Brief History of the Steelers

Courtesy: Tim - www.steelertribute.com

The Steelers were founded in 1933 by Art Rooney. For the next 40 years, the team would suffer through many, many losing seasons. The Steelers had a few decent years, but they mostly were the perennial losers of the NFL. Rooney was a highly loved and respected man throughout both the city and the league, but his team could just never put together enough talent to win. Things got really bad in the 1950's. The Steelers cut future Super Bowl quarterbacks John Unitas, Len Dawson, and Earl Morrall. They signed Hall of Fame QB Bobby Lane, but Lane could not reproduce the glory days he had in Detroit.

In 1969, Rooney hired Chuck Noll to coach the team. Noll's first two #1 draft picks were Joe Greene and Terry Bradshaw. In 1972 the Steelers made the playoffs and advanced to the AFC championship game after defeating the Oakland Raiders in the Immaculate Reception game. Two years later, the Steelers had their best draft ever. Four of the first five picks in that draft were Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Mike Webster, and Jack Lambert. That year they would win their first of four Super Bowls (see below). The Steelers became the team of the 70's. They remain the only team to win four Super Bowls in six years. The heart of the team was the "Steel Curtain" defense. This unit dominated the opposition. In 1976, for example, the Steelers allowed just 28 points in the final nine games of the season, including 5 shutouts. This incredible stat will most likely never be duplicated. Four members of that defense are currently in the Hall of Fame (Greene, Jack Ham, Lambert, and Mel Blount).

In the 1980's, the Steelers put together some competitive teams but never even came close to duplicating the success of the 70's. After Bradshaw retired, the Steelers went through a couple of up-and-down QB's (I'm being polite here). Mark Malone and then Bubby Brister each took the team to the playoffs just once in their tenure as starting QB. In 1988, Art Rooney passed away. In 1991, Noll retired and Bill Cowher was hired to replace him. In Cowher's first year, the Steelers went 11-5 and won their first Central Division title in eight years. Two years later, the Steelers had one of their best seasons ever, going 12-4. The season hilight was beating the Browns three times, including the playoffs. That season ended in an extremely dissapointing championship game vs. the Chargers. The 1995 season was built as a season for redemption. The theme "three more yards" was prevalent in the minds of Steelers fans. The team did not let the fans down. After finishing the season 11-5 and defeating the Buffalo Bills in a playoff game, the Steelers faced the Indianapolis Colts in one of the most memorable games of all-time. With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the upstart Colts took a 16-13 lead late in the 4th quarter. The Steelers mounted a comeback and took a 20-16 lead. The Colts had one final chance to complete a Hail Mary, but it just barely fell short. The Steelers returned to the Super Bowl once again. They lost Super Bowl XXX , but played a great game against the Cowboys.

A full decade would pass before the Steelers finally got another shot at glory. In 2005, they put together the greatest run in NFL history. They won their final four games to squeeze into the playoffs as a #6 seed, then proceeded to upset all three top seeds in the AFC, including a nearly-undefeated Colts team. They capped off this amazing run by defeating Seattle in the Super Bowl to capture their 5th world championship, putting them back on top of the NFL mountain where they belong.

The Super Bowls

SUPER BOWL XL
Pittsburgh Steelers 21
Seattle Seahawks 10

at Detroit, MI
MVP: Hines Ward

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