January 12, 1975: A Win for Pittsburgh

January 12, 1975, 50 years ago: Western Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh in particular, has long been known as a source of football talent and football fandom. But up to this day, it had never won a professional football championship.

Art Rooney founded the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers on May 19, 1933. He and his wife, the former Kathleen "Kass" McNulty, lived in the Troy Hill section of the North Side of Pittsburgh, and raised 5 sons. They were Dan, Art Jr., Tim, Patrick and John. They would have 32 grandchildren and 75 great-grandchildren.

Art Jr. said that Art Sr., known to all of Western Pennsylvania as "The Chief," always told his sons, "Treat everybody the way you'd like to be treated. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But never let anyone mistake kindness for weakness." Or, as Art Jr. put it, "He took the Golden Rule, and put a little bit of the North Side in it."

The Steelers were founded when they were because 1933 was the year the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania finally repealed the "blue law" prohibiting professional sports on Sunday. This also enabled the Philadelphia Eagles to be founded on July 8, 1933.

Both teams struggled for years. Indeed, the manpower drain of World War II led them to merge the teams for the 1943 season, and the team was nicknamed the "Steagles." In 1947, at last, the Steelers finished 1st in the NFL's Eastern Division. Well, in a tie for it. With the Eagles. And the Eagles won a Playoff at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.

That was the closest the Steelers would get to an NFL Championship Game for another quarter of a century. In 1955, Dan and Art Jr. seemed to be the only people at Steeler training camp to notice a young Pittsburgh native who was trying to make the team as a quarterback. But Art Sr. deferred to his head coach, a run-centric old-schooler named Walt Kiesling.

Kiesling is not well-remembered today. The young quarterback is: He was picked up by the Baltimore Colts, and he made that team, and himself, legend. He was Johnny Unitas.

If Art Sr. had died shortly after the Jets won Super Bowl III on January 12, 1969, it would have been said that the best thing he did for his team was to die, so that his son could run the team. Instead, his sons held what we would now call an "intervention," telling him that they should take over the operations of the team. He agreed -- and lived another 20 years, in which the sons turned the Steelers from a joke franchise into an iconic team of American sports.

Pretty much the first thing that Dan Rooney did was offer the Steelers' head coaching job to the head coach at nearby Penn State, Joe Paterno. Paterno turned him down. So Dan offered it to the defensive coordinator of the team the Jets had just beaten in the Super Bowl, who had been on the staff of the San Diego Chargers team that won the 1963 AFL Championship, and a lineman who had won 2 NFL Championships with the Cleveland Browns: Chuck Noll.

Dan put his brother Art Jr. in charge of the team's drafts. His drafts included:

* 1969: Defensive tackle Joe Greene, offensive tackle Jon Kolb and defensive end L.C. Greenwood.

* 1970: Quarterback Terry Bradshaw and cornerback Mel Blount.

* 1971: Linebacker Jack Ham, guard Gerry Mullins, defensive tackles Dwight White and Ernie Holmes, tight end Larry Brown, and safety Mike Wagner.

* 1972: Running back Franco Harris and defensive tackle Steve Furness.

* And in 1974, in perhaps the greatest single draft in NFL history, he selected receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, linebacker Jack Lambert, and center Mike Webster -- 4 Hall-of-Famers in one draft. And that's not counting safety Donnie Shell, who wasn't drafted in 1974, but was signed anyway, and is in the Hall.

Counting Greene, Bradshaw, Blount, Ham and Harris, that was 10 Hall-of-Famers in 6 drafts. Counting Noll, 11 -- all based on the decisions of Dan Rooney and Art Rooney Jr. To put that in perspective: The team had 5 players from 1933 to 1968 who ended up making the Hall.

It took a while to build a winner, especially because Noll and Bradshaw had a contentious relationship. Moving from 1925-built Pitt Stadium into the new Three Rivers Stadium in 1970 helped. In 1972, the Steelers went 11-3, won the AFC Central Division Championship, and reached the AFC Championship Game, thanks to a pass Bradshaw threw that deflected off Oakland Raider safety Jack Tatum and ended up being caught and taken in for a Divisional Playoff-winning touchdown by Harris, known as "the Immaculate Reception." 

They made the Playoffs again in 1973, going 10-4. But they didn't make the Super Bowl either time. In 1974, they went 10-3-1, and won the AFC Central Division again. In the Divisional Playoff, they beat the Buffalo Bills, 32-14 at Three Rivers. This would be the only Playoff game of O.J. Simpson's career: Although he caught a touchdown pass, he couldn't help the Bills win, and he never got to another.

They had to go to the Oakland Coliseum to win the AFC Championship -- this would be the last season that a rotation chose the site of the Conference Championship games, rather than which team had the better record -- and beat the Raiders, 24-13. They would play Super Bowl IX at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, site of the annual Sugar Bowl, against the Minnesota Vikings.

Both teams had named defenses. Reminiscent of the Iron Curtain across Europe, the Steelers' front seven was known as the Steel Curtain: Tackles Greene and White, ends Greenwood and Holmes, and linebackers Lambert, Ham and the veteran Andy Russell. The Vikings, due to their jersey color reminding people of Sheb Wooley's novelty song that hit Number 1 in 1958, had a defense known as the Purple People Eaters. So it's not surprising that Super Bowl IX was one of the lowest-scoring championship games in NFL history.

Western Pennsylvania had been hit hard over the last 10 years. The coal and steel industries had severely declined. The industries that would replace them and get Pittsburgh, if not the small towns nearby, back on its feet -- computers and health care -- had not yet arrived. Labor unions were losing power.

"White flight" increased the population of the suburbs, but dropped that of the city itself. The city's population peaked at 676,806 in the 1950 Census, but was down to 520,117 in 1970. This decline continues, having reached 302,971 in 2020. The metropolitan area dropped from 2.8 million in 1960 to 2.3 million in 2010, but has gained a little back since then.

The city's sports teams had always been a rallying point, but were also inconsistent. Like the nursery rhyme about the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead, when they were good, they were very, very good; but when they were bad, they were horrid.

The city had a team in the NBA during its inaugural season of 1946-47, the Pittsburgh Ironmen, but they failed after that season. The Pittsburgh Condors won the title in the 1st season of the American Basketball Association, 1967-68. But when their biggest star, Connie Hawkins, had his ban from the NBA (due to an overreaction to his role in a point-shaving scandal) lifted in 1969, he went to the Phoenix Suns, and the Pipers were doomed. A rebranding to the Pittsburgh Condors in 1970 didn't help, and they folded in 1972.

The NHL granted the Steel City an expansion team in 1967, the Pittsburgh Penguins. They made the Playoffs in 1970 and '72, and would again in '75, but, at the time, they were nothing special. By far the most successful team in town was the baseball team, the Pirates. They had won the National League Eastern Division title in 1970, '71, '72, '73 and '74, and would again in '75. But aside from 1971, they couldn't win a Pennant. They won the World Series that year, but the death of Roberto Clemente in a plane crash after the 1972 season cast a pall over them that left them unable to return to the Fall Classic.

But football was the sport in Pittsburgh, and in all of Western Pennsylvania. It was especially known for producing great quarterbacks, such as Unitas (from Bloomfield on the city's East Side), Johnny Lujack (Connellsville, 50 miles southeast of downtown), George Blanda (Youngwood, 36 miles southeast), and Joe Namath (Beaver Falls, 30 miles northwest). Later would come Joe Montana (New Eagle, 23 miles south), Dan Marino (South Oakland, on the East Side) and Jim Kelly (East Brady, 57 miles northeast).

Still, the city was looking for its 1st pro football championship. It hadn't happened in the NFL. And the city didn't have teams in any of the AFLs, or the AAFC. Now, it looked to Coach Noll, the Steel Curtain, and Bradshaw, "the Blond Bomber" from Shreveport, Louisiana, to get that 1st title.

A full house of 80,997 fans filed into Tulane Stadium. Despite the Vikings having been to the Super Bowl the year before (losing to the Miami Dolphins), and 4 years before that (losing to the Kansas City Chiefs), the Steelers were favored by 3 points. The weather was bad: 46 degrees, with the artificial turf field a bit slick due to rain the previous day. (The game was supposed to be played indoors at the Superdome, but construction delays forced that stadium's opening to the following August.)

Talk about low-scoring: Not only did the 1st quarter end 0-0 (the Steelers' Roy Gerela missed 2 field goal attempts, and the Vikings only got 20 total yards), but the only score of the 1st half was the 1st safety in Super Bowl history.

Fred Cox missed a field goal for the Vikings. On their next possession, Viking quarterback Fran Tarkenton pitched the ball behind him to Dave Osborn. That may have been his name, and he may have been in the Super Bowl, but unlike the daredevil character created by comedian Bob Einstein, this Dave Osborn was not super: He never had control of the ball, and Tarkenton, known as a "scrambler," ran to the ball and fell on it. White just had to touch him, and it was 2-0 Steelers.

The Steelers got a drive going in the 3rd quarter, and Franco Harris ran the ball in for a touchdown and a 9-0 Pittsburgh lead. And that would be all the scoring in the game's 1st 45 minutes. The Steelers forced a fumble in the 4th quarter, but had the tables turned when the Vikings blocked one of their punts, and Terry Brown recovered the ball in the end zone. But Cox missed the extra point. With 10:33 to go, the Vikings trailed only 9-6. Through the 2023 season, that remains the closest the Vikings have ever come to becoming World Champions.

So often derided as dumb, Bradshaw proved he was a smart quarterback. He launched an 11-play, 66-yard drive, ending with a 4-yard pass to Brown. The touchdown put the Steelers up 16-6 with 3:31 left. Tarkenton threw a pass that was intercepted by Wagner, and the Steelers ran the clock down as much as they could. With 38 seconds left, there was nothing the Vikings could do.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were World Champions. Harris was named the game's Most Valuable Player. At the time, Noll was the youngest man ever to coach a team to victory in the Super Bowl: He had just turned 42. Pete Rozelle said his happiest moment in his 29 seasons as Commissioner of the NFL was handing the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Art Rooney Sr. -- but it was because of the building done by Dan and Art Jr.

Art Sr. wanted it. The organization as a whole, and even Western Pennsylvania as a whole, needed it. The Steelers would reach 4 Super Bowls (IX, X, XIII and XIV), winning all of them, in a span of 6 years.

All tolled, under Dan Rooney's operation, 48 seasons, they reached the Playoffs 29 times, won 22 Division titles (15 in the old AFC Central, 7 in the AFC North following the 2002 realignment), reached 16 AFC Championship Games, won 8 AFC Championships, and won 6 Super Bowls, the most NFL Championships in the Super Bowl era. He also built Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium), the Steelers' new home, for the 2001 season, and it is one of the best stadiums in the NFL.

The Steelers became a cultural phenomenon, with their black and gold uniforms, their helmets with the "Steelmark" logo on only the right side with the left side remaining blank, their multi-ethnic working-class fan base, and their bright yellow Terrible Towels being waved in the stands (first at Three Rivers Stadium, then at Heinz Field).

Much like Liverpool Football Club in England, the Steelers had great success in the 1970s, in a city hit hard by industrial decline, where the "football" team meant everything. As with the 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers and the 1968 Detroit Tigers with their World Series wins following race riots, a community in another kind of trouble rallied around a great team, to lift them up, to show a country that had been looking down on them that they were still entitled to some pride.

The fact that the Steelers stood up, usually successfully, to the Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders, 2 of the most hated NFL teams nationwide, also helped boost their national image. Along with the Cowboys, the Raiders, the Green Bay Packers (due to their similar cultural stamp in the 1960s) and the Chicago Bears (ditto for the 1980s), the Steelers are one of the few NFL teams to have a nationwide fan base. In New York and New Jersey, 400 miles from Pittsburgh, you can see Steeler bumper stickers and window stickers on cars every day.

Art Rooney Sr. died in 1988, and Dan became majority owner, replacing Noll with Bill Cowher in 1992. By that point, Art Jr. had reduced his involvement in the team. The Steelers won the 1995 AFC Championship, but history was turned on its head, and the Steelers lost Super Bowl XXX to the Cowboys.

In 2003, Dan followed in his father's footsteps, and handed over day-to-day operations to his son, Art Rooney II (grandson of the founder and nephew of Art Jr.). It was Art II who oversaw the building of the teams that won Super Bowls XL and XLIII and lost Super Bowl XLV, and in 2007 replaced the retiring Cowher with his assistant, Mike Tomlin, the team's 1st black head coach. Dan died in 2017.

Franco Harris, 1950-2022

Timing is everything. Two days from now is the 50th Anniversary of the play that made a rookie running back into an all-time football legend. The following day, he was scheduled to be honored for the achievement. But now, he won't be available for the celebration.

Franco Harris -- no middle name -- was born on March 7, 1950, at Fort Dix, a U.S. Army base in Wrightstown, Burlington County, New Jersey. His father, Cad Harris, was a soldier stationed in Italy during World War II. While there, he met Gina Parenti, married her, and took her back to America. So, like baseball star Roy Campanella, from nearby North Philadelphia and playing in nearby Brooklyn, Franco was half-African-American, and half-Italian.

He grew up in Mount Holly, the seat of Burlington County, not far from Philadelphia, and went to Rancocas Valley Regional High School. Other RV graduates of note include former Philadelphia Eagles receiver Irving Fryar, current Eagles linebacker Shaun Bradley, and Barbara Park, author of the Junie B. Jones series of children's books.

Franco went to Pennsylvania State University, to play football for head coach Joe Paterno, as would his younger brother, safety Pete Harris. Franco was mainly a blocker for All-American running back Lydell Mitchell, but still managed to rush for 2,002 yards, catch 28 passes for 352 yards, and score 25 touchdowns.

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He was taken with the 13th pick in the 1972 NFL Draft, by the Pittsburgh Steelers. They began play in 1933, with Art Rooney having founded them. But Art's love of football far exceeded his knowledge of it. In 1947, they finished in a 1st place tie in the NFL Eastern Division with the Philadelphia Eagles, and lost a playoff. To this day, the NFL does not recognize this as an official Playoff game.

Finally, after a 1-13 season in 1969, Art's sons, Dan and Art Jr., told dear old Dad to let them run the team from now on. And in just 3 seasons, they had built the team into AFC Central Division Champions. Coached by Chuck Noll, they had an offense led by quarterback Terry Bradshaw, and a defense known as the Steel Curtain, led by tackle "Mean" Joe Greene.

Harris was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1972. That year, the owners of a local Italian restaurant, noting that he was half-black and half-Italian, came to Three Rivers Stadium in fatigues and battle helmets, calling themselves "Franco's Italian Army." Francisco Franco was still alive and in power in Spain when the fan club was founded, and while its  members were not openly political, neither did they seem to have a problem with a name associated with fascism.

Receiver Lynn Swan, who would be drafted 2 years later, and became Harris' roommate on roadtrips, said, "When he drafted Franco Harris, he gave the offense heart, he gave it discipline, he gave it desire, he gave it the ability to win a championship in Pittsburgh."

Al Davis ran the Oakland Raiders, and had built them into AFL Champions in 1967. But they lost Super Bowl II, then lost the 1968 AFC Championship Game to the New York Jets. By 1972, they were dominating the AFC Western Division, but hadn't won a Super Bowl yet.

And so, on Saturday afternoon, December 23, 1972, Davis' Silver and Black marched into Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh to face the Rooneys' Black and Gold. For a game with such an epic ending, it was not good theater most of the way. The 1st half ended scoreless. Roy Gerela kicked a field goal early in the 2nd half, but it remained 3-0 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Gerela kicked another field goal early in the 4th quarter, but the Steelers couldn't put the ball in the end zone, so it remained 6-0 as the clock wound down.

Daryle Lamonica, known as the Mad Bomber, struggled in the 1st half, and coach John Madden replaced him with Ken Stabler, the Alabama lefthander known as the Snake. With 1:17 to go, Stabler ran for 30 yards to get into the end zone. George Blanda, the Raiders' ageless backup quarterback and regular kicker, nailed the extra point, and the Raiders had a 7-6 lead.

The Steelers did not yet have a reputation as the kind of team that could win this kind of game. And Pittsburgh fans, who had seen the Pirates win the World Series the year before, were not used to glory from their football team. The 50,327 fans inside Three Rivers figured the game was lost.

Among them was Art Rooney. "The Chief" left his suite and got into an elevator, to go down to the locker room to congratulate the Raiders and console his team. So he never saw the play that changed the course of his team's history.

Bradshaw, who had been the top pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, had a difficult relationship, not just with Noll, but with the Pittsburgh fans. He hadn't yet lived up to their hopes. Now, he had gotten the Steelers to their own 40 yard line. But it was 4th and 10, and there were only 22 seconds left, and the Steelers had no time-outs left.

Noll's intended play was "66 Circle Option," intended for Barry Pearson, a rookie who had been on the Steelers' bench all season long without being sent into a game. Now, he was -- his 1st professional play.

But just as no battle plan survives the first shot, Noll's play didn't last. Raiders Tony Cline and Horace Jones bore down on Bradshaw, and "the Blonde Bomber" from Louisiana had to scramble. He just got a throw off before getting clobbered by Cline and knocked to Three Rivers' artificial turf.

The ball got to the Raiders' 33-yard line, and it looked like Steeler running back John "Frenchy" Fuqua was going to catch it. But Raider safety Jack Tatum did what he so often did to potential receivers: He leveled Fuqua.

Big mistake: As with so many dirty soccer players, Tatum should have gone for the ball, not the opposing player. He could have intercepted it. Instead, the ball bounced off him, and went backwards to the Raider 43. And it almost hit the ground.

And for 50 years, the Raiders and their fans have insisted that the ball hit Fuqua first, which, under the rules of the time, would have made every Pittsburgh player an ineligible receiver after that. And they have insisted that the ball did hit the ground.

It didn't. Harris saved it, and took off down the left sideline, and scored. It was 3:29 PM -- don't bet any Steeler fan old enough to remember.

Steeler radio announcer Jack Fleming said, with only slight exaggeration, "From out of nowhere came Franco Harris, riding a white stallion, heading up Franco's Italian Army, galloping into the sunset!"

Like Rooney, Bradshaw didn't see the play. He remembered being down on the ground, and hearing a tremendous roar going up: "I knew that this was a good sound. This was the sound of something good happening."

Fans came pouring onto the field, and had to be cleared, because there was still an extra point to kick, which Gerela did, and 5 seconds to play. The Raiders could do nothing with the ensuing kickoff, and the Steelers had won, 13-7.

Those '72 Raiders still insist they were robbed. It would take until the 1976 season for them to win a Super Bowl. But the Steelers didn't win immediately, either: This was the season in which the Miami Dolphins went undefeated. Eight days later, they came into Three Rivers -- at the time, home-field advantage for Conference Championships was on a rotating basis, not decided by record -- and beat the Steelers, on their way to winning Super Bowl VII.

But the catch became known as "The Immaculate Reception." What Art Rooney, a devout Irish Catholic, thought about that, only he knew. Others, noting that it was 2 days to Christmas, called it a Christmas Miracle.

Along with Alan Ameche's overtime plunge to win the 1958 NFL Championship Game for the Baltimore Colts, Bart Starr's quarterback sneak to win the 1967 Championship Game (the Ice Bowl), and Dwight Clark's "The Catch" from Joe Montana to win the 1981 NFC Championship Game, it ranks as perhaps the greatest play in NFL history.

The Steelers would win Super Bowls IX, X, XIII and XIV. Harris was named the Most Valuable Player for IX, Swann for X, and Bradshaw for XIII and XIV. The Raiders would win Super Bowls XI, XV and XVIII.

"During that era, each player brought their own little piece with them to make that wonderful decade happen," Harris said during his Hall of Fame speech in 1990. "Each player had their strengths and weaknesses, each their own thinking, each their own method, just each, each had their own. But then it was amazing, it all came together, and it stayed together to forge the greatest team of all times."

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Harris was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his 1st 9 seasons. He played for the Steelers until 1983, with 1 more season with the Seattle Seahawks. He finished his career with 12,120 rushing yards, 2nd all-time behind Jim Brown at that point. He also caught 307 passes for 2,287 yards, and retired with exactly 100 touchdowns.

He was named the NFL's Man of the Year for the 1976 season, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the NFL's 1970s All-Decade Team, and the Steelers' 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and their Hall of Honor. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him 83rd on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. In 2006, a statue of him catching the Immaculate Reception was unveiled on the concourse of Pittsburgh International Airport. In 2011, he was elected to the New Jersey Hall of Fame -- that's for all citizens of the State, not just great athletes. He is easily New Jersey's greatest football player ever.

Harris and former Penn State teammate Lydell Mitchell founded a food-service company, to produce nutritious school meals. They used that company to buy the Parks Sausage Company, the 1st African-American-owned business to go public. In 2008, he served as one of Pennsylvania's Presidential Electors for Barack Obama.

The Steelers had announced that, this coming Sunday, with the Steelers scheduled to play the now-Las Vegas Raiders on NBC Sunday Night Football on Christmas Eve, 1 day after the 50th Anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, they were going to retire Franco Harris' Number 32.

But now, he won't be able to take part in the ceremony. He died today, December 21, 2022, in a statement issued by his son Dok. He was 72. He was also survived by his wife, the former Dana Dokmanovich.

Dan Rooney, 1932-2017

Daniel Milton Rooney was born on July 20, 1932, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Art Rooney, founded the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers on May 19, 1933.

This means that Dan Rooney was a Steeler for life. Not just for nearly all of his life, but, until now, for all of the team's life.

Art Rooney and his wife, the former Kathleen "Kass" McNulty, had 5 sons. They were Dan, Art Jr., Tim, Patrick and John. They would have 32 grandchildren and 75 great-grandchildren. Art Jr. said that Art Sr., known to all of Western Pennsylvania as "The Chief," always told his sons, "Treat everybody the way you'd like to be treated. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But never let anyone mistake kindness for weakness." Or, as Art Jr. put it, "He took the Golden Rule, and put a little bit of the North Side in it."

The Rooney family has long lived in the Troy Hill section of Pittsburgh's North Side, which included North Catholic High School -- now named Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School and located in nearby Cranberry Township. The Rooney boys would assist their father at Steeler training camp, and in games at Forbes Field and later at Pitt Stadium. Dan served as a ballboy, and sold game-day programs. The sons seemed to be the only ones to notice a young Pittsburgh native at the 1955 camp, but their father deferred to the judgement of his head coach, Walt Kiesling, who cut the rookie.

What's that? You've never heard of Walt Kiesling? I'm not surprised. But you have heard of the rookie. He caught on with the Baltimore Colts the next season. His name was Johnny Unitas.

In 1952, while a student at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University, from which he would graduate with a degree in accounting, Dan Rooney married Patricia Reagan, who was working in the Steeler offices. They had 9 children. In 1960, he became the Steelers' director of personnel.

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In 1964, in its 2nd year of inductions, Art Rooney became a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and admired by all who knew him. But, let's be blunt: At this point, he was a failure as the operator of a football team.

From 1933 to 1968, 36 seasons, the Steelers had made the Playoffs exactly once, in 1947, because they'd tied the cross-State Philadelphia Eagles for 1st place in the NFL's Eastern Division. They held a Playoff at Forbes Field, and the Eagles won it.

If Art had died shortly after the Jets won Super Bowl III on January 12, 1969, it would have been said -- as is now being said of the late Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz -- that the best thing he did for his team was to die, so that his son could run the team.

Indeed, his sons held what we would now call an "intervention," telling him that they should take over the operations of the team. He agreed -- and lived another 20 years, in which the sons turned the Steelers from a joke franchise into an iconic team of American sports.

Pretty much the first thing that Dan Rooney did was offer the Steelers' head coaching job to the head coach at nearby Penn State, Joe Paterno. Paterno turned him down. So he offered it to the defensive coordinator of the team the Jets had just beaten in the Super Bowl, who had been on the staff of the San Diego Chargers team that won the 1963 AFL Championship, and a lineman who had won 2 NFL Championships with the Cleveland Browns: Chuck Noll.

Dan's brother Art Jr. drafted Joe Greene, Jon Kolb and L.C. Greenwood in 1969; Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount in 1970; Jack Ham, Gerry Mullins, Dwight White, Larry Brown, Ernie Holmes and Mike Wagner in 1971; Franco Harris and Steve Furness in 1972; and, in 1974, in perhaps the greatest single draft in NFL history, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster -- 4 Hall-of-Famers in one draft.

Counting Greene, Bradshaw, Blount, Ham and Harris, that was 9 Hall-of-Famers in 6 drafts. Counting Noll, 10 -- all based on the decisions of Dan Rooney and Art Rooney Jr. To put that in perspective: The team had 5 players from 1933 to 1968 who ended up making the Hall. (Since, they've had 3, although some of the players from the Super Bowl XL and XLIII who may make it are not yet eligible.)

(UPDATE: Through the Hall's NFL Centennial election of 2020, there are 19 players who could legitimately be said to have been elected based at least in art on their performance with the Steelers. Donnie Shell has made it 10 players from that 1969-74 period, and 5 from the 1974 Draft alone. Before them, there were 5: Bill Dudley in the 1940s, Ernie Stautner and Jack Butler in the 1950s, Bobby Layne and John Henry Johnson in the 1960s. Since those '70s stars, there's been 4: Dermontti Dawson and Rod Woodson in the 1990s, and Jerome Bettis and Troy Polamalu in the 2000s. Ben Roethlisberger is still active, and thus not yet eligible.)

It took a while to build a winner, especially because Noll and Bradshaw had a contentious relationship. Moving from 1925-built Pitt Stadium into the new Three Rivers Stadium in 1970 helped. But in 1972, the Steelers won the AFC Central Division Championship, and reached the AFC Championship Game.

They made the Playoffs again in 1973. In 1974, they finally went all the way, winning Super Bowl IX on January 12, 1975. Pete Rozelle said his happiest moment in his 29 seasons as Commissioner of the NFL was handing the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Art Rooney Sr. -- but it was because of the building done by Dan and Art Jr.

The Steelers would reach 4 Super Bowls (IX, X, XIII and XIV), winning all of them, in a span of 6 years. All tolled, under Dan Rooney's operation, 48 seasons, they reached the Playoffs 29 times, won 22 Division titles (15 in the old AFC Central, 7 in the AFC North following the 2002 realignment), reached 16 AFC Championship Games (including this past season), won 8 AFC Championships, and won 6 Super Bowls, the most NFL Championships in the Super Bowl era. He also built Heinz Field, the Steelers' new home, for the 2001 season, and it is one of the best stadiums in the NFL.

With the 1st 4 Vince Lombardi Trophies

The Steelers became a cultural phenomenon, with their black and gold uniforms, their helmets with the "Steelmark" logo on only the right side with the left side remaining blank, their multi-ethnic working-class fan base, and their bright yellow Terrible Towels being waved in the stands (first at Three Rivers Stadium, then at Heinz Field).

The fact that the Steelers stood up, usually successfully, to the Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders, 2 of the most hated NFL teams nationwide, also helped boost their national image. Along with the Cowboys, the Raiders, the Green Bay Packers (due to their similar cultural stamp in the 1960s) and the Chicago Bears (ditto for the 1980s), the Steelers are one of the few NFL teams to have a nationwide fan base.

In New York and New Jersey, 400 miles from Pittsburgh, you can see Steeler bumper stickers and window stickers on cars every day. A website called SteelersBars.com lists bars catering to Steeler fans in 48 States, all but Nebraska and South Dakota.

Art Rooney Sr. loved it -- but it was Dan Rooney, and, to a lesser but very significant extent, Art Rooney Jr., who made it happen.

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Dan is widely credited with leading the negotiations that ended the 1982 NFL players' strike and passing the collective bargaining agreement that followed it. In 1989, Rozelle retired, and some owners wanted to make Dan the new Commissioner. He declined, saying he'd rather continue to run his team. Paul Tagliabue was elected instead. In 1993, Dan led the NFL in approving the salary cap. In 2006, when Tagliabue retired, it was Dan Rooney who called Roger Goodell, and told him that he'd been elected the new Commissioner.

Goodell repaid the compliment with this blurb for Dan's memoir My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL: "The story of Dan Rooney is the story of the NFL."

Art Rooney Sr. died in 1988, and Dan became majority owner, replacing Noll with Bill Cowher in 1992. By that point, Art Jr. had reduced his involvement in the team. (UPDATE: As of 2020, he remains a team vice president.) In 2003, Dan followed in his father's footsteps, and handed over day-to-day operations to his son, Art Rooney II (grandson of the founder and nephew of Art Jr.). It was Art II who oversaw the building of the teams that won Super Bowls XL and XLIII and lost Super Bowl XLV, and in 2007 replaced the retiring Cowher with his assistant, Mike Tomlin, the team's 1st black head coach.

That fact is significant because of "The Rooney Rule," which the NFL established at Dan's urging in 2003. Tony Dungy, a former Steeler defensive back and assistant coach, had just been fired as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- who ended up winning Super Bowl XXXVII under their new head coach, the white former Oakland Raider coach Jon Gruden. Dennis Green had also just been fired as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, despite a winning record.

A group of civil rights attorneys, led by the legendary Johnnie Cochran, released a study showing that black head coaches, despite winning a higher percentage of games, were less likely to be hired, and more likely to be fired, than their white counterparts.

The Rooney family, like the great baseball executive Branch Rickey, consider themselves Abraham Lincoln-style Republicans, demanding fairness for all, regardless of race or religion. This was certainly an issue for the Rooneys, because Art Sr. was old enough to remember when being an Irish Catholic meant serious discrimination. Art Sr. had also helped to keep the Negro League's Pittsburgh-based Homestead Grays afloat for a time, and had no qualms about bringing black players to the Steelers once the color barrier had been broken in 1946.

One of Dan's key hires when he took control was Bill Nunn Jr., a black sportswriter who knew the football programs at what are now called Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and became one of the team's top scouts.

Dan's "Rooney Rule" requires teams to search among black, Hispanic and Asian candidates for all senior football operations positions within the NFL, regardless of a team's title for that position. Currently, 6 of the 32 head coaches in the NFL are African-American (Tomlin, Todd Bowles of the Jets, Hue Jackson of the Browns, Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jim Caldwell of the Detroit Lions and Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers).

So 18.8 percent of the head coaches are black, and 7 of the general managers, or 21.9 percent -- as opposed to 12.6 percent of the general U.S. population, but 67.3 percent of NFL players. In addition,
1 head coach, Ron Rivera of the Carolina Panthers, is Hispanic. About 17.6 percent of Americans are Hispanic, but only 0.6 percent of NFL players are Hispanic.

