Two Pottsville legends are being celebrated in a new clothing line.
Illustrations of beer-bottle labels and bottle caps marked with logos of the Pottsville Maroons and D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. now grace T-shirts for sale at five Schuylkill Valley Sports retail stores in the region, according to Schuylkill Valley spokesman Phil Bamgardner.
The historic salute is also a fundraiser for Lasting Legacy of Pottsville, according to City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar.
"We are extremely excited and thankful to be working with two local legends while giving back to the local community," said Greg Baldwin, vice president of merchandise for Schuylkill Valley Sports.
In May, Schuylkill Valley Sports said that it had developed a partnership with representatives of Yuengling and the City of Pottsville to develop this exclusive clothing line.
Schuylkill Valley Sports is no stranger to the Pottsville Maroons. In March 2008, Lasting Legacy of Pottsville, which owns a license to sell Pottsville Maroons products, signed an agreement with Schuylkill Valley to sell three styles of shirts and three styles of ball caps featuring the Maroons.
Lasting Legacy of Pottsville still owns the license to sell those products, Palamar said.
Established in 2002, Lasting Legacy is a project to preserve and improve the city's parks. Its endowment is managed by the Schuylkill Area Community Foundation.
Recently, Lasting Legacy used $20,000 in donations to build a single rest room at the city's Yuengling Bicentennial Park, Palamar said.
While Yuengling and the Maroons are icons of local history, they also share other attributes, Palamar said.
"While the Maroons have always been known as underdogs, Yuengling brewery is also an underdog competing against bigger breweries, like Miller and Budweiser," he said.
In January, D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. became the nation's largest independent beer-maker, selling 2.5 million barrels of beer in 2011, 17 percent more than in 2010, according to Beer Marketer's Insights, Suffern, N.Y.
In 1829, David G. Yuengling established the Eagle Brewery on Centre Street in Pottsville. It burned down in 1831 and a new brewery, D.G. Yuengling & Son, was established at Fifth and Mahantongo streets. The business has become known as "America's Oldest Brewery," according to its website at www.yuengling.com.
In 1999, Yuengling bought a former Stroh's brewery in Tampa, Fla., and opened a second brewery there.
In 2000, Yuengling built Yuengling Beer Co. at Mill Creek, just outside Pottsville. Beer production started there April 1, 2001, and in 2003, the Mill Creek brewery started ordering supplies there by rail.
In 2010, Yuengling expanded its Mill Creek brewery, adding two buildings and more fermenting and storage tanks.
In October, Yuengling started marketing in Ohio. Today, it distributes products in 14 states and the District of Columbia, David A. Casinelli, Yuengling's chief operating officer, said previously.
Casinelli could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The Pottsville Maroons were an early 20th century coal region football team that won an impressive title, then had it stripped away.
On Dec. 6, 1925, the Maroons defeated the Chicago Cardinals, 21-7, for the unofficial NFL title. On Dec. 12, the Maroons defeated a non-NFL team, the Notre Dame All-Stars, 9-7, in an exhibition game at Philadelphia's Shibe Park.
The Philadelphia-based Frankford Yellow Jackets claimed the Maroons invaded their territory, the league suspended the Maroons from all rights and privileges and declared their franchise forfeited in the league.
In October 2007, ESPN Books published a book by David Fleming, Davidson, N.C., on the team titled "Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship." It was followed by interest in a possible movie about the Maroons a year later, but the troubled economy forced a team of producers from Los Angeles to reschedule a trip to Pottsville seeking funding to finance the film.