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1930s - Blue Laws, Johnny Blood and Horse Racing

When the National Football League was interested in establishing a professional football team in the city of

Pittsburgh 32 year old Arthur J. Rooney (later nicknamed “The Chief” by his players and staff), a native Pittsburgh

politician and sportsman who already owned a successful local semi-pro sandlot football team, was ready to join. 

The only thing that stood in Rooney’s way were the Pennsylvania Blue Laws which prohibited sporting events on

Sundays, the day that most NFL games were scheduled.  Using his political connections he was successful in

repealing the Blue Laws and on July 8^th, 1933 Rooney paid $2,500 to buy a franchise in the NFL, and the Pittsburgh

Steelers were born.

First named the Pirates, Rooney gathered in the first 22 players from his and other sandlot teams within the city,

and from local college players to make up the roster.  One of the players he selected was Ray Kemp, one of only two

African Americans who were playing in the NFL at the time (the other being the Chicago Cardinal’s Joe Lillard).  They

played their first game against the New York Giants on Wednesday, September 20^th, 1933 in Forbes Field with

20,000 spectators in attendance.  The game had to be scheduled for Wednesday because the Blue Laws would

still be in effect for another two months when the NFL season started.  The Pirates lost the game 23 – 2 with the

first points in franchise history being scored by Johnny Oehler on a blocked punt that resulted in a safety.  The

team would have to wait another week to score their first touchdown off of a Butch Kottler interception that was

run back 99 yards (a franchise record) against the Chicago Cardinals (Now the Arizona Cardinals) in the Pirates first

win of 14 - 13.

In seven seasons as the Pirates, the franchise never had a winning season and lost money every year except for

1936.  In that year head coach Joe Bach from Duquesne University led the franchise in their first winning season

at 6 and 3 and needed only to win one of their final three games to play in the NFL Championship game.  After losing

all three games, during their bye week, the team took a train all the way across the country to the West Coast to

play in an exhibition game against the Los Angeles Bulldogs to earn some extra money.  The cost of the train ride

(which was a lot of money during the Great Depression) ended up financially breaking the team who went on to

lose their final game against the Redskins, who beat them 30 – 0 to win the division.  “I believe that had I continued

with Bach we would have won championships long before we won them because he was a thorough football man

and a thorough coach.” Rooney would later recount.

In 1937 after a frustrated Bach quit to coach again at Duquesne, future Pro Football Hall of Famer “Johnny Blood”

McNally was hired as a player/head coach in an attempt to jump-start the franchise.  In the opening game McNally

returned a kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown and scored again on a 50–yard reception.  Unfortunately, he was a

better player than a coach.  After going through a six-game losing streak in 1938 and starting the 1939 season

with a 0 and 3 record Rooney fired him.  Upon recalling how McNally would miss games and leave his players to

fend for themselves Mr. Rooney is reported as saying, “Bloods the only coach I ever knew that instead of the

coach worrying about the ballplayers that the ballplayers worried about their coach.”

In an attempt to fill empty seats, in 1938 Rooney signed Colorado University running back Byron “Whizzer” White

(who years later became a U.S. Supreme Court Justice) for the unbelievable sum of $15,800.  After playing just

one season with the Pirates, White set several NFL rookie records but the team still had a losing season finishing

last at 2 – 9.  Unfortunately his investment did not pay off with 1938 being the team’s worst year to date in ticket sales.

Through the season-losing and money-losing Depression era years of the 1930s Pirates (which ran the franchise

$100,000 into debt) Mr. Rooney kept his football team financially afloat through many of his incredibly large horse

track winnings (some in the amount of one to two hundred thousand dollars) and though the promotion of numerous

boxing matches.  In the words of Mr. Rooney, “You had two thrills in those days.  One came Sunday trying to win

the game. The next came Monday trying to make the payroll.”  He is the reason why Steeler football has been

in the city of Pittsburgh for over 75 years and will continue to be there through his inspiration.  Because he believed,

the Steelers are 5 time world Champions!  His $2,500 investment is now valued at $880 million dollars (according

to Forbes Magazine).

          1940s – New Name, Steagles and a Playoff Game

To end confusion with the city's professional baseball team of the same name, and wanting to further develop the

franchise's own identity in 1940 Rooney, decided to change the name of his team by holding a contest in the

Pittsburgh Post Gazette Newspaper.  The name Steelers was chosen as the winning entry, first submitted by

Arnold Goldberg (a sports editor and later managing editor of The Evening Standard in Uniontown).  While the

Steelers started the new decade with a new name, their 1940 season came to a finish losing seven of their their

last eight games at 2-7-2.

Drafted from the University of Virginia in 1942, future Pro Football Hall of Famer “Bullet” Bill Dudley signed on with

the Steelers for $5,000 and helped earn them a winning season with a 7 - 4, record winning rookie of the year

awards, and leading the league in rushing.  The 1942 Steelers could have been a top team if World War II had not

occurred and Dudley along with their other star players, had not been drafted.  The remaining players who were left

did their part for the war by working in the factories during the week and playing with the Steelers on Sundays.  To

help with the player shortages the Steelers created their first war merger in 1943 with the Philadelphia Eagles called

the Phil-Pitt Combine, or later nicknamed the Steagles, they practiced in Philadelphia, and played their home games

in Forbes Field, but wore green and white Eagles uniforms (this is the only time in franchise history that the Steelers

wore a color scheme other than black and gold).  After ending the season with a disappointing 5-4-1 record and

suffering from a split in the coaching staff, the Steagles disbanded.   The Steelers second war merger was in

1944 with the Chicago Cardinals and was called the Card-Pitt Combine, which put the Steelers in the Western

Division for only one season.  Touted as the worst team in NFL history their record was 0 – 10 (the only time in

franchise history that the Steelers had a winless season) and they disbanded after playing only one season.  One

fan wrote to the Post-Gazette that the name of the Card-Pitt’s should be changed to the “Car-Pets” because every

other team walked all over them.

By the start of the 1946 season the Steelers had regained all of the players that they had lost during the war

including “Bullet” Bill Dudley and hired a new head coach by the name of Dr. Jock Sutherland, a dentist by trade,

who had once led the University of Pittsburgh Panthers back in the 1930s.  With his leadership skills, Sutherland

taught Art Rooney and the Steelers how to win at the game of football and helped fill the stands.  Under

Sutherland, the Steelers sold out every game for the next four years.  By winning most valuable player awards

and leading the league in rushing, Dudley helped the team pick up where they left off before the war.  He also

played defense and led the league in interception catches.  From the very beginning Dudley and Sutherland

(both with stubborn personalities) could not agree on anything.  After a heated argument during a game the two

parted ways with Dudley being traded to the Detroit Lions.

During the1946 season Johnny Clement was traded to the Steelers to replace Dudley, a good choice for

Sutherland’s game-winning single wing offense.  He led the team in both rushing and passing.  With a strong

offense led by Clement and a strong defense the Steelers ended the 1947 season with a winning 8 – 4 record tying

with the Philadelphia Eagles for first place in the division and earning them a trip to the Eastern Divisional Playoff.

On December 21, 1947 at Forbes Field, the Steelers played their first post-season game in franchise history which

unfortunately ended with the Eagles winning 21 – 0.  Several months later tragedy struck when Sutherland died of

a brain tumor.  Hopes for a winning playoff season for the Steelers ended and would have to wait 25 years, when

the Steelers would play in another post season playoff game.

          1950s - Ernie Stautner, the 2nd Greatest Play in

                      Steeler History and Johnny U.

Even though the Steelers in the 1950s continued to post losing seasons they did establish a tradition and

reputation of physical toughness that was carried on into the Steel Curtain of the 70s, through “Blitzburgh” in the

90s and on to today in players like James Harrison and Lamarr Woodley.  The architect of that physical toughness

was one player, future hall of famer Ernie Stautner.  Both teammates and opponents have rated him as being the

best defensive tackle of his time and the toughest player to ever play the game.  “We finally got to where we didn’t

give a damn for anybody and we didn’t have the material but we knew that somebody was going to have to pay.

Basically the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is hard rockem sockem football and we’re proud of that, I was

proud of that when I played for the Steelers”, Stautner later recalled.  To this day Stautner’s number 70 is the only

jersey number the Steelers organization has officially retired.

