of Browns fans and the next one down filled with Steelers backers.

The third house, however, very well could have a 49ers flag hanging from the front porch.

"Kids come to school with their 49ers regalia all the time," said John Young, the principal of Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown. "That's really a tribute to the DeBartolo family. There are a significant number of old-time 49ers fans here."

Both the 49ers' former owner, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., and the current one, his sister, Denise DeBartolo-York, went to school at Mooney. So did 49ers CEO Jed York, who on Tuesday walked the school's halls and listened to general manager Trent Baalke address the football team.

The 49ers, who play in Philadelphia on Sunday, are spending the week in the Eastern time zone to avoid back-to-back cross-country flights. But they're doing so in Youngstown because of deep DeBartolo roots planted here more than a century ago.

York's great-grandparents immigrated to the area along with a wave of Eastern and Southern European immigrants seeking work in the steel mills that once boomed in the area. York's step-great-grandfather, Michael DeBartolo, was a construction worker who also helped his wife run a general store out of the first floor of their home in the Smokey Hollow neighborhood of Youngstown.

The two sent their son, Eddie DeBartolo, to Notre Dame, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. When he came back, he started a construction company that flourished after World War II by building malls and later hotels. DeBartolo became a billionaire.

In 1977, he bought the 49ers and gave the franchise to his son, Eddie Jr., who oversaw the team's five Super Bowl championships. A 1998 Louisiana gambling scandal eventually led to his relinquishing control of the team to his sister in 2000.

One by one, the smokestacks and foundries have gone dormant in Youngstown, and the steel city's stature has fallen with it. After a population peak of 170,000 at the height of the industry, Youngstown now has about 67,000 residents and the population fell 18.4 percent over the past decade, according to the latest census.

But the DeBartolo family never left, and they and the 49ers are the source of fierce pride in the area.

"There's no question that they haven't forgotten their roots, where they came from and the strong ties they have to this valley," said Joe Cassese, a high school classmate of Jed York's who manages the popular MVR Italian restaurant a few blocks from where York's great-grandparents lived.

"And I think in today's society, people are often quick to overlook where they came from," he continued. "I understand that maybe waking up on the bay in San Francisco's pretty cool. But I think it's pretty cool that they don't have a problem waking up to the snow in the winter here."

While York, who manages the day-to-day activities of the 49ers, lives in the Bay Area, his parents still reside in the Youngstown area. And everywhere you turn here, you find the name "DeBartolo" on a building or scholarship fund.

Classes in everything from English to economics are held in DeBartolo Hall at Youngstown State, where the 49ers are practicing this week. Three years ago, DeBartolo Jr. donated $750,000 to complete an on-campus indoor sports facility the 49ers will use if rainstorms roll in.

And deep inside Steelers and Browns country, you can even find the 49ers' logo proudly displayed along a busy business corridor. The Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. building in nearby Boardman, Ohio, has a large 49ers helmet hanging just above the entrance.

"There are some die-hards out here," Cassese said of Ohio 49ers fans. "And clearly it stems from the closeness and the relationship that family has here."