In 2008, Dan and Art II bought out Dan's brothers, who wanted to increase their involvement in gambling establishments. Art Sr. had owned Yonkers Raceway in New York's Westchester County and Suffolk Downs in Boston. His son (Dan's brother) Tim runs Yonkers Raceway today.

A wing of the Rooney family lives in Florida, and controls horse and dog tracks there. Pat Rooney's son Tom is a Republican Congressman, representing a district southeast of Tampa Bay. His brother, Patrick Jr., is in the State House of Representatives, representing northern Palm Beach County.

Despite the family's Republican record, in 2008, Dan Rooney endorsed Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for President. He did not cite any unhappiness with Republican handling of the economy or the Iraq War. He did say, "When I think of Barack Obama's America, I have great hope. I support his candidacy, and look forward to his Presidency."

Some people believe Dan's endorsement won Pennsylvania for Obama. I doubt that it made much of a difference: The State had gone for the Democratic nominee in every election since 1992. And Obama would have won the election even if he'd lost Pennsylvania.

Dan would also give the 44th President a Number 44 jersey

at the White House ceremony honoring the Steelers

after winning Super Bowl XLIII in 2009.

But Obama remembered Dan's efforts, and also remembered his long record of support for Irish-American charities (inherited from his father), and named him U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland. He served in the post from July 1, 2009 to December 14, 2012.

Art Rooney Sr. and Dan Rooney are only the 2nd father-and-son combination to both be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The other is Tim and Wellington Mara of the Giants, with whom they would be linked by their descendants. Art Rooney Sr. and Tim Mara were good friends, linked by the horse-racing business. Wellington Mara's son Tim married Art Jr.'s daughter Kathleen. Their daughters, actresses Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, are thus great-granddaughters of the founders of the Steelers and the Giants.

"Mean Joe" Greene made the presentation speech when Dan was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2000, saying "Dan has always led with humility. When things go as planned, Dan is in the background. When things don’t go as planned, he’s in the forefront."

Dan Rooney with a not-so-mean Joe Greene

at Heinz Field, September 8, 2013

That included always being there for his players, just as his father had, showing them that he was never going to be an absentee owner. As Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said this past January:

I have played with guys that have come from other teams. They look shocked when they see our owners, whether it's Mr. Dan Rooney or Mr. Art Rooney II, walking around the locker room and walking around practice. They don't ever see their owners. We see our owners every single day. I think it's just a blessing to know that they care about us, and that's one of the reasons we want to go win.

But it became harder for him as old age caught up to him. Recent photos showed him seriously stooped over. Dan Rooney passed away at the age of 84 yesterday, April 13, 2017. No cause was listed with the initial announcement, but it's been said that his health was deteriorating in recent weeks, and he missed the annual NFL owners' meeting a few weeks ago in Phoenix, his first time missing it since his father handed him the keys to the kingdom in 1969.

Bill Cowher said, "He was like a father, a friend, a mentor, a boss who inspired others around him. He was a people person and he never forgot where he came from. He epitomized Pittsburgh: Hard-working, humble, no-nonsense, tell it the way it is,and never forget where he came from. That's him. That's Pittsburgh."

No less an opponent than Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called it "a sad day for anyone who has had an association with the NFL," noting that Rooney "made all of our lives better."

"He shaped the league with instincts, wisdom and a soft-spoken velvet touch," Jones said. "He was a steward and a guardian for the growth and popularity of the NFL, because he loved the game so much."

Obama hailed him as well: "Dan Rooney was a great friend of mine. But, more importantly, he was a great friend to the people of Pittsburgh, a model citizen, and someone who represented the United States with dignity and grace on the world stage."

Dan Rooney knew what was important around the world. He knew what was important around the block, too.

Surely, he was taught by his father the words of Rudyard Kipling, because he certainly lived them:

If you can dream, and not make dreams your master
If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
and treat those two impostors just the same...

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you
If all men count with you, but none too much

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
yours is the Earth and everything that's in it
and, which is more, you'll be a Man, my son!

Dan Rooney was a man for all seasons -- not just 84 seasons of professional football, but for any season, for any occasion.

UPDATE: He was buried at Christ Our Redeemer Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh. It is also the final resting place of his father Art, Chuck Noll, long-ago Steeler coach Walt Kiesling, and 1890s baseball catcher Dick Buckley.