The Pittsburgh Steelers are an American football franchise representing Pittsburgh. They are the seventh-oldest club in the National Football League (NFL), which they joined in 1933.^[1] The only surviving NFL teams with a longer history are the Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals (then the Chicago Cardinals), Detroit Lions (then the Portsmouth Spartans), Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, and Washington Commanders (then the Boston Redskins). The Philadelphia Eagles joined the league concurrently with the Steelers in 1933.

The team was founded by Arthur J. "Art" Rooney. The Rooney family has held a controlling interest in the club for almost its entire history. Since its founding the team has captured six league championships and competed in more than a thousand games. In 2008 the Steelers became the first NFL team to capture six Super Bowl titles. Currently the club is fourth in total NFL Championships behind the Packers (13), Bears (9), and Giants (8). Eighteen Steelers players, coaches or administrators have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.^[2]

Precursors

Art Rooney, who was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area, was an exceptional all-around athlete.^[3] Rooney was recruited to play football for Notre Dame, baseball for the Boston Red Sox;^[3] and invited to join the 1920 Olympic boxing team.^[4] His love of sports would lead to his becoming an organizer and promoter. This included the Hope-Harvey Football Club, a semi-professional American football team which he founded as a teenager.^[5] "In a way, I guess that was the start of the Steelers. It grew from that", Rooney said.^[5]

The name "Hope-Harvey" was derived from the Hope Fire House, located in the heart of the Pittsburgh's North Side, which served as the team's locker room, and Dr. Harvey, a local physician, who was a sponsor and unofficial team doctor.^[6] The Hope-Harvey Majestics competed against other semi-pro or "sandlot" teams; a collection would be raised from the fans in attendance which would be split amongst the players. In addition to being the team's manager and coach, Art Rooney at times played quarterback for the team, which also included his younger brothers, Dan and Jim.^[6] Behind the Rooney boys, these teams met a fair amount of success, including at least two Western Pennsylvania Senior Independent Football Conference titles in the early 1930s.^[7]

The Hope-Harvey club, which would later come to be known as "Majestic Radio" (when they gained a sponsor) and later the "James P. Rooneys" (to promote the state legislative campaign of the team's quarterback, and Art Rooney's brother, Jimmy Rooney),^[8] played most of their home games at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.^[5] These Steeler precursors were composed primarily of players from the local colleges: Pitt, Duquesne and Carnegie Tech, all of which were major college programs of the day.^[8]

Although football was popular in Pittsburgh at the time, the city had no fully professional teams due to Pennsylvania's puritanical blue laws, which prohibited athletic competition on Sundays because it was the Sabbath.^[5] The teams of the National Football League, which was founded in 1920, played primarily on Sunday to avoid conflicts with college football games which were played on Saturday.

The early years: Decades of futility

In May 1933, in anticipation of the repeal of some of Pennsylvania's restrictive laws in the fall of that year, Rooney applied for a franchise with the NFL.^[9] His request was granted on May 19, 1933, and the Pittsburgh Professional Football Club, Inc. joined the NFL in exchange for a US$2,500 franchise fee (roughly $59,000 in today's dollars).^[10] The new team was known as the Pirates in reference to their baseball club landlords at Forbes Field. Before settling on Forbes, Rooney considered playing at Greenlee Field, which housed the city's Negro league baseball club.^[11] Since the blue laws were not repealed until November's general election, the team was forced to play its first four home games on Wednesday nights.^[8]

Rooney's new team was a study in frustration for many years: between 1933 and 1971, they posted a winning record only eight times, with a further six seasons at .500, and made the playoffs just once, in 1947, when they were shut out by Philadelphia.^[8]

The 1930s: The Pirates years

In the early years of the franchise, the Pirates were not Rooney's only (or even his primary) focus. Even the office off the lobby of the Fort Pitt Hotel from which he ran the team was shared with the Rooney-McGinley Boxing Club, which promoted fights.^[12][13] He also spent a good amount of his time and energy handicapping and placing bets on horse racing, a lifelong hobby. Rooney once won an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 ($5.7 to $6.8 million today) in a single 1936 day of betting.^[14] It actually was highly likely that the purchase of the Pittsburgh Steelers was made with horse race gambling winnings.^[15] However, this is becoming a de-emphasized part of the team's history, with the NFL trying to clear their name of such shady early beginnings.^[16]

