As regular readers know, Steel Curtain Rising suddenly dropped the story of the Steelers ownership restructuring in the last few days.

The reason for this is that my father-in-law, Ruben Jorge Sosa “Cito” passed away on Thursday, July 10th. He was a great guy. Although he was 83, strangers regularly pegged him at 60, 65, perhaps 70 (I think we even got one person to say 55-60.) I thoroughly enjoyed seeing their faces when I told them Rubencito was in his 80’s.

It’s a safe bet to say that Rubencito was Steelers nation’s oldest “newest” fan. For most of us being Steelers fans is a life-long occupation. My father-in-law did not discover his affection for the Black and Gold until he was 81.

Always one to share fully in the passions of his loved ones, he stayed up to watch the Steelers play in Super Bowl XL. As soon as the game was over, he excitedly called asking, “Is it over? The Steelers won, didn’t they?” Not bad for an Argentine man who had never even seen an American Football game until two years before.

Based on that we talked about offically making him the “elder statesmen” of the Pittsburgh Steeler Fan Club of Buenos Aires, but we never got around to swearing him in. Its a shame, whe would have had a field day with it. (Lesson: if you have something you want to do for a loved one — do it!)

On our last trip to the states, my wife and I got him a Steelers, Super Bowl XL key chain, which he loved immediately put to use. It’s safe to say that Rubencito was the only person in PAMI (the Argentine health system for retirees,) who had a Steelers key chain.

Fortunately he passed away peacefully without suffering, although my wife and I sorely miss him already.