Maroon's Sports Bar: Pottsville's "Cheers"-like Sports Bar

One of my favorite bars/restaurants in Pottsville, PA is Maroons Sports Bar.

Owned by Bob and Karen Dittmar, Maroons celebrates Pottsville's professional sports team -- NFL World Champions -- from the 1920s. To understand the amazing story of this team, click here and scroll down to read the history of the Maroons, and their stolen World Championship... and the real reason that the Cardinals will NEVER win a world championship (hint--until they return our trophy, they are "cursed"!)

But the city of Pottsville never gave up. While the story was sort of buried for years, just a few years ago an ESPN writer read of the "stolen championship" and he could not believe the story. David Fleming wrote a book that came out to wild accplaim here in Schuylkill County. Click here to read about Fleming's passion for this relatively unknown team, and his book BREAKER BOYS: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship.

A few years ago, thanks to the city's popular Elm Street Project Renovation Program and the hard work and investment by the Dittmars, Maroons opened downtown. A prior owner had bought the Pottsville real estate and opened a bar of the same name, that quickly closed. After a while being vacant, Bob and Karen purchased the place and totally renovated it from top to bottom. Today, it's more than just a corner bar.

It's a family friendly place, and I regularly take my family there for dinner on the weekends. My one son loves their wings, and their burgers are fantasic. The entire menu has a coal-cracker theme, with local attractions and towns given their own menu items. To read their menu, click here.

They have special themes on certain nights (Thursday is Seafood Night) and, as you can expect, the place is packed during sporting events, especially for big football games.

Several local service clubs, such as Pottsville Lions and Rotary Club of Pottsville also have meetings at Maroons, as they have a 2nd floor meeting area that can be rented for catering events or private parties. Maroons memorabilia--and sporting relics from other local teams--line the walls. To understand the history of the team, just read the walls.

This quote is from David Fleming's blog on ESPN, and he wrote this in 1997: "For 82 years the town of Pottsville has been fighting a David and Goliath battle with the NFL to get its title back. "It's one thing not to give the team the title it won and deserves," says Pottsville Area High School football coach Kevin Keating, the son and grandson of coal miners. "But there's no excuse for the way the NFL has treated this town. It wasn't necessary. It's beneath a league that prides itself on class and professionalism. The NFL should have more respect for the men who played the game, the men who paved the way and for the fans who helped make it what it is today."

Bob and Karen Dittmar's MAROONS SPORTS BAR & GRILL is a fine tribute to the memory of these great players, and a fine place to visit if you're ever in Pottsville, PA. They're right on Centre Street, on one of be best corner's in Pottsville real estate. You cannot miss them. Just find Centre Street and head north. And tell you Erica Ramus said the burgers are the best!

Erica Ramus is Broker/Owner of Realty Executives in Pottsville, PA

If you're looking for a PROFESSIONAL to represent you in all your real estate needs, call Realty Executives! We can meet all your buying / selling needs ... and will exceed your expectations. That's what being an EXECUTIVE is all about Serving all of Schuylkill County ... Pottsville, Orwigsburg, Schuylkill Haven, Auburn, Pine Grove, Frackville, Minersville, Ashland, Shenandoah, Port Carbon, Palo Alto, St. Clair, Barnesville real estate

(background info used about Maroon's with permission of the owners--who are friends of mine!)