National Football League (1933?present)
ThePittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Northern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC), in theNational Football League (NFL). The Steelers are the oldest and most championed franchise in the AFC. The team has appeared in six Super Bowls and is, along with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, one of three teams to have won the Super Bowl five times. They have appeared in thirteen Conference Championship Games , and have hosted more conference championship games than any other NFL franchise. They are the only team in NFL playoff history to win a Super Bowl after being seeded sixth in the playoffs, winning three consecutive games on the road followed by aSuper Bowl XL victory in Detroit on February 5 , 2006 against the Seattle Seahawks .
Originally named thePittsburgh Pirates, the team, along with the Philadelphia Eagles and the now-defunct Cincinnati Reds football team, joined the NFL as 1933 expansion teams, after Art Rooney, Sr. paid a $2,500 fee. However the Steelers are the heirs to the first ever pro-football team, Pittsburgh being the city to host the world's first pro game in the 1890's, a franchise that fell victim to the strict state blue laws preventing any activity during the sabbath (NFL Sundays) up until 1933. The team was renamed the Steelers in 1940 after the city's prominent steel industry to reflect the "blue-collar worker" ethic of the many Pittsburgh fans as well as to avoid confusion withthe major league baseball team with the same name .
The Pittsburgh Steelers (Pirates) first took to the field on September 20 , 1933 , losing 23-2 to theNew York Giants. Through the 1930s the Pirates never finished higher than second place in their division, or with a record better than .500 (1936). Pittsburgh did make history in 1938 by signingByron White, a future justice of theU.S. Supreme Court to what was at the time the biggest contract in NFL history, but he only played one year with the Pirates before signing with the Detroit Lions.
DuringWorld War II, the Steelers experienced player shortages. They twice merged with other NFL franchises in order to field a team. During the 1943 season, they merged with the Philadelphia Eagles forming the "Phil-Pitt Eagles" and were known as the "Steagles". This team went 5-4-1. In 1944 they merged with the Chicago Cardinals and were known as "Card-Pitt" and derisively known as the "Car-Pitts" or "Carpets", as they finished the season winless.
The Steelers made the playoffs for the first time in 1947, tying for first place in the division at 8-4 with the Philadelphia Eagles. This forced a tie-breaking playoff game atForbes Field, which the Steelers lost 21-0. That would be Pittsburgh's last playoff game for 25 years, though the Steelers did qualify for a "Playoff Bowl" in 1963 as the second best team in their conference, though not considered an official playoff.
Their luck changed with the hiring of coach Chuck Noll. Noll's most remarkable talent was in his draft selections, taking Hall of Famers "Mean" Joe Greene in 1969, Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount in 1970, Jack Ham in 1971, Franco Harris in 1972, and finally, in 1974 pulled off the incredible feat of selecting four Hall of Famers in one draft year, Mike Webster, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth and Jack Lambert. The Pittsburgh Steelers' 1974 draft has gone down in NFL history as the best ever, considering no other team has ever drafted four future Hall of Famers in one year. The players drafted in the early 70's formed the base of one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history, making the playoffs eight seasons, and becoming the only team in NFL history to win four Super Bowls in six years, as well as the first to win more than two.
The Steelers suffered a rash of injuries in the 1980 season and missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record. 1981 was no better, with an 8-8 showing. The team was then hit with the retirements of all their key players from the Super Bowl years. Mean Joe Greene retired after the 1981 season, Lynn Swann and Jack Ham after 1982's playoff berth, Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount after 1983's divisional championship, and Jack Lambert after 1984's AFC Championship Game appearance.
After those retirements the franchise skidded to their first losing seasons since 1971. Though still competitive the Steelers would not finish above .500 in 1985, 1986 and 1988. In the strike year of 1987,the Steelers finished with a record of 8-7, but missed the playoffs. In 1989 they would reach the second round of the playoffs on the strength of Merrill Hoge and Rod Woodson before narrowly missing the playoffs each of the next two seasons.
