First off, when and how is the book available?
It’s available as an ebook now wherever you buy ebooks, and the paperback will be available December 20th at bookstores. If people want to order it now though they can go to our site at SteelersSavedPittsburgh and buy it there – we’ll ship it to you.
Ray – as a Dallas fan what on earth possessed you to write about the Steelers?
This was Tom’s passion project. He had been talking about doing the book for 25 years – writing about Pittsburgh’s transformation as a city and what made it different from other rust belt cities like Gary, Cleveland, Detroit that didn’t have a successful transformation. His thesis was that the Steelers and that play helped galvanize the city and he wanted to write about that.
Arrogantly, I thought I was the best writer he knew. So, I decided as a gift to my friend I would help write the book. We figured if we didn’t like it we’d just drop writing, but we never did! We were both big football fans so we started writing after the football season was over then realized we needed to get it finished before the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception!
Tom’s gift back to me was to have all of the author proceeds go to the Hilman Cancer Center for blood cancer research. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2019 and had a stem cell transplant that year. That changed my perspective on things and why I thought we should pursue the book and not wait. I’m doing ok now and am managing the cancer.
Tom – how did having a father play minor league baseball and an Uncle in Stan Musial influence your love of sports and why focus on football after all of that baseball influence?
That’s a great point. Growing up in the 70’s, thanks to Stan, I was able to go to the ’71 and ’79 World Series.
Tom: But having said that, I think the Steelers embodied the mindset if the city more. It was more euphoric when they won – they were even called the Steelers which tied into the industry of the time. They went from worst to first and that meant a lot more to the city. It was a blue collar city that was more closely aligned to football than baseball.
I also felt the characters of the team were more interesting. I think they were more relatable to the city Green, Lambert, Russell, Swann, Terry…
Ray: Also – Tom got chirped a lot when he was in Little League! I think that scarred him – people told him that it looked like the apple did fall far from the tree!
Tom: That’s true – I did get heckled a lot. Thanks Ray!
How did you both decide to go about approaching the book – who to speak to and how to structure it?
Tom: I talked to my wife for 25 years about the book – she told me she thought Pittsburgh’s were like a cult! I had the initial idea that I wanted the book to be about the city not just the team. But Ray thought it would be interesting to weave the story of the reception throughout the book – that was his idea and we got a lot of compliments on that.
Ray: We had an ambitious title and had to handle the history of the city and of the team. If we just talked about the history of the city we’d lose Steelers fans early in the book, and if we focused on the team we’d lose the history fans. So we wove the story of the catch throughout the book and had three main components we stuck to – the city, the team, and the catch.
You speak to the chain of events that led to the Immaculate Reception – what were some of those key events – was there one linchpin moment?
Tom: The Immaculate Reception game was only the second Steelers home playoff game in 40 years of existence. Feeling like they were going to lose that hard-fought game then to win in such an unlikely manner was the start of the team being looked at differently on a national level. People forget Miami came in eight days later and beat them.
The Steelers by 1975 had enjoyed a level of success they never had before. But at that time a lot of people were leaving the city – the steel industry was struggling. Those that stayed were galvanized – they were blue collar just like the team. When I look back that play stands out because it helped the team and city no longer be a laughing stock.
Ray: Being from Pittsburgh and comparing it to other rust belt cities that didn’t make that transformation… Pittsburgh is a leader in healthcare, education, robotics .. I can’t help but think that one difference was the success of the Steelers that gave them pride in the city and helped galvanize the people.
Who were some of the more interesting and exciting people you got to speak with in the creation of the book?
Ray: Most of the stories were taken from books that gave us an historical perspective of the city. We spoke to a number of local historians that talked about how the steel industry allowed for prosperity for a long time but created tough working conditions and bad environmental conditions. That famous Donora Smog – when investigators went in to examine the conditions in Donora the locals chased them out with guns.
Tom: Yeah the idea was “this was our mess.” The idea of trading their way of living and providing for their families for better conditions wasn’t something they were ready for then
I also lived next to Mike Madden – John Madden’s son. We talked for a while and he told me that John Madden was almost the Steelers defensive coordinator. He was offered the job and was going to take it because Al Davis was dragging his heels on hiring Madden – but Davis finally did hire him.
Ray: Watching old film of those Steelers games was also very cool – and listening to Dandy Don Meredith call those games. That was fun.
Tom: And the commercials – those were fascinating from a cultural perspective!
What surprised you most about what you learned as you researched and wrote the book?
Ray: I joke with Tom on how proud he is of his city. For me, it was just learning different things about the team and city. You can read this book chapter at a time – you don’t have to read all the way through it.
Tom: Andrew Carnegie – learning about how charitable he was – he was the most humane of the robber barons, you can say. He donated thousands of libraries across the English speaking world. And understanding more about the players and Chuck Noll.
And just understanding the stability of the franchise compared to other teams. Three coaches in its history!
A rewarding moment was when Dana Harris – Franco’s wife – reached out to me about the book. She told me she was reading it to Franco and started crying near the end of the book – Franco got emotional too. That was unbelievable to me. I get emotional about this but knowing that other people do too – that that’s how many people in Pittsburgh feel about this – that was very cool to me.
This has been so much fun to read. It is a bit like reliving our past. My father, whom I was so very close to, would have loved this book and the interviews. What a fun way to relive our past!