In an era when the outright collapse of professional sports teams even at the major league level was not an uncommon occurrence, what can safely be said is that Rooney's gambling winnings did help keep his football franchise afloat,^[8] because while Rooney fared well off the field, the Pirates struggled on it. Rooney said of those lean years, "In those days, nobody got wealthy in sports. You had two thrills. One came Sunday, trying to win the game. The next came Monday, trying to make the payroll."^[17]

Although he strove to field a winning team, Rooney spent a good deal of energy simply trying to keep the franchise in business through its early seasons.^[18] During the 1930s, while America was in the depths of the Great Depression, the Pirates were a financial drain on Rooney. Rooney claimed that the team lost nearly $10,000 in 1934 ($227,761 today).^[19] Bidding wars for players made it difficult for less established clubs to compete with the more seasoned Giants, Bears and Packers. In 1935, Rooney proposed a restriction on the number of players that could be signed by teams that finished at the top of the league.^[19] These ideas eventually lead to the creation of the NFL Draft, which first came into being in 1936.

The Pirates' first uniforms were gold with black stripes and were adorned with the city crest. This color scheme was inspired by Pittsburgh's city flag.^[20] The stripes were created with felt overlays, and as such they had functional as well as aesthetic value in that they allowed the ball carrier to hold the ball more securely.^[21]

Rooney hired Forrest "Jap" Douds as player-coach.^[5] Douds was a three-time All-American and local legend as a player at Washington & Jefferson College,^[22] and had been an All-Pro in the NFL.^[23] Pittsburgh's inaugural game, against the New York Giants was a 23–2 defeat^[24] in front of a crowd of about 20,000.^[8] The franchise's first ever points came off a safety which resulted when Pirates center John "Cap" Oehler blocked a punt through the end zone.^[25] Rooney wrote of the game, "The Giants won. Our team looks terrible. The fans didn't get their money's worth."^[26]

The Pittsburgh Pirates notched their first victory a week later, defeating the Chicago Cardinals^[24] 14–13, in front of about 5,000 fans.^[8] The team scored its first ever touchdown when Martin "Butch" Kottler returned an interception 99 yards. The other hero that day was Mose Kelsch, who at 36 years of age was the oldest player in the NFL – four years older even than team owner Rooney. Kelsch, a holdover from the sandlot Majestics, kicked the extra point that was the margin of victory.^[20]

In their sixth game the Pirates set an NFL record the franchise still shares, combining with the Cincinnati Reds to punt 31 times in a scoreless tie. The Bears and Packers matched the mark in a game played on the same day, but it has never been surpassed since.^[20]

The total attendance for their five home games in the inaugural season was around 57,000. To put that number into perspective, that year's Pitt-Duquesne college matchup was watched by around 60,000 fans.^[20] The team finished their initial season with a 3–6–2 record,^[27] after which Coach Douds was not retained as coach, though he stayed with the team two more years as a player.^[28]

Rooney pursued Hunk Anderson, who had recently stepped down as head coach at Notre Dame, to replace Douds.^[29] After being rebuffed by Anderson in favor of a similar position at North Carolina State,^[30] Rooney went after Earle "Greasy" Neale.^[31] It speaks to the stature of the professional game relative to college football that Neale turned down the Pirates' offer in order to take an assistant coaching position at Yale University.^[32] Neale would later coach the Philadelphia Eagles to two NFL championships and earn a spot in the Hall of Fame.^[33]

Luby DiMeolo, who had been rumored as the leading candidate for the Pirates coaching job prior to the team's first season,^[34] was eventually hired to replace Douds. He had been captain of the 1929 Pittsburgh Panthers football team on which Jimmy Rooney also starred. DiMeolo hired Jimmy Rooney as an assistant.^[35] Following a disappointing 2–10 season in 1934, DiMeolo was dismissed.