In 1992, Chuck Noll retired and was succeeded by Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Bill Cowher, a native of the Pittsburgh suburb of Crafton.
Cowher led the Steelers to the playoffs in each of his first six seasons as coach, a feat that had only previously been accomplished by legendary coach Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns. Overall, Cowher lead the Steelers to the playoffs in 10 of his 15 seasons, including appearances in Super Bowl XXX in at the end of the 1995 season, and the franchise's record-tying fifth Super Bowl win in Super Bowl XL over the National Football Conference champion Seattle Seahawks ten years later. With their Super Bowl XL victory, the Steelers became the third team to win five Super Bowls, and the first sixth-seeded playoff team to reach and win the Super Bowl since the NFL expanded to a 12-team postseason tournament in 1990.
Cowher resigned from coaching the Steelers on January 5, 2007, citing a need to spend more time with his family. He did not use the term 'retire', leaving open a possible return to the NFL as coach of another team. OnJanuary 22, 2007, Mike Tomlin was announced as Cowher's successor as head coach. Tomlin is the first African-American to be named head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in it's 74-year history.
Since the NFL merger in 1970, the Pittsburgh Steelers have compiled an overall record of 333-217-2, reached the playoffs 22 times, won their division 17 times, played in 13 AFC Championship Games, and won 5 Super Bowls.
The team's current top rivals consist of the Baltimore Ravens ,Cincinnati Bengals, and the Cleveland Browns. What was once a brutal rivalry has now been dominated by the Steelers as of late. Since their rebirth in 1999 the Browns have only beat the Steelers 3 times in 17 contests, the last one coming early in the 2003 season.
For the 1934 season, when they were still the Pirates, they wore uniforms with vertical black and white stripes from neck to toe. Players looked like inmates and were ridiculed throughout the season as such. The uniforms were retired after that year.
The Steelers have used black and gold as their basic colors since the club's inception (excluding the 1943 season when they merged with the Philadelphia Eagles and formed the " Steagles"; the team's colors were green and white as a result of wearing the Eagles uniforms). Originally, the team wore solid gold helmets and black jerseys. Unique to Pittsburgh, the Steelers' colors are shared by other professional teams in the city; the Pittsburgh Pirates in baseball and the Pittsburgh Penguins in hockey, (also the colors of the flag for the City of Pittsburgh) making it the official team colors of every professional sports team in the city.
The Steelers logo was then introduced in late 1962 and is based on the " Steelmark," originally designed by Pittsburgh's U.S. Steel , and now owned by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). In an ironic twist, it was Cleveland -based Republic Steel that suggested the Steelers adopt the industry logo. It consists of the word "Steelers" surrounded by three astroids ( hypocycloids of four cusps ). The original meanings behind the astroids were, "Steel lightens your work, brightens your leisure and widens your world" and later the colors came to represent the ingredients of steel, the yellow representing coal; the orange, ore; and the blue, steel scrap. [1] While the "Steelmark" logo only contains the word "Steel", the Steelers were given special permission to add "-ers".
The Steelers are the only NFL team that puts their logo on only one side of the helmet (the right side). Longtime field and equipment manager Jack Hart was instructed to do this by Art Rooney. At first, it was a test to see how the logo appeared on their gold helmets, but its popularity led the team to leave it that way permanently. < FONT color = #0000ff > [2] A year after introducing the logo, they switched to black helmets to make it stand out more.
Another distinctive feature of the helmets is that the players number appears on both the front and back of the helmets. The Steelers are only one of two teams in the NFL to do so. The numbers traditionally do not appear on the helmet fronts during the exhibition season.
The Steelers have had the same basic look for their uniforms since 1936 (save for during the 1967 season when the team experimented with a "triangle" theme), and started to use the current uniform design in 1968. The design consists of gold pants and either black jerseys or white jerseys, except for the 1970 and 1971 seasons, when the Steelers wore white pants with their white jerseys. The helmet is solid black with a gold central stripe and small white uniform numbers on the forehead. In 1997 the team switched to rounded numbers on the jersey to match the number font (Futura Condensed) on the helmets, and a Steelers logo patch was added to the left side of the jersey.
