First, tell us a bit about you – your writing career, etc?
I’m a retired school teacher – originally from Mississippi. I taught in Georgia and North Carolina and grew up a Steelers fan.I stuck with them throughout my life. I read all I could on the team at an early age – that’s how I got going early on in my research.
Once I was done with my career I could spend more time on writing.
How did you become a Steelers fan?
When I was growing up there were two ways to watch football – NBC and CBS. My brother was a big Saints fan, growing up in Mississippi. He watched them on CBS. But I didn’t like the Saints- they were losers at the time and I was a young kid and wanted to jump on a winning bandwagon. NBC showed the AFC games and the Steelers were on a lot – so that’s how I became a Steelers fan. It’s a great team and franchise.
What inspired you to write this book – why is it unique?
I read a lot about BLESTO and it dawned on me after learning so much about Bill Nunn that we didn’t really know where we were getting these players. It wasn’t just about going to the HBCUs. How did they find them?
Well, I started learning more about BLESTO and realized there was no book that covered the first five years – form ’69 to ’74 – of the team’s rise to dominance. So I started to write one.
How did you go about researching the book?
I started with secondary sources. Newspapers.com opened up a world of research. I could go back to the read about the ’69 teams and explore stories there – and ultimately went back to the ’30’s to research the scouts themselves.
After that I reached out to many of the players and coaches like Terry Hanratty, Art Rooney Jr., Louis Lipps, Bruce Van Dyke and interviewed them. I was able to get first person accounts from them. I was able to learn who the BLESTO scouts were as well – each team had their own for years.
The book also includes summaries of every game from 1969 through 1974.
What stood out most early on?
The BLESTO guys a first were high school coaches. After Jack Butler took over BLESTO there were a tremendous amount of other guys that started becoming scouts. I realized that Butler had created his own scouting tree – that didn’t dawn on me until late. The scouts started getting hired by teams then.
I also talk a lot about the assistant coaches – that’s where I was going to start, actually. They were so important. For example a lot of people know about Bud Carson but Charlie Sumner was the one that really flipped the secondary around. Noll later fired him but I don’t know why. Willie Fry taught the defensive line before Dan Radakovich took over but Fry started that development.
The ’74 draft was great, but people forget how good the ’69 and ’71 drafts were too.
Any good examples of how those early coaches impacted the team?
One good one is Max Coley – he was the running backs and receivers coach. They were ready to give up on Rocky Bleier when Max said “No.” Max knew Rocky was one of the only players who was willing to throw himself around on special teams.
A lot of folks also think Bill Nunn was the first to scout the HBCUs but Lloyd Wells started that earlier with the Chiefs.
Another good one was about the stunts the Steelers used. Joe Greene started that with the Steelers when he asked Bud Carson if he could line up at an angle. It actually started in the 50’s with Arkansas first.
When Noll was in San Diego Walt Hackett was his defensive line coach and he brought him with him to the Steelers. He was there for two years and then they drafted Greene and Greenwood. Hackett did while scouting players in L.A. and was replaced by Radakovich. He started developing those younger, faster defensive linemen. They had Lloyd Voss and Ben McGee earlier who were older and slower.
What did you learn about the team that was different from past teams and rivals?
The genius was Chuck Noll. He let his assistants do what they needed to do. It was so systematic. At the time Jon Kolb for example didn’t know how to pass block – he didn’t do that in college. Willie Fry helped teach him. Mel Blount was tough to deal with then but he recognized what he needed to work on, to his credit. He was showed up pretty badly in a Miami game by Paul Warfield and he used that to develop.
Terry Bradshaw – that was a beautiful story. He’ll probably hold grudge against the Steelers until the grave, but that last drive in SB IX, you saw then that that was his team.
Any fun poignant/stories that stand out/impacted you the most?
Yes – Ernie Holmes – the helicopter story. Here’s why. I’m bi-polar – I wasn’t diagnosed until I was in my 40’s. Well, the famous Holmes helicopter story was humorous to many, but from my perspective I understand some of what he was going through. He wasn’t bi-polar- he had psychosis. But I could understand some of what had happened.
What I was impressed with was how the team took care of him. Dwight White, L.C. Greenwood and Chuck Noll all helped him. He was a taxi squad player at the time – they didn’t really have to help him like they did. But they helped get him out of jail and got him the help and medication he needed. That garbage about how cold-blooded Chuck Noll was was just that – garbage. He cared about his players. That story struck home with me for sure.
Lastly, where can people find the book?
You can find it here on Amazon: Revolution: The Transformation of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL