Exclusive with Former Steelers Wide Receiver Chuck Dicus, 1973

First, tell me a bit about how your career got started in Pittsburgh?

I’ll always be thankful for my brief time in Pittsburgh. I spent two years in San Diego but it didn’t end well. I’d point the blame on ownership there but it’s been 50 years now.

I pulled my hamstring in San Diego and it nagged me going into my third year.  They put me on waivers but I wasn’t picked up. I think what happened was I went back that third season into camp in San Diego and asked to negotiate a new contract. I started six games the year before before the hamstring injury and came back to start the last game of the season.

When I was in camp they didn’t want to pay me what I thought was fair. They didn’t let me play that preseason so nobody saw me play that preseason. When I was waived nobody picked me up. I got a one-day tryout in Washington and George Allen told me he wasn’t ready to sign me yet – he had to figure out who he’d have to cut first. He told me he knew I had a tryout in Pittsburgh so if that didn’t work out to call him immediately.

But you got an offer from Pittsburgh? 

The did offer me a contract – I was just glad to get anything at that point. Lionel Taylor and Boston – the player personnel guy – were there to try me out.

I was glad to sign there- I had heard great things about what was happening there and they proved to be true. And getting to know the Rooney family was terrific – they were more than fair.

How so?

Well, I remember when I got to Pittsburgh a reporter did an article on my transition from San Diego to Pittsburgh. I laid it all out for them. Well Art Sr.’s wife read the article and gave it to him to read. Later he made it a point to come to my locker and  tell me he read the article and was glad to have me on board. That meant a lot to me.

The coaching staff – Noll and the rest of them – they treated everybody with respect. And they were ahead of the game in both strategy and personnel. They built those teams through the draft – they drafted the right people.

We were good in ’73 and made the playoffs. I credit them getting the right players and gameplans together that worked.

What happened after that ’73 season?

In ’73 my hamstring flared up again and the team put me on IR until it healed. But it was a nagging injury. When you’re a wide receiver, you have to be able to run and with confidence. I always worried I would pop my hamstring.

In the offseason I went back to Arkansas. That year they went on strike and as a veteran I honored the strike. At the time Bradshaw and I had become good friends. He told me he got a call from Noll who told him he better get in camp to compete with those other guys there. So on his way there he stayed over at my place and told me he’d call me to tell me how it was going when he got there the next day.

Well, he called me and told me I needed to come to camp right away, that there were two rookies there who were catching everything being thrown to them. Of course, those guys were Swann and Stallworth.

So I did, and I stayed with the team through preseason and asked Noll that if I didn’t make the team, after what happened in San Diego, if he could try to trade me rather than put me on waivers, He said he’d try and do his best.

But he wasn’t able to?

He told me he tried but wasn’t able to work out a trade. They put me on waivers  and I was claimed by St. Louis, but they revoked the claim and Cleveland picked me up. I was there for two or three weeks but was cut. I though then that it was time to get started on the next thing in life.

It didn’t work out for a long time in Pittsburgh, but it was a great experience.

So what was that next thing?

I went back to Arkansas and thought I’d be out of football. But a good friend of mine became coach at Memphis and asked if I’d coach the wide receivers there. I never considered a career in coaching but he and I were close, so I gave it  try.

I told him though that if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t drag it out and do it long, I ended up staying there for three years but was just never comfortable. I ddi”t want to be a coach when I was young, growing up, and I think that’s a prerequisite for being a coach for most people.

I got into real estate after that – I did some real estate work in college. Then I worked for an investment banking firm and really enjoyed that. I liked meeting and working with people and helping them – in this case with their investments and retirement.

That work was helpful  in what I did afterwards for 17 years. I became the president of the Razorback Foundation – it was the fundraising arm of the Arkansas Athletic Foundation. You need to know how to work with people on that role – it’s mostly people interested in parking spots and seat locations. It tests you – so that background working with people really helped.  It was an exciting job for me – it put me at the center of things in Arkansas which was a big deal to me.

After that I went into real estate but that was right after the worst recession in my lifetime, anyway. I got a job then running the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation – the fundraising arm of the Arkansas Game and Fish commission. I loved the outdoors and was an avid fisherman, and liked hunting too. I was president there for two-and-a-half years but we bought a house in Hot Springs, so I stepped down and got back into real estate again, which i did part-time.

Any fun memories of your time in Pittsburgh?

Terry came to me one day and told me he was supposed to give a speech but couldn’t make it, and said he could get them to have me do it instead. He asked me to stand in for him.  They were expecting Terry so I figured they wouldn’t be too excited to get me instead. I was fairly new so I don’t even know if they knew who I was. When I got there I started by apologizing for my Southern accent and told them I hoped they’d understand me. A woman stood up and said “I’m from Little Rock honey. You’re doing fine!” That helped break the ice!

And when I first got there, I didn’t know Rocky Bleier’s story. I guess I just missed it – his service to our country and what he went through in Vietnam. I saw the scars on his body and pulled Terry aside and asked him what happened, and Terry told me the whole story. I though a lot of him even before then. He was such a good person and loyal to the team.

As a veteran player,  what thoughts do you have on today’s NFL?

I think there’s a real crisis with CTE and other issues. I know the league and the players’ association is trying to have an impact. But I’ll tell you there’s a group of players that’s been forgotten in all of this. Back when I played you needed I think five years to get your benefits. Well, there are thousands of players that never played five years but need help. I wish someone would wake up and look at that and make some changes to include those guys and give them the help they need. Shouldn’t they be due something? Of course, I’m a part of that group so it’s important to me. I’m thankful for what the league has done, but more can and needs to be done.

Thank goodness for people like the Rooneys who help set good examples. The game has changed a lot over the years. It takes insight to be flexible enough to change with it. The Rooneys showed they are capable of ding that.

Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades.  To order, just click on the book: