Greenfield community beaming with pride as Mike McCarthy returns to hometown Pittsburgh

There was a large sense of pride in Mike McCarthy's hometown neighborhood of Greenfield as the Pittsburgh native was introduced as the new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Roughly 7,000 people live in the Greenfield neighborhood of the city and most, if not all of them, were smiling a little harder on Tuesday after watching McCarthy be introduced as the head coach of his hometown football team.

"It was like a holiday in Greenfield," said Jimmy Gregg, who has known Mike McCarthy since he was a kid. "I'm not just speaking for myself but the whole Greenfield community how happy we are."

Gregg coached McCarthy when he was in elementary school at the now defunct St. Rosalia Academy.

"That's Mike there and me there," Gregg said, showing a photo of the school's 1975 basketball team. "We were 39-1."

Gregg said that McCarthy had a strong leadership quality about him even back then, but that it wasn't his most important character trait.

"Mike never forgot where he came from," Gregg said.

While he was coaching in Green Bay and in Dallas, Gregg said that McCarthy would still give money back to the neighborhood, keeping the doors open at St. Rosalia's and helping fund Greenfield athletics.

"You can see his love for Pittsburgh in the press conference," Gregg said. "He's a Pittsburgh guy through and through."

It didn't take long for McCarthy to tear up in his introductory press conference, and he wasn't alone.

"I got emotional myself," Gregg said. "To see a young kid I had the opportunity to coach to come up and be so successful. What a role model he's been to all the other kids in the community."

McCarthy and Gregg have stayed in touch over the years, including meeting to have a photo taken together on the sidelines at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

Gregg went to quite a few of McCarthy's games over the years. 

Now that McCarthy is back home in Pittsburgh, he won't have to travel far to attend more games in the future.