Super Steelers '76
1976 Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers

In 1975, The Pittsburgh Steelers started their 43rd Season of National Football League Competition. But, unlike any previous season, they started this campaign as the King of the Hill — World Champions.

Over the years, just about every NFL Team the Steelers had met on the gridiron had, somewhere along the line, worn that label. Every one of the old school teams of the NFL had worn the title of World Champions.

All, that is, except the Pittsburgh Steelers.

To be defending World Champions has a lot of responsability and undue pressure attached to it. You are the best. Every team that you will face that coming season gears its highest emotions toward that game. To be able to knock off the World Champions can make a season for some teams.

On the other hand, you are constantly in the limelight. The most severe critics, the fans, have their eyes glued to your every move, accepting outstanding play as a natural by-product of being a champion; but, chastizing inferior play, for they expected more. They can be cold in their analysis, not taking into consideration that mere mortals play this game, not robots.

When the 1975 Season commenced, the Steelers knew what was in store for them. They knew that between the start of the 1974 Season and the start of the 75 Season, a major league lifetime had passed them by.

They were no longer Art Rooney's band of losers. Those days of infamy, days of pain stabbing ridicule, were gone forever. It was time for them to stand up and and make their mark among the elite in NFL history.

When Chuck Noll took over as Coach of the Steelers he saw where the trouble was at. It was from within — the heart. Before this team could win they had to have pride. And pride he gave them.

He used his draft choices wisely, acquiring outstanding players such as Franco Harris, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Greene, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham. But, what he really had to do was knit the fibre that would bring this club together as a team. So onto the scene came people like Rocky Bleir, a man who was thankful for every breath he took. A man like L. C. Greenwood, who was tired of walking in the shadows of other people's glory. A man like Mel Blount, who heard the critics demean him, but changed their attitudes toward him with a f rm resolution to succeed on the field of play. A man like Andy Russell, who was a part of those losing years, and would now give his all in the winning ones.

But, all the while, up in his lofty perch sat the owner, Art Rooner, Sr. He loved his team, his boys, his fans. He was no grandstand owner, but, rather, he sat on the sideline, enduring each losing season but still maintaining a paternal fondness for his boys, his team, his city.

So, when the day came that the Steelers were World Champions, everyone looked to Art Rooney, knowing how much he endured while never complaining, but, as is his style, he gave credit to the team. But, if this team has quiding light, a personality, it lies in the humbleness of its owner. He has shown them respect, when everybody thought they didn't deserve it. He has given them love, when they were feeling the sting of hate. He has, in this own way, guided them through the hard times and, eventually, down the path of success. With a man like that at the helm, it comes as no great surprise that the Steelers are once again World Champions in 1976.