Glory Days During the darkest days of the Great Depression the sport of professional football was in need of smart ambitious people Art Rooney fit that description Rooney lived in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania He was young loved sports and had money to spend Rooney bought a team in the National Football League NFL in 1933 and named it the Pirates after the city’s baseball club Rooney had some good players on his team during the 1930s including Johnny Blood McNally Cap Oehler Ray Tesser Armand Niccolai and Byron Whizzer White In 1940 Rooney changed the name of the team to the Steelers in honor of Pittsburgh’s steel industry Not until 1942 however did they have their first winning season The star of that team was a rookie passer named Bill Dudley He was small 6
and slow and threw the ball with a weird sidearm motion Still he usually found a way to win Pittsburgh fans loved him Just when it looked as if the Steelers were ready to contend for the NFL championship Dudley and many teammates were called away to fight in World War II When Pittsburgh’s stars returned the game had changed and the Steelers were slow to keep up with the times At one point the team went eight years in a row without a winning season During the 1950s Pittsburgh had a strong defense that featured Ernie Stautner Dale Dodrill Bill McPeak Jerry Shipkey and Jack Butler But they lacked a great runner and passer The Steelers could have had the two best players of the era running back Jim Brown and quarterback Johnny Unitas But the team decided not to draft Brown and cut Unitas during training camp The Steelers began to show improvement in the late 1950s and early 1960s They were led by quarterback Bobby Layne running back John Henry Johnson and receiver Buddy Dial It was not until the early 1970s however that Pittsburgh fans were finally rewarded with a championship team LEFT When World War II began Bill Dudley swapped his football jersey for a military uniform ABOVE John Henry Johnson signed this photo which shows him in the early 1960s 7
The turning point came when the Steelers hired Chuck Noll as their coach Noll had played for the Cleveland Browns in the 1950s He was an assistant coach with the Baltimore Colts in the 1960s His first job as a head coach was with Pittsburgh Noll’s coaching philosophy was simple He wanted to stop opponents from scoring With the Steelers he built a dynasty around a defense called the Steel Curtain It starred linebackers Andy Russell Jack Ham and Jack Lambert defensive back Mel Blount and defensive linemen L C Greenwood and Joe Greene On offense the Steelers could strike quickly Quarterback Terry Bradshaw led the way An excellent group of blockers opened holes for running back Franco Harris Pittsburgh also had two superb receivers John Stallworth and Lynn Swann They could break free from the defense and score from anywhere on the field The Steelers reached the Super Bowl four times in the 1970s and won it each time LEFT Chuck Noll watches the action from the sideline He coached the Steelers to four championships ABOVE Terry Bradshaw was the quarterback for all four Super Bowls under Noll 9
