Growing up in West Virginia almost equally distanced from
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Cleveland I could have been a fan of any of teams
in any of those cities and the world have known no difference and would have
gone on just fine. But luckily in the
70’s when I was making the crucial decisions as to what teams I would follow,
the Black and Gold were becoming powerhouses.
That is the Black and Gold of the Pirates and The Steelers. The Pirates bookended the 70’s with
championships with players like Roberto, Omar Moreno, Dave Parker, Manny, Kent
Tekulve, Steve Blass, The Candy Man, and many others. That was enough for me to be a fan, but
something else was going on in Pittsburgh in the 70s that cemented my
fanaticism for the Black and Gold.
Around the beginning of the decade the Steeler hired a new
coach. Prior to that time period they
had been something of a let’s say “diamond in the rough.” Putting it kindly, they were not a good
team. They had some memorable players, Bill
Dudley, Bobby Layne, Ernie Stautner, John Henry Johnson, but from a team
standpoint, not good. Then in 1969, this
guy named Chuck Noll was hired to turn the team into a winner. Little did Art Rooney know that this man
would be a stabilizing force for the Pittsburgh Steelers and would take the
team to unimaginable heights that only a select few teams would achieve in the
NFL and that no other coach could say they had achieved to this day in the NFL. Noll had been the defensive coordinator in
Baltimore under another legendary coach, Don Shula the season before the
Steelers hired him. It is no coincidence
that Pittsburgh’s defense became the Steel Curtain after Coach arrived. Baltimore’s defense was stingy, giving up
only 144 points during his last season.
Chuck Noll’s will to turn this team into a dynasty did not
happen overnight. The first season could
not have been an easy one. The Steelers
went 1-13 to continue their path that had been recorded in the pre-70’s history
book, but what no fan of the Steelers could know in that first season was that
the building blocks were starting to accumulate. Not to take anything away from Dan Rooney,
who was the GM in 1970 and 1971 until Dick Haley Took over, but the most
important piece, Chuck Noll had been put in place and the rest of the building
blocks were yet to come. Like an army
marching in a single file line, the players began to arrive. Joe Greene the number 3 overall pick and L.C.
Greenwood in 1969, Terry Bradshaw the number 1 overall pick and
Mel Blount in 1970, Jack Ham, Dwight White, and Mike Wagner in 1971, Franco
Harris and Steve Furness in 1972, J.T. Thomas in 1973, Lynn Swann, John
Stallworth, Jack Lambert and Mike Webster in 1974. There were so many others that Chuck Noll and
the Steelers brought in to contribute to the domination of the 70s. It is just unreal how they were able to put
together so much talent.
There was one man that was in charge of meshing them into a team and that was Chuck Noll. I’ve listened to Merrill Hoge and Tunch Ilkin and many other players reverently discuss so many times how Chuck Noll was a master at coaching. He could teach, he could stand back and let his assistants teach and he could coach. He knew how to pull the right strings and he is the only head coach with four Super Bowls to show for it. He is a hall of famer and he is the reason that I am a Steelers fan and will always be a Steelers fan.
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