PITTSBURGH - It figures this sports-mad town needed a museum to celebrate its rich sports history. Professional football was born here. The first modern World Series was played here.

The Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, which opens Saturday at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, tells the stories of the people and objects behind such moments.

Among its 300 major objects are the cleats Franco Harris wore when he caught the "Immaculate Reception," Billy Conn's gloves and light heavyweight championship belt, the glove belonging to Satchel Paige, who played for the Negro League's Pittsburgh Crawfords, and even the goal post from Three Rivers Stadium displayed outside the museum.

In developing the history center's strategic plan in 1998, officials realized that despite the region's dominance in games of all sort, the center had little to document it, said Andrew Masich, the center's president.

Pittsburghers "identify with their sports teams even more than they do in other communities," Masich said. "We've contributed more in sports than other cities larger than Pittsburgh.

"It's the cradle of quarterbacks, for example," he said, listing Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Johnny Unitas, Jim Kelly, Joe Montana and Willie Thrower, the first black quarterback in the modern NFL.

"We want to examine, why is that? I mean, is it something in the water? Is it something in the work ethic? Or is it something in the way that Western Pennsylvanians think and play and work?" Masich said.

Anne Madarasz, the history center's chief curator, said Pittsburgh and sports became linked at the beginning of the last century.

Pittsburgh was the nation's seventh-largest city and wealthy from industry when professional sports started to develop, Madarasz said. Teams had the money to lure top athletes and residents had spending money and leisure time to enjoy sports as participants and spectators.

"Sports, for the working class, becomes a form of escape," she said. "Sports becomes imbued with huge importance. ... Billy Conn went into the boxing ring because he didn't want to go into the mines or the mills."

The sports museum has more than 300 major artifacts and thousands of other objects, about 70 interactive exhibits and more than 20 audiovisual programs.

About half the items were donated and about half were purchased, Masich said.

"People want their treasures to be preserved forever ... And what they've been doing is, pulling stuff from under their beds, from out of their closets. Franco's shoes were in his closet," Masich said. "And he brought them down because he knew this was the place that would not only preserve them for future generations but would appreciate the historical value. Not the monetary value."

But not every object offered to the museum makes the cut. The museum rejected about three-quarters of the sports-related items offered so far.

"We are very selective in what we take," Masich said. "What we accept has to be historically significant. We don't look for autographed balls and bats and things like that. We look for the bat that Roberto Clemente hit his 3,000th run with. We look for Satchel Paige's glove. We look for the shoes that Franco Harris was wearing when he made his Immaculate Reception.

"So to us, those things that were there that have the blood and sweat of those athletes on them, those are the touchstones with the past that we look for," Masich said.

Among the firsts Western Pennsylvania can claim are:

Professional football. The Allegheny Athletic Association paid William Heffelfinger $500 to play against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in 1892.

The modern World Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the Boston Americans in 1903.

Baseball radio play-by-play on Aug. 5, 1921.

Semi-pro hockey league at Duquesne Gardens in 1899.

The 20,000-square-foot sports museum takes up two floors in the history center's new Smithsonian wing, which also includes space for Smithsonian traveling exhibits, a collections gallery focusing on Western Pennsylvania and an education center.

The sports museum has more than 300 major artifacts and thousands of smaller objects and mementos, about 70 interactive exhibits and more than 20 audiovisual programs, including Bill Mazeroski's home run that won the 1960 World Series for the Pirates. The homer broke a 9-all tie and gave the Pirates the championship in seven games against the New York Yankees.