The "Terrible Towel" is a gimmick created by Pittsburgh broadcaster Myron Cope for the Steelers. Needing a way to excite the fans during a 1975 playoff game against theBaltimore Colts , Cope urged fans to take gold dish towels to the game and wave them throughout. The Steelers beat the Colts 28-10, and the Terrible Towel was born. By the time the Steelers made it to Super Bowl X against the Dallas Cowboys, the craze had caught fire and the majority of Steelers fans waved Towels of their own. Since 1996, all of the proceeds from each Towel sold are donated to the Allegheny Valley School, a Pittsburgh school for the mentally disabled.
The Steelers have conducted summer training camp at nearby Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania every season since 1967 . Before this, they conducted them at South Allegheny County Park and Duquesne University .
The Pittsburgh Steelers made NFL history by having the first cheerleading squad for a professional team in 1961. The then-director of Steelers entertainment, Mr. William Day, was also the vice president of Robert Morris Junior College (now Robert Morris University ) in Moon Township, Pa. , decided to use women from the school as cheerleaders for the Steelers. They were known as the Steelerettes. [1]
In 1969, the Robert Morris women cheered their final season. With Robert Morris now having its own football team, interest in the Steelers on campus had dwindled. [2]
Now, the team that began the tradition of sideline cheerleaders in the NFL does not have its own squad. In fact, according to an About.com article, the Rooney family believes cheerleaders are pointless and are just blocking the spectator's view. [3]
The Steelers have been immortalized by film, television and print. The Steel Curtain teams of the 1970's dynasty had many big-screen moments, including the 1977 John Frankenheimer thriller Black Sunday . A year later, it was Warren Beatty playing the prelude to the Steelers fourth championship in 1978's Heaven Can Wait , and then a team cameo in the 1980 Burt Reynolds film Smokey and the Bandit II . In more recent times Adam Sandler 's 1998 film The Waterboy featured a few Steeler greats as well as Coach Cowher arguing with real-life rival and former Cowboy and Dolphin head coach Jimmy Johnson . Sandler, a Steelers fan, also made Paul Crewe a former Steelers quarterback in his remake of The Longest Yard . In 2002, the independent film Icarus of Pittsburgh by Evan Mather delved into the world of a 70's Steeler fan.
Major celebrities from opposite ends of the industry, Snoop Dogg and Hank Williams, Jr. are widely known to be avid Steelers fans. Snoop since playing on a neighborhood team in his hometown named after the team in Pittsburgh. Both musicans have been seen in a number of music videos/appearances wearing Steeler hats and jackets. Both also attended Super Bowl XLin Detroit, Michigan in 2006. Batman actor and native of Pittsburgh, Michael Keaton is also a Steeler fan, and was seen on television before the 2005 AFC Championship Game speaking to Pittsburgh television personality Paul Steigerwald and carrying a Terrible Towel.
The Steelers and their fans were also featured in the Charlie Daniels Band's 1980 song, In America ("You just go lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steeler fan, and I think you're gonna finally understand."). Television has turned to the Steelers in 1980's "Fighting Back" a movie where Art Carney plays Art Rooney , and 1981's The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid . The Steelers of lore also have starring roles in several ESPN productions such as Matchup of the Millenium and Dream Bowl series, winning every championship, thus being considered the best team ever ('78 Steelers). In January, 2007, a company called SportSims , whose simulation is used every year byUSAToday to predict the winner of the given year's Super Bowl, simulated all 40 Super Bowl champions (40 teams won the Super Bowl at the time) in a tournament, with the '78 Steelers defeating the '85 Bears 22-20 for the tournament title.
"Mean" Joe Greene has appeared in the famous Coca-Cola ad where a child calls out to Greene and gives him his Coke. Greene then gives his game jersey to the kid. Two recent Chunky Soup commercials have also featured the Steelers. One had current Steelers and Max Starks ' mother; the other starred Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who found himself facing the old Steel Curtain at the end of the spot.
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties
* = Current Standing
+ = Due to a strike-shortened season in 1982, all teams were ranked by conference instead of division.
DEPTH CHART
Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Receivers
Special Teams
Offensive Line
Defensive Line
Defensive Backs
Linebackers
Inductees
Award Recipients
Other Hall-of-Famers associated with the Steelers
Steelers do not officially retire uniform numbers; however, the following numbers are out of circulation:
Source: Steeler's All-Time Roster by Jersey Number
The following Steelers players have been named Super Bowl MVP:
Offensive Coaches
Defensive Coaches
Speciality Coaches
As of 2006, the Steelers' flagship stations were WDVE 102.5FM and WBGG 970AM. Both stations are owned by Clear Channel Communications. Games are also available on 51 radio stations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia. [3] The announcers are Bill Hillgrove and Tunch Ilkin. Craig Wolfley is the sideline reporter. Myron Cope, the longtime color analyst who popularized the " Terrible Towel," retired after the 2004 season.
Preseason games not shown on one of the national broadcasters are seen on KDKA, channel 2; WPCW , channel 19; and FSN Pittsburgh. Coach Mike Tomlin's weekly press conference is shown live on FSN.
The Steelers franchise has a rich history of producing well-known sportscasters over the years: the most famous of which is Myron Cope, who served as voice of the Steelers from 1970 until 2005.
Additionally, several former players for the Pittsburgh Steelers picked up the broadcast microphone:
November 22, 1959 at Cleveland Browns
December 15, 1963 , at New York Giants
October 10 , 1964, Cleveland Browns, Municipal Stadium
October 3 ,1970, Cleveland Browns, Municipal Stadium
November 19 , 1972, at Cleveland Browns
December 23, 1972, vs. Oakland Raiders , AFC Divisional Playoff The " Immaculate Reception" took place in what would be the Steelers first ever post-season victory. The Steelers were down by one as time was expiring and Terry Bradshaw, desperate to throw, finally finds Frenchy Fuqua , but the pass rebounded off of either Fuqua or the Raider defending him, Jack Tatum. The ball came to rest into the hands of Franco Harris , who had wandered out beyond the line of scrimmage after seeing no Raider to block. The fans at Three Rivers Stadium exploded as Harris ran the catch in for the game winning touchdown. The officials were as bewildered as the Raiders; not one blew a whistle on what Raider coach John Madden insists was a dead ball (since rules at the time prevented two offensive players from touching a live ball). [4] ). The play is arguably the first official use of replay in the NFL as the officials call upstairs to use network feeds to see if the ball hit the ground or was batted by Fuqua to set up Harris' catch and touchdown [5] . No angle catches the turf at the moment of the catch, nor how the ball came to Harris. Perhaps the most ironic part of the "greatest play ever" and the moment of Pittsburgh's first postseason victory was who missed it. The game was blacked out in Pittsburgh, so no one in the metro area realized what had happened until hours after. The patriarch of the team, Art Rooney was on an elevator going down to comfort his Steelers after what he thought was a loss. Legendary announcer Myron Cope was also in an elevator on the way down for post-game interviews. Even on the field, Bradshaw was regaining his bearings after being drilled by Oakland defenders and was looking skyward with his back on the turf.
November 25 , 1973, at Cleveland Browns
December 3 , 1973 at Miami Dolphins, Monday Night Football
December 29, 1974 at Oakland Raiders , AFC Championship Game
January 12 , 1975. Minnesota Vikings , Super Bowl IX
January 18, 1976 , Dallas Cowboys , Super Bowl X
September 12 , 1976 at Oakland Raiders, Season Opener
October 10 , 1976, at Cleveland Browns
November 20, 1977, Dallas Cowboys
September 24, 1978 , Cleveland Browns
November 25 , 1979, Cleveland Browns
November 3, 1985 , Cleveland Browns
November 26 , 1998 , at Detroit Lions
January 15 , 2006 , at Indianapolis Colts (AFC Divisional Playoffs)