 With the return of head coach Joe Bach in 1952, Bach disregarded the league’s old outdated and ineffective

single wing formation that season for the more contemporary T formation.  The end results from that decision

created progressive changes that can be seen in one particular game.  On November 30, 1952 when 15,140

football spectators (the smallest attendance for a Steelers game to that date) came to watch the last Steelers

game of the season against the New York Giants on a bitterly cold winter day in Forbes Field, little did they know

that they would be watching one of the greatest Steelers games ever played.  It included the second greatest

play in Steelers history and a game that broke the most records in franchise history.  The Steelers started the

game with a quick and devastating attack scoring in the first 17 seconds of the game when halfback Lynn

Chandnois ran back the game’s opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown and never let up with the Black and

Gold scoring 8 more touchdowns in their incredible landslide victory.  At the end of the game the underdog

Steelers handed the Giants the most lopsided and worst game ever played in franchise history with a

devastating 63 to 7 loss.  It wrecked the Giants chances of a shot at the league’s title and knocked them out of

a tie for the top of their division.  This game set multiple all time franchise team records for a single game with

the most points scored at 63, the most touchdowns at 9, the most interceptions at 7, the most touchdown passes

thrown at 5 and the most yardage passed at 315.  Also during the game future hall of famer quarterback

Jim Finks gained the most offensive yardage at 1,902 yards, tight end Elbie Nickle’s total of 362 yards broke the

most yardage for passes caught and Lynn Chandnois gained the most yardage for kickoff returns with his total of

578 yards for all records in a single season.  The second greatest play in Steelers history took place in the

second quarter of the game when Elbie Nickle caught a 21-yard pass from Jim Finks and ran it in for the

Steelers third touchdown of the game within the right corner of the end zone.  This single touchdown broke the

standing franchise record for most yardage (with 632 yards, beating Val Jansante’s old 1948 record) in a single

season.  This play is forever immortalized by an embroidered illustration that hangs on the wall of the Steelers

head office to this day.  The Steelers defense also played one of their greatest games ever by completely

stopping the Giants offensive squad in the first half of the game with an astounding zero rushing yards and

allowed Giants fullback Eddie Prince only 3 yards total rushing in 9 attempts for the entire game.  Besides the

first 2 touchdowns made by Lynn Chandnois in the first quarter and the historic touchdown made by Elbie Nickle

in the second quarter the other notable Steeler players who scored in this game were halfback Ray Mathews, 2

touchdowns by end Dick Hensley and scores by end George Hays, cornerback Jack Butler, with the final

touchdown made by rookie fullback Ed “Mighty Joe” Modzelewski and all of the extra point conversion kicks

made by quarterback Gary Kerkorian.  A notable defensive back playing for the Giants in this game was Tom

Landry, the future head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

In the 9^th round of the 1955 NFL Draft the Steelers selected a Pittsburgh native and University of Louisville

quarterback by the name of Johnny Unitas.  During the team’s training camp that year 4 quarterbacks (including

Unitas) competed for 3 of the team’s only quarterback spots.  With Vic Eaton chosen to start as quarterback for

that season and Ted Machibroda winning the third spot, Unitas was immediately cut from the team never having

played in a single game.  As the Steelers suffered another losing season at 4 and 8 with Vic Eaton throwing no

completed passes for the entire season, Unitas had to support his family by working construction jobs around

Pittsburgh and on the weekends played on a local sandlot football team called the Bloomfield Rams for 6 dollars

a game.  The next year, Unitas was selected by the Baltimore Colts, where in a celebrated career that spanned

18 years he played in 10 Pro Bowls, was selected for 9 All-Pro teams, was an NFL MVP 8 times, broke multiple

quarterback league records, won 2 NFL Championship Titles and a Super Bowl.  He was considered by many to

be the greatest quarterback of all-time.  More bad luck for The Chief, but he still believed in his football team and

stuck in there.

          1960s – The Steelers Logo, Steelerettes and Chuck Noll 

With future hall of famer Bobby Layne leading as quarterback and famous players like wide receiver Buddy Dial

(also a future hall of famer), fullback John Henry Johnson and running back Dick Hoak (who later was an

offensive backfield and running back coach for the Steelers from 1972 – 2007), the Steelers still started out the

60s with two mediocre seasons.  But the 1962 season proved to be the most winning season in franchise history

at 9 and 5 giving them the number 2 rank in their Division.  Since they were runner-ups that year and not

qualified to be in the playoffs the Steelers were invited to play with the Detroit Lions in the 1963 Playoff Bowl

(otherwise known as the “Bert Bell Bowl”, the “Runner Up-Bowl” or the “Loser Bowl” and the predecessor of the

modern day Pro Bowl).  Despite making several mistakes the Lions ended up winning the game 17 to 10,

although it didn’t much matter because the Playoff Bowl it counted as much as an exhibition or preseason game.

