'Burgh's Best to Wear It, No. 5: Beloved in Pittsburgh, Ulf Samuelsson was a villain everywhere else

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 5: Ulf Samuelsson

To understand Ulf Samuelsson’s appeal in Pittsburgh, all you have to consider is who liked him.

Jack Lambert.

The toughest and meanest of the Steelers instantly became a fan of Samuelsson when the Penguins traded for him — along with defenseman Grant Jennings and forward Ron Francis — in a blockbuster deal with the Hartford Whalers on March 4, 1991.

Not coincidentally, Samuelsson remained a villain just about everywhere else.

Samuelsson’s hard-scrabble ways — let’s be honest and just label them as violent — made life miserable for any opposing forward who dared venture into the Penguins’ zone.

His most notable transgression came against the Boston Bruins in the 1991 Wales Conference final. In Game 3 of the series, Samuelsson’s knee-on-knee hit against Bruins power forward Cam Neely eventually led to a career-ending knee injury for Neely and made Samuelsson a permanent pariah in Boston.

Oddly enough, when the Penguins won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title that spring against the Minnesota North Stars, it wasn’t any of their offensive stars who scored the Cup-clinching goal.

It was their rough-and-tumble defenseman who scored the winner in an 8-0 road victory.

Samuelsson and the Penguins won the Stanley Cup once again in 1992. Today, he remains beloved in Pittsburgh. And hated just about everywhere else.

Other No. 5s of note:

• Roughly two decades earlier, defenseman Bryan “Bugsy” Watson also became a fan favorite through his violent ways. Despite standing only 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds throughout most of his career, Watson was fearless and routinely agitated the opposition. His most notable season in Pittsburgh was 1971-72 when he led the NHL with 212 penalty minutes in 75 games.

• Third baseman Bill “Mad Dog” Madlock joined the Pirates via trade June 28, 1979 and played a vital role in helping them win their most recent World Series crown that fall. Madlock spent parts of seven seasons in Pittsburgh, becoming an All-Star in 1981 and ‘83. He also won the National League batting title in each of those seasons.

• Shortstop Arky Vaughan primarily wore No. 21 with the Pirates. But his final two seasons in Pittsburgh of 1940 and 1941 — each of which saw him play in the All-Star Game — came with him donning No. 5. Vaughan was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.

• Utilityman Josh Harrison was a key contributor to the Pirates’ revival in the mid-2000s. An All-Star in 2014 and ‘15, he held down a variety of positions while helping the team reach the postseason in 2013, ‘14 and ‘15.

• Sid Bream spent parts of six seasons with the Pirates and developed into one of the top defensive first basemen in the majors during that time. A solid but hardly spectacular batter, Bream was a key component to the team winning the National League East title in 1990.

• Guard Jerry McCullough spent four solid but hardly spectacular seasons with Pitt in the mid-1990s, helping the Panthers make an appearance in the 1992 NCAA Tournament as a freshman. McCullough led Pitt in scoring in two of his four seasons with the school and remains the program’s 20th-leading career scorer with 1,342 points.

• A four-year starter at Pitt, safety Tom Flynn was a member of some dominant Panthers defenses in the early 1980s. His 297 career tackles are 15th-most in program history. A native of Penn Hills, Flynn was a fifth-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 1984 and won Super Bowl XXI with the New York Giants.

• Craig Colquitt spent eight seasons as a punter with the Steelers, winning Super Bowls XIII and XIV. Most notably, Colquitt was the patriarch of a punting dynasty based out of his alma mater, Tennessee. His sons, Briton and Dustin, have won Super Bowl rings with the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs, respectively. Additionally, his nephew Jimmy, was a punter with the Seattle Seahawks.

• A native of Butler, Terry Hanratty was a popular backup quarterback for the Steelers throughout the 1960s and 1970s. After losing the starting job to Terry Bradshaw in 1970, Hanratty was a member of the Steelers’ Super Bowl IX- and X-winning teams.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.