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Arthur J. Rooney, one of nine children, Grew up in a apartment on the north side of Pittsburgh. He was athletic as a boy and loved playing cards with his friends at a local casino. He grew to be a man of great strengths and accomplishments in his amazing life. It was Art Rooney who gave Pittsburgh something to look forward to in those dark days of the depression, the Pittsburgh Pirates, now known as the Steelers. |
| In 1933 Art Rooney invested 2,500 dollars to the National Football League, named his new team the Pittsburgh Pirates and opened for business. Times were hard so they played at Forbs Field and had offices at a local hotel. They came at the age of leather helmets with little ear flaps and the pads really showed. There cleats were screws screwed into shoes and no face masks. The average line backer on the Steelers made about 100 dollars a day. Then you had to work no matter what the weather was like or how good your health was. |  |
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The first year the Steelers
Played in was difficult. Sure
they had some good players but they were never at the right place at the
right time. The Steelers first head coach was Forrest Douds with a record of 3-6-2 but he only lasted one season.
The Steelers Went 3 years before finally coming out of there shell and showing the NFL what they were made of with a 6-6 finish. Then after losing the season finally to the Washington redskins Rooney fired Joe Batch, the Steelers head coach at the time.
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| Joe Batch was replaced with the
amazing Jonny Blood who
examplified the avenge that rules are made to be broken. He joined
the team in 1934 as a halfback retired then came back agian as a player
and coach. He led his team in compleations wit 10 for 164 yards and 4
touchdowns. Jonny Blood lasted for almost 3 seasons but only won
about 6 games.
After Blood left his good friend Walt kesling tool control. He was a good football man with all the smarts but he could only pulll out a 30-55-5 record. |
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In 1938 the Steelers signed on Byron "wizzer" White. He was a all american star from Colerodo and studyed at Oxford Collage. He put in one season for the steelers and did his job well even tho the steelers had a 2-9 finish that year. Althou Wizzer only lasted one season other steeler stars hung around. Wilbar Sortet played for 10 amazing years. Hugh McCullough passed for 443 yards in 1939 and Armand Niccolai led the leam in scoring for years. |
| As the war blew on in euroup The steelers gave it htere last
push. it looked liek they were taking there last breath. They
struggled in the1940 season with a embarissing 2-7-2 record. Rooney tried
to help by hiring Pitt legend Jock Sutherland as teh coach but that didn'
help.
At the end of 1940 the Steelers were sold to the Eagles and players were mixed and matched and finnially got some firepower. The shakeup ment new club so the cheif decided that we needed a new name |
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After the war Pittsburgh had there
Steelers back. They had a new coach, John Bain Sutherland. The to
years he coached he sold out Forbs Feild and The Steelres actually won
more than they lost.
Sutherland brought a new breed of coaches- coaches who made a science out of football with play books, game films, classroom seccions and more. He was a professional coach and like Chuck Noll 20 years later he had a system. |
| After the 1946 campaighn the Steelers went 5-5-1 and never
gave up more than 2 touchdowns in a season
In 1947 Sutherland signed Jonny "zero" Clement. Clement became a triple treat tailbacker, passer and defensive back. He led the team in with 670 yards rushing and passed for 1,004 more. Tight end Elbie Nickel finished his career as the clubs 4th ranked all time reciver and Val Jasante led the club in receptions for five years. That season the Steelers ended the season with a 8-4, the clubs best up of that time. Then it all ended iun november when the steelers played the bears and were dead and buried with the finial score of 49 to 7. Then the eagles 21 0 before they beat Bosten. By the time they plaed the EAgles agian it would have been nice to see Bill Dudly in the lineup. Agian they were crushed my the Eagles with a 21 0 loss. |
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After Suterland passsed away things went from bad to
worse... agian htey just coulden't seem to win. Joe Michelosen was
the coach at the time.His best season was 49 when the steelers were going
4 and out but stubled to a 6-5-1 record. The highlightest film would
surly include Bobby Gage's 97-yard touchdown run agenst the Bears, and Joe
Geri's 82- yard punt. Michelosen ended his seasons with a 20-26-2 record.
Look below to read more of the steelers history. |
The Cheif brought back Joe Batch for the 1952-53 draft and the Steelers responed by winning 11 games and losing 13 So they rebilt AGIAN and they still did horrible so the Cheif brought back walt kesling for his third and last stand. Once agian the Steelers gave up a few standouts. In 1952 Jim Finks threw for 2,307 yarda snd led the leigh in touchdowns. Elbie Nickle scrambled for 884 yards on 55 receptions. But still the teams finished with a .500 finish.
The 1960's changed everything for the Steelers. With Players like John henery Jonsen, Joe Womack, Dick Hoak, and Bobby Layne how coulden't they have won some games. That 1962 year They finished with a 9/5 record but that was not enoguh for the head coach Buddy Parker who took out layne and later admitting that it was a mistake to let him go. in 1963 Parker took his team to the championships when the team was 7-4-2 and could have used better feild marshel agenst the giants in the last game of the season.
Ok so the Steelers still weren;t that great but they had there moments, like in 164 Big John Baker 6f ft 6 and 270 pounds knocked Y.A. Running back Brandy Keys played well and so did offencive tackle Charlie Bradchaw but that wasen't enough. By then the Cheif in his 60's was slowing down, Dan Rooney stepped in demanding sense over style, perferring plan and purrose to Parker's more typical panic and petuance.
In 1969 Dan Rooney started looking for a new coach to replace Bill Austin. we need a coach that would fit Pittsburgh. So carefully folling the procidures, DAn talksed to a numer of coaches. At one point Dan called Don Shula, the head coach for the NFL champion Baltimore Colts for that time and asked him for permission to speak to the highly rated assistant, Chuck Noll. Rooney set the meeting for Monday after the game the day afterNoll's Colts got killed by the jets. Noll spoke about the steelers like he has lived with them for years. After the sesesion the cheif told Dan not to let Noll of the list.
The years that Noll was the head coach was amazing! He transformed our Steelers from horrible to the best team in the league. those years the Steelers also had the players like Franco Harris,Lynn Swan, Joe Green and more all now hall of famers. Chuck Noll retired in 1991 as one of the most respected Steelers coaches. Then came Bill Cower, now our head coack who led our team to a couple championchips but he still has yeas left of his coaching and with all they have now I think we are going to see a new Superbowl trophey to add to our collection that sits in the great hall in Hiens Stadium.
