History of baseball team nicknames by calling them "Pirates" for "stealing" their players. The "Pirates" tag stuck and the alliterative name was eventually adopted as Pittsburgh's official team nickname. By the time of the 1903 World Series, the team was commonly known as "Pirates", although the club did not acknowledge it on their uniforms until 1912. Alternate nicknames such as "Bucs" or "Buccos", short for "buccaneer", have been used through the years. "Buccaneer" is typically used synonymously with "pirate", although historically "buccaneer" is a more specific term for pirates who operated in the Caribbean, especially along the Spanish Main coast. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the
2007 East Carolina Pirates football team the final drive, where after missing all prior field goals in the game, Placekicker Ben Hartman made the game-winning field goal, leading the Pirates to defeat the Tar Heels in Greenville for the first time ever, 34-31. 2007 East Carolina Pirates football team The 2007 East Carolina Pirates football team represented East Carolina University in the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season and played their home games in Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium. The team was coached by Skip Holtz, who was in his fourth year with the program. The Pirates have a local television contract with WITN-TV, an NBC affiliate located