What did matter was how the helmet design used in this game became an important part of Steeler history.  It

was the first time that the Steelers wore black helmets.  The story about how the design of the helmet

transformed goes back to the middle of the season when Republic Steel of Cleveland, Ohio (yes the same

Cleveland where our long time rivals the Browns are from) gave permission for the Steelers to use their

Steelmark logo on the helmets.  Since the Steelers were the last team in the league to not have a team logo on

their helmets (since using steel helmets they have always been painted completely gold), they were more than

happy to accept the offer.  The only problem was that when the Steelmark logo was first seen on the gold

helmets, they didn’t like the way it looked.  So the team’s equipment manager Jack Hart was told to test out the

new steelmark logo by only placing it on the right side of the helmet for use in their upcoming regular season

game against the Washington Redskins.  After ending the season with an impressive 9 wins (the most wins that

the Steelers had ever had in their entire 29 year franchise history) it was decided that because of recent on field

success the Steelmark logo would be kept only on the right side.  Today they are still the only team in the NFL to

wear their team logo on the right side of their helmets.  When the Steelers played in their first and only Playoff

Bowl it was decided to change the color of the helmets from all gold to all black.  Even though they lost the new

all black helmet design was so favored that it was made a permanent feature of the uniform still in use to this

day. The only other change to the helmet design was in the Steelmark logo when permission was obtained from

the American Iron and Steel Institute to change the “Steel” text that appears within the Steelmark to read

“Steelers”!  Hence the graphically perfect modern Steeler logo was born.   

In 1963 an administrator for Robert Morris Junior College in Pittsburgh by the name of William Day (who also

served as the entertainment coordinator for the Steelers) had an idea to create a coed cheerleading squad for

the Steelers to boost failing fan support for the team.  Since Robert Morris did not have a football team of their

own, Day thought the college could unofficially “adopt” the Steelers as their own.  After holding tryouts on

campus several full-time students were selected for the women’s squad named the Steelerettes and the men’s

squad named the Ingots.  The Steelerettes have the distinction of being the first cheerleading squad in NFL

history.  The Ingots, who fired a small cannon on the sidelines every time the Steelers made a touchdown, were

hastily disbanded a year after only a year.  The reason for this early disbanding is found in an incident that left

running back Buddy Dial temporary deaf in one ear.  He ran too close to a cannon shot during a touchdown and

Art Rooney had had enough.  The Steelerettes continued to cheer for several more years until 1969, when they

were disbanded because Robert Morris had formed their own football team.  The Steelers never again acquired

a cheerleader squad and remains as one of the very few teams in the NFL today to not have one.  Because of

their extremely large devoted fan base, better known as Steeler Nation, the Steelers have all the cheering on

they need.

January 27, 1969 could be considered one of the most important dates in the franchise history of the Pittsburgh

Steelers because it is truly the beginning of its greatest era, “The 1970s Super Bowl Dynasty”.  On this date

Chuck Noll was named the 14^th head coach of the Steelers, the worst team in the league with only two winning

seasons to claim in its 36 year history.  Having been a defensive coach for the Baltimore Colts under then head

coach Don Shula, Noll helped to achieve the Colt’s winning 13-1 record and the 1968 NFL Championship.  Upon

bringing his coaching expertise to Pittsburgh, he used their losing misfortunes as an advantage by acquiring

better players with higher bargaining position in the upcoming NFL drafts.  Using his 4-3 defense that he ran for

the Colts he implemented a similar defense system with the Steelers, which became the legendary

“Steel Curtain” defense the Steelers selected an unknown defensive tackle from North Texas State University by

the name of “Mean Joe” Greene in the first round of the 1969 NFL Draft to lead this new defensive unit.  Even

though the Steelers found the right Head Coach to lead them to future victory it would take at least 6 more years

of losing seasons before the franchise could see the fruits of Noll’s draft-building labor.

All quotes are taken from “Steelers, The Complete History” DVD, 2005, Warner Home Video Inc.

Historical information taken from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s articles “Birth of The Nation: the Steelers of the '30s” printed on 9/9/07, “1940s

put Steelers to tests that nearly break them” printed on 9/16/07, "1950s Steelers weren't pretty or very successful, but they were

unquestionably tough" printed on 9/23/07 and "Steelers of '60s didn't win often, but the team was a-changing characters like Bobby Layne"

printed on 9/30/07 were all written by Richard Dvorchak.

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