Steel Balls

Farewell to The Emperor Chaz.

This is hard for we youngsters to remember, but c. 1969 the city of Pittsburgh was down on itself, and self-identified as “The City of Losers”. This should, perhaps, give us pause before we heap abuse on our brethren in Cleveland, a town that surely is the current owner of that moniker. The July 28, 1969 issue of the Pittsburgh Press welcomed Chuck Noll, hired the previous evening fresh off of his Super Bowl loss as defensive coordinator for the Baltimore (yuck) Colts against Western PA native Joe Namath and the upstart Jets.

Check out the caption on the accompanying photo and enjoy the article.

[One might wonder how history would have been changed had Rooney hired Nick Skorich instead of Noll. Skorich ended up going to the Browns rather than the Steelers, and compiled a record of 30-24-2 record with them. That’s pretty good by current Cleveland standards, but culminated in a 4-10 campaign in 1974 just as Noll’s Steelers were exploding. The relationship between the two teams has never been the same since.]

[One might also wonder how history would have changed had the Patriots made their offer to Noll prior to the Steelers, since according to Noll he was going to accept the job from whichever team offered it first. Quite possibly the Patriots may have ended up with more rings, or the Steelers fewer, and that would be an unhappy thing to this day. The Patriots instead hired the victorious Jets offensive coordinator, Clive Rush. Rush lasted less than two seasons and won only five games with the Patriots. It was reported that “his tenure with the Patriots would be marked by constant conflict with players, owners, league officials and the media.”]

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