Pittsburgh is deep in sports heroes: Terry Bradshaw, who sparked the Steelers to four Super Bowl victories; Roberto Clemente, who led the Pirates to two World Series wins; Arnold Palmer, who grew from nearby Latrobe into a golf giant.

Yet among western Pennsylvania's great athletes, no one has done more for the Steel City than Mario Lemieux.

He simply kept a team alive.

Not to mention himself. Overcoming Hodgkin's disease on top of a mountain of health problems, Lemieux produced one of the peak careers in National Hockey League history — while leading Pittsburgh's Penguins to the top of the sport.

Lemieux displayed that same perseverance after he traded his uniform for a suit. In 1999, the Penguins were bankrupt and faced a possible move.

Lemieux, in his second year of retirement, led an investment group that bought the struggling franchise for $95 million.

He wanted to buy the team for which he played 17 seasons so he could protect the $25 million owed to him in deferred salary and keep the team in Pittsburgh.

Lemieux led by example in the arena. He took the same approach as owner of the Penguins. Steve Reich, Mario's agent since 1988, says he is a natural leader in the front office. "He's a quiet guy and a good listener," Reich told IBD. "But when he says something, he cuts right to the heart of the matter. He is an insightful guy."

Reich lauds him for assembling a strong team — on and off the ice. From drafting superstar Sidney Crosby to choosing Ray Shero as general manager, Lemieux has built what some see as a Stanley Cup contender for years to come.

A Long Stay

Lemieux also orchestrated financial backing to build a new arena. The Penguins' 46-year-old Mellon Arena, also called the Igloo, is the oldest in the league. Two months ago, his group and city officials agreed to a $290 million arena deal that anchors the team in Pittsburgh for the next 30 years.

It wasn't the first time Lemieux had saved the franchise.

The Penguins were the worst team in hockey in 1984. So in the draft, they chose a 19-year-old Montreal native named Mario Lemieux.

He was Super Mario — 6 feet 4 inches, 230 pounds — a center that many said would rise to stardom.

Lemieux responded by scoring his first goal on his very first shift in the NHL. He would go on to score more than 100 points in each of his first three seasons, backing up the experts' predictions.

Lemieux had the anticipation that all great hockey players have.

"Mario was such a unique player because he possessed the rare combination of size and finesse along with great vision on the ice," Mark Recchi, who played with Lemieux, told IBD.

Lemieux was about more than passing and scoring. He was about winning. In seven years, he turned a moribund team into an NHL champion. The Lemieux Penguins became so dominant that they won the Stanley Cup in 1991 and '92.

Born on Sept. 5, 1965, Lemieux was raised by his stay-at-home mother and construction-worker father. Like many Canadians, he took up hockey early. Unlike most, he stood out at every level he played.

Lemieux combined grace with toughness to become one of the most prolific stars to play on the big stage. His numbers tell part of the story. He amassed 1,723 points in 17 seasons, good for seventh all time, but he's one of only two players among the top 50 scorers to play fewer than 1,000 games.

In just 915 regular-season games, Lemieux recorded 1.88 points per contest, second only to Wayne Gretzky.

The man called Super Mario and Le Magnifique was voted Most Valuable Player in 1988, '93 and '96.

With all of Lemieux's talent, he had to overcome serious pain to stay at the summit. He missed chunks of seasons due to injury and disease that cost him a legitimate chance to break Gretzky's scoring records.

Hockey pundits today wonder what could have been if Lemieux had played his nearly two decades in a healthy state.

"He never said 'why me' or felt sorry for himself," Reich said. "It's why he overcame so many obstacles throughout his career. In my humble opinion, and I'll admit I am a bit biased, but, when healthy, no one was better than Mario."

The injuries Lemieux played with read like a hospital log. He had a bad back, hurt hip, cancer — and, the final knockout blow, an irregular heartbeat.

Lemieux's back trouble stemmed from a narrowing of the back that caused hairline fractures. He started playing through the pain in the late '80s. The agony became so overwhelming that he had a herniated disk removed in 1990 and underwent more back surgery three years later. Through it all, he played at a level that most players couldn't reach if they felt 100%.

The combination of skating and shooting is about as tough as it gets in sports. Doing those tasks with a painful back is nearly unimaginable. But there was Lemieux, laid out on a table getting massage therapy between periods. On the worst nights, a trainer would tie his skates for him because he could not bend over. Then the star would hit the ice and lead the Penguins to victory.

After playing just 26 games in the 1990-91 regular season due to back injuries, Mario stormed backed and put on a phenomenal performance in the playoffs. Lemieux put up 44 points (16 goals and 28 assists) in just 23 games to help Pittsburgh win its first Stanley Cup.

"I slept with (the Stanley Cup). My wife was beside me, (and the Cup) was in between us," Lemieux said in a 2000 ESPN interview.

In January 1993, Lemieux hit another rut, this one even deeper. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a cancer that affects the lymph nodes. Energy-draining radiation treatment threatened his career, not to mention his life.

He missed 23 games — but still came back and won the scoring title.

To this day, Lemieux is the only player to miss 20 or more games and still win the Art Ross Trophy for most points scored in a season.

His comeback that season was heroic, but he couldn't build on that spectacular season. He played just 22 games the next season and sat out the 1994-95 campaign, shortened to 48 games due to a lockout.

The Comeback Kid

Lemieux came back for two more seasons, winning his fifth and sixth scoring titles, then retired because of his ailments. He was just 31 — and was enshrined into the NHL Hall of Fame fast, in the fall of 1997.

Still, Super Mario wanted more. He returned to the ice in late 2000. He felt he still had something to offer the Penguins. He also wanted his son, Austin, to see him play.

Lemieux still had it. He banged home a goal in his first game back and almost won the MVP award that season.

But by 2005, illness was hitting back. This time Lemieux was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.

He announced his final retirement at the age of 40 after playing his last game on Dec. 16, 2005.

Now as owner, Lemieux is keeping his Penguins playing in Pittsburgh. "He is a leader both on and off the ice, which is evident by his efforts to keep this organization in Pittsburgh," Recchi said. "Mario is the reason that the Penguins are where they are today."

BY BRAD KELLY