Rooney attempted to lure football legend Red Grange, who had just retired as a player, to coach the team the following year.^[36] Grange eventually declined the offer in favor of an assistant coaching position with the Chicago Bears.^[37] Rooney settled instead on Duquesne coach Joe Bach.^[38] Bach was notable as one of Notre Dame's "seven mules", who blocked for the team's famed "Four Horsemen". In Bach's first season the team improved on the previous years two wins, but they still were not very competitive at 4–8.

1936 saw the institution of the National Football League draft as a means of distributing talent more equitably amongst teams. The Pirates saw little initial return, however, as the team's first draft pick, William Shakespeare, would never play in the NFL.^[39] The franchise would trade their first round pick multiple times in their first 30 years.

In his second season with the Pirates in 1936, Bach had his team in contention for the NFL's Eastern Division title with a 6–3 record through nine games. However, the season fell apart with losses in the final three games. Rooney and Bach each blamed the other for the collapse. Although Rooney and Bach had an agreement for Bach to remain with the club in 1937, Bach decided instead to take the head job at Niagara University, for which Rooney released him from his verbal commitment.^[40] Rooney later expressed regret for letting Bach leave.^[41]

The Bach era (such as it was) gave way to that of Johnny "Blood" McNally who took over as player-coach in 1937. McNally was an eleven-year NFL veteran who had played for the Pirates in 1934. He was one of the game's most colorful characters,^[42] and Rooney hired him with an eye toward increasing ticket sales.^[43] After a 2–0 start, the team lost its next five games, finishing at 4–7.

The next season saw the arrival of the franchise's first superstar, Byron "Whizzer" White. The Pirates selected White, the All-America quarterback from the University of Colorado, with the fourth overall selection of the 1938 NFL Draft and offered him an unheard of salary of $15,000 (around $320,000 today) to join the team. White declined the generous offer, in order to continue his education through a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University.^[44] However, when he was able to arrange to defer his start at Oxford until January, he reconsidered and signed the deal.^[45] In addition to the league-high salary,^[46] the terms of the deal also included a share of the gate at exhibition games for White,^[47] who earned a total of $15,800 (around $340,000 today).^[48] In comparison, McNally who served as both coach and player earned just $3,500 (roughly $76,000 today).^[46] The big contract Rooney gave White angered several of his fellow owners.^[46]

The arrival of White led to much optimism in Pittsburgh – McNally stated that, "We had calculated on a championship without him, and since we have him it looks like we can't miss."^[49] White did not disappoint: he led the league in rushing with 567 yards on 152 attempts.^[50] However, the team was unable to capitalize on White's performance compiling a record of just two wins against nine losses, including a season-ending string of six straight defeats. After the season, White sailed on to England and never again played for the Pirates. White would go on to become one of the longest serving justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.^[51]

After seeing the disappointing results of paying big money for a star player, in 1938 Rooney determined to pursue a star coach. He offered the head coaching job to Jock Sutherland, who was a legendary football coach and "national hero".^[52] Sutherland had just stepped down as head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. The offer was to have been in excess of the $13,000 annual salary (roughly $280,000 today) Sutherland earned at Pitt. When Sutherland spurned the offer (due most likely to the disdain in which he held the professional game)^[53] McNally was retained as the Pirates' coach, although he announced his retirement as a player.^[54]

The 1939 season started just as the previous season had ended: with a string of losses. After the third straight loss (which stretched the two season run of failure to nine games), McNally resigned as coach.^[55] Despite compiling a coaching record with the Pirates of just 6–19, Johnny "Blood" McNally would enter the Hall of Fame in 1963.^[56]

McNally was replaced by Walt Kiesling, who had been McNally's assistant coach for the previous two seasons.^[57] Their seventh season less than half played, the Pirates had just hired their fifth head coach. Kiesling was unable to salvage the season; the team ended 1939 with a worst yet mark of 1–9–1. The season's lone win came in the season's final game against the Philadelphia Eagles, with whom the Steelers shared the league cellar: the Eagles compiled an identical 1–9–1 record with their season's sole bright spot being an earlier triumph over the Steelers. The victory broke a winless streak that had extended to nearly 14 months.^[58]

Through the 1930s, the Pirates never finished higher than second place in their division, or with a record better than .500.

1940–41: A new name and a "new" team

In early 1940, Rooney decided that he had had enough of the copycat Pirates moniker. He worked with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to run a contest to find a new name for the team.^[59] Former coach Joe Bach led the panel which selected the name Steelers from among the entries.^[60][61] The new name paid homage to the city's largest industry of producing steel.^[4]

It is unclear who deserves credit for suggesting the name (which was already being used by at least one local high school team),^[62] but it appears there were a total of twenty-one winners,^[60] and each received a pair of season tickets to the 1940 season, a prize with a value of about five dollars ($110 today).^[61] Among them were Joe Santoni, a local restaurateur, who received a pair of season tickets as a prize,^[63] and Margaret Elizabeth O'Donnell,^[60] the girlfriend (and eventual wife) of the team's business manager, Joe Carr.^[64] The first entrant who suggested "Steelers" was Arnold Goldberg, who was sports editor for the Evening Standard of Uniontown.^[60] Other suggestions were Wahoos, Condors, Pioneers, Triangles, Bridgers, Buckaroos, and Yankees, along with such steel-centric possibilities as the Millers, Vulcans, Tubers, Smokers, Rollers, Ingots, and Puddlers.^[61]

Kiesling continued as coach in 1940. The Steelers started the season at 1–0–2 before falling at home by a score of 10–3 to a Brooklyn Dodgers squad coached by local hero Jock Sutherland. It was the legendary coach's first professional victory after leaving Duquesne University in 1939. He had assumed the head job for the Dodgers that year after spurning a similar offer from the Pirates/Steelers the previous season.^[65] The loss to the Dodgers began a six-game losing streak, before the team traded wins with the Philadelphia Eagles to cap a 2–7–2 season in which they scored a total of just 60 points.^[59]

Rooney had finally seen enough. Over eight years, the team had compiled a record of 24–62–5 and had lost around $100,000 ($2.2 million today).^[59] He was also concerned about the availability of players in the coming seasons due to the ongoing war in Europe and the specter of a military draft.^[66] After turning down several earlier offers to relocate or sell the team,^[67] in December 1940, Rooney sold the Steelers to Alexis Thompson.^[68] Thompson was a 26-year-old, Yale-educated heir to a steel fortune and an entrepreneur living in New York.^[69] He had aggressively pursued Rooney to sell the franchise for several months prior to the transaction.^[66] The purchase price was reported to be $160,000 ($3.5 million today).^[70] This price is less than the $225,000 ($4.9 million today) the Detroit Lions had previously sold for, but the Lions had won an NFL championship.^[67] The transaction was completed and announced on the same day that the Chicago Bears pummeled the Washington Redskins by a score of 73–0 in the most lopsided NFL championship game of all time.^[71]

Rooney immediately took half of the windfall and invested it in a 50% interest in the Philadelphia Eagles, which were owned by his friend, Bert Bell. It was Bell who had conducted all of the negotiations with Thompson leading up to the sale of the Steelers. Thompson had earlier offered to purchase Bell's franchise.^[72]

In an unusual twist Rooney, Bell and Thompson pooled the rosters of the two squads and conducted essentially a mini-draft to distribute the talent. The 51 players which were signed to the Steelers and Eagles at the end of the 1940 season were shuffled between the two teams.^[73] In this transaction, the Rooney/Bell team added eleven players from the 1940 Steelers: ends George Platukis, Walt Kichefski and John Klumb; tackles Clark Goff and Ted Doyle; guards Carl Nery and Jack Sanders; and backs Boyd Brumbaugh, John Noppenberg, George Kiick and Rocco Pirro. In exchange, Thompson's team gained seven players: ends Joe Carter and Herschel Ramsey, tackles Phil Ragazzo and Clem Woltman, guard Ted Schmitt, and backs Joe Bukant and Foster Watkins, all of whom had played for Bell's 1940 Eagles the prior year.^[74][61]

Thompson hired Greasy Neale, whom Rooney had earlier pursued to coach the Pirates, to conduct this player swap as well as to assist him with the draft which took place the day after the deal with Rooney was finalized.^[69] Once he was released from his contract with Yale, Neale became head coach of Thompson's team.^[75] In January 1941, Thompson renamed his new squad the Iron Men.^[76]

Despite the fact he now was half-owner of the Eagles, Rooney had no intention of leaving Pittsburgh.^[72] It was thought that Thompson preferred to move his new team to be nearer his New York home, perhaps to Boston, which had been without an NFL team since the Redskins relocated to Washington in 1937.^[68] If Thompson had moved the team away from Pittsburgh, Rooney and Bell hatched a plan that would have seen their team split its home games between the two Pennsylvania cities. However, the other league owners blocked both moves.^[77]

By early 1941, Rooney was beginning to regret his decision to sell the team he had founded. When he saw that Thompson had not yet established a local office for his team, as he had announced he would do by March 1, Rooney made an offer. He and Bell would trade territories with Thompson. This would put Thompson in Philadelphia, which was much closer to his New York base. It would also ensure that Rooney's team would stay in his hometown. On April 3, 1941, Thompson accepted the deal and Rooney and Bell's Eagles went to Pittsburgh, where they became the Steelers, while Thompson's Iron Men moved to Philadelphia, where they took on the Eagles moniker. This was described at the time as "one of the most unusual swaps in sports history".^[78] In fact, though the Pittsburgh team played as the Steelers, they operated under the name the "Philadelphia Eagles Football Club, Inc." for the next several years.^[79][80]

Because the entire strange turn of events all took place during the off-season and the Steelers never actually missed a game in Pittsburgh, the NFL considers the Rooney reign unbroken.^[79] The transaction, which amounted in the end to Bell selling the Eagles and purchasing half-interest in the Steelers, has been termed the "Pennsylvania Polka".^[81]

1941–44: The war years

Rooney and Bell conducted a coaching search seeking "one of the top men of the profession".^[82] Among the men interviewed was Pete Cawthon who had recently left Texas Tech after a successful 12-year stint.^[83] Bell and Rooney also considered Aldo "Buff" Donelli, who was the head man for Duquesne University's football team.^[84]

In the end, Bell, who had coached the Eagles to five straight losing seasons, named himself head coach of the team. This move was made in part because the owners were hesitant to offer a binding contract to a coach due to the specter of the country possibly entering the war.^[84] Kiesling, who had led the Steelers the previous season, was retained as Bell's assistant.^[85] The Steelers began the 1941 season with two straight losses, after which Rooney tried to convince Bell to step down as coach. Bell agreed to do so only if Rooney could convince Buff Donelli to take over the reins.^[83][86]

Donelli, however, already held the head coaching position at Duquesne University, for which he was under contract for another full season. Donelli and Rooney worked out a deal with the Duquesne administrators whereby Donelli retained his position as head coach at Duquesne, with the intent of coaching the Steelers in his "spare moments".^[87] He would accomplish this by coaching the pro team in the morning and the college team in the afternoon; he would spend Saturday on the sidelines for the Dukes and Sunday with the Steelers.^[88]

This was a highly unusual situation, and it did not sit well with new NFL commissioner Elmer Layden (for whom Donelli had played when Layden was the coach at Duquesne).^[88] Layden was convinced that it was "impossible, physically and mentally, to direct two major football teams at the same time."^[89] Donelli stepped down as coach at Duquesne to assuage Layden.^[89] However, he retained the title of athletic director at the school and his schedule changed little, if at all. He continued to attend all of Duquesne's practices and games and continued to be acknowledged as the coach, if not in title.^[90][91]

Donelli replaced the single-wing offense the Steelers had employed since their founding with his "wing-T", which was a variation on the T formation.^[92][93] He coached the Steelers to five straight losses, even while his college team flourished. In early November Donelli faced a dilemma: Duquesne was scheduled to play Saint Mary's College of California on the same weekend the Steelers had a contest in Philadelphia. Layden ordered Donelli to appear on the sidelines in Philly. Donelli chose to stick with the undefeated college squad, and stepped down as head coach of the winless Steelers.^[90][94]

The Steelers' coaching position was once more handed over to Kiesling. In Kiesling's second game of this second stint as the Steelers' leader, he led the team to a victory over Jock Sutherland's Brooklyn Dodgers. This would be the only victory in a 1–9–1 season, which matched the team's worst record to date. In a small bright spot, this was the franchise's first campaign in which they were never shut out.^[95]

Perhaps the most enduring event of the 1941 season was an off-hand remark that Rooney made to a reporter during the team's training camp. Rooney was visiting camp and quipped to a reporter, "They look like the Steelers to me—in green jerseys."^[96] This was taken as a reference to the club's poor performance throughout its existence. The remark would morph into the slogan "Same Old Steelers",^[97] which would be applied by fans as a sort of unofficial team motto throughout the team's consistent struggles over the subsequent thirty years.^[98]

Within weeks of the end of the 1941 season, America would enter World War II, which would have a huge impact on the nation, but also on the NFL and its teams. Although the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 had instituted conscription in late 1940, the NFL was not significantly impacted until after the United States joined the war following Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941.

Rooney and Bell lobbied to delay the 1942 NFL Draft due to the uncertainty of the war situation, but they were overruled by their fellow owners. The Steelers had the first overall selection, due to their last-place showing the previous season. They made Virginia halfback "Bullet" Bill Dudley the first pick. They then rounded out the draft by choosing as many married players as possible with an eye toward the likelihood those players could avoid the military draft, at least for the upcoming season.^[99][100]

The team lost several players who had filled key roles the previous year to the military, including quarterbacks Johnny Patrick and Rocco Pirro, leading runner Art Jones and budding tackle Joe Coomer.^[101] The team's first-round pick, Bill Dudley, intended as well to join the military rather than play football, but when he enlisted in September 1942 there was such a backlog of recruits that his induction was delayed by a few months. This gave him the opportunity to sign with the Steelers for $5,000 ($93,238 today).^[102]

After a slow start, in which they lost their first two games, the 1942 squad then won seven of their next eight contests.^[103] They fell to the Green Bay Packers in their final game to cap a 7–4 season. They finished in second place in the Eastern Division behind the Washington Redskins, who went on to capture the league title. It was the first winning record the club had recorded in its ten-year history.^[102] Dudley became the second Steeler to lead the league in rushing with 696 yards on 162 attempts.^[104] The "triple-threat" back also tallied 35 passes for 438 yards and 18 punts and was runner-up to Green Bay's Don Hutson for the Joe F. Carr Trophy which is awarded to the league's most valuable player.^[105]

Steagles

At the annual league meeting held on the weekend of the 1942 NFL Championship Game, the league's owners discussed canceling the upcoming 1943 season due to concerns of player availability due to the war. Instead they chose to delay the decision, along with the college draft, until the following April.^[106] At the April meeting, roster sizes were reduced from 33 to 25 players, while the Cleveland Rams announced that they would suspend operations for the season: the team's two top executives were serving in the military, as were a large number of players.^[107]

The Steelers' roster continued to be decimated throughout the off-season. By late May, they were down to just five players under contract who would be available to play in the upcoming season. Rooney and Bell reached out to Alexis Thompson's Philadelphia Eagles to discuss the possibility of combining the two squads.^[108] A proposal to combine was submitted to the league and was slated for discussion at league meetings in mid-June.^[109] At the confab the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals sprung a similar request of their own. The league owners voted down the two mergers on the basis that by combining resources the merged clubs would gain an unfair advantage. Rooney and Bell then lobbied the Chicago clubs to withdraw their request, which they eventually agreed to do. After a contentious debate the owners then voted by a narrow 5–4 margin to allow the Steelers and Eagles to merge operations for the upcoming season and retain their players thereafter.^[110]

Although the combined team was officially the Eagles and would have no city designation, it became known familiarly as the Phil-Pitt "Steagles". The club split its home dates between the two cities with four games played in Philadelphia and two in Pittsburgh. Walt Kiesling shared coaching duties with Eagles coach Greasy Neale^[110] and the club adopted the T formation which had been used very effectively by the Chicago Bears for the past several seasons. Many of the Steagles players were classified 4-F by the Selective Service, meaning they were judged as unfit for military service.^[111] Common ailments were ulcers, perforated eardrums and poor eyesight or hearing.^[112]

Co-coaches Neale and Kiesling disliked each other immensely. In order to avoid coaching together, they split coaching responsibility along the lines of offense and defense. This accommodation presaged the rise of the modern offensive and defensive coordinator positions that are near universal in the modern game.^[111]

The team ended the season with a 5–4–1 record which was the first winning record in the Eagles' history, and just the second the Steelers had enjoyed. They missed the playoffs and were dissolved back into separate franchises immediately upon the season's end.

Card-Pitt

In 1944 they merged with the Chicago Cardinals and were known as "Card-Pitt" and informally known as the "Car-Pitts" or "Carpets". They went winless through the season. The Steelers went solo again for the 1945 season and went 2–8. Dudley was back from the war by the 1946 season and became league MVP. The rest of team did no better as the Steelers stumbled down the stretch and finished 5–5–1.

The 1940s and 1950s: "Same old Steelers"

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 at Forbes Field, which the Steelers lost 21–0. Because of the Steelers and Eagles being placed in different conferences after the 1970 merger between the NFL and the AFL, the game marks the only time that the two major Pennsylvania cities have played each other in the NFL playoffs. Quarterback Johnny Clement actually finished second in the league in rushing yardage with 670.

That would be Pittsburgh's last playoff game for 25 years, and their only such appearance in the pre-merger era. In the 1948 off season, coach Jock Sutherland died. The team struggled through the season (one quarterback, Ray Evans, threw 17 interceptions to only five touchdowns) and finished 4–8. The team once again faded down the stretch in 1949 after a strong start, ending with a 6–5–1 record. That was followed up in 1950 with a 6–6 season, and consecutive losing seasons in 1951 (4–7–1) and 1952 (5–7).

After a 6–6 season in 1953 and 5–7 season in 1954, the Steelers drafted Pittsburgh native Johnny Unitas in 1955. Cut by the Steelers in training camp, Unitas later resurfaced as a Super Bowl hero – with the Baltimore Colts. Pittsburgh suffered through yet two more losing seasons before a 6–6 campaign in 1957 in the first season for coach Buddy Parker. 1957 saw one other highlight, the hiring of the NFL's first African American coach, Lowell Perry as the Steelers receivers coach.

Early in the 1958 season the Steelers traded for quarterback Bobby Layne, who led the Detroit Lions to two NFL championships. The results were immediate, with the Steelers posting a winning record (7–4–1) for the first time in nine years – though they were still two games out of a playoff spot. 1958 also saw the first Steelers home games at Pitt Stadium, although their primary venue continued to be Forbes Field.

The Steelers finished above .500 again with a 6–5–1 record in 1959. After a 5–6–1 season in 1960, Rudy Bukich took over the starting QB job during the 1961 season, but fared no better. Pittsburgh finished 6–8.

The 1960s

The Steelers introduced the famous "astroid" logo, based on that of the Steelmark used by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), in time for the 1962 season. Bobby Layne returned to the full-time starting quarterback position, and running back John Henry Johnson had the best season of his career with 1,141 yards (second in the NFL). Pittsburgh shored up on defense too, picking up Clendon Thomas from the Los Angeles Rams; he led the team with seven interceptions. Ernie Stautner anchored the defensive line. The Steelers had their best season yet, finishing 9–5. This was good for second place in the division, and a spot in the Playoff Bowl, which matched up the No. 2 teams in the NFL's two divisions. The Steelers lost that game, 17–10, to the Detroit Lions.

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=History_of_the_Pittsburgh_Steelers
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