First, can you let readers know what you’ve been doing with your time since working for the Steelers?
Since I left the Steelers I spent 16 years as a financial planner then the last seven as a table games dealer at the Meadows in Washington, PA.
How and when did you get started working for the Steelers organization?
I was a trainer in high school for three years, then I worked for Don Lowe at Kent State, one of the best college trainers at the time in the US. That was in ’74 – Lambert’s last year there. Don James was the head coach and Lou Saban was the assistant there – so I got a lot of good contacts and worked with a lot of good players.
My goal was to go to the pros. Every year at Kent State I’d send a letter to every NFL team and every year I got rejections from every team. But my one best quality is that I’m tenacious. Don James left to coach at Syracuse and I went there with him to coach. I was a Graduate Assistant for two years then an Assistant Trainer for two years. There were some great guys there like Joe Morris and Craig Wofley.
In 1980 I finally got a reply from the Steelers. In my letter I told teams that I’d go anywhere and work for nothing – I just wanted the experience. Well, I worked there in the Summer of 1980 then went back to Syracuse. Then they called me in ’81 and hired me as full-time assistant and I worked there for five years.
Did any of those guys you worked with in college recognize you in Pittsburgh and were they happy to see you?
Lots of guys I knew were there. Lambert, Wolfley, Gary Anderson… It’s funny because there was so much talent there in Syracuse then but we just sucked as a team!
Also, Dennis Fitzgerald was there in Pittsburgh too and he was Lambert’s position coach at Kent State. So I knew a lot of those guys. Coaches – they either liked you or didn’t like you at all and you always wanted to stay on their good side – you never know where they may end up. I did have one offer to go be the Maulers head trainer in ’83 but I decided to stay with the Steelers – I had no idea what to make of the Maulers then.
My father died when I was at Syracuse and I was an only child. I always had that guilt of not going back home after he died, so being able to stay close to home by being in Pittsburgh was something I am very fortunate for.
How closely were you involved in the draft process at the time. Did you work with coaches and scouts at all? How so?
I worked the phones during the draft with Bob McCartney – the team’s video guy. If teams were calling in for trades I’d answer the phone and get it to the right guy. It was a fun trip to New York but that was about it.
We were handed a file for every player they were interested in. They had a few pictures of the players and some notes. That was it then. One file – no computers! So it didn’t take long for us to assess the players.
What they cared most about was character. They didn’t need us to figure out how talented the players were – they had Bill Nunn, Dick Haley, Dick Hoak – it was hard to go wrong with those guys. I just always made sure I asked them questions. I was 24 – I had no idea what I was doing and they were so valuable – they went through it all.
What did you look for exactly during that process?
I looked at the body type – they really just wanted us to verify what they felt about a player. Me and Ralph Berlin would also go to workouts. The big thing they asked us to do was to talk to the players’ coaches and trainers to find out what the real deal was with them. Especially the trainers – they were with the players more than the coaches a lot of the time. So we called and did a lot of the grunt work – used our relationships with them to get the real story about players – to get the inside stuff on who they really were.
The team really looked to see how gritty a player was – they cared about potential as much as anything. That’ s how they found guys like Donnie Shell. Nunn saw his potential and felt good about his character and toughness – he felt those attributes could overcome things like lack of size or speed sometimes. Other teams cared more about the physical trait and would shy away from some of those guys but the Steelers weren;t afraid to take a chance on them.
What are your thoughts on today’s workout regimens – how much do they help players and do you see negative aspects to that?
I think players are getting a lot more help now. It’s more complicated than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Now every player has a bunch of trainers and there are Summer leagues and other leagues – a lot more opportunities. Back then I was very fortunate to find one of the few jobs that were there.
What did Coach Noll and the other coaches ask you to stress most in your training approach? Did they have certain ideas on how to approach training?
What they wanted from us was accurate information. The never doubted what you said about an injury. If we said a guy was hurt they took that at face value, and if we said they couldn’t play, they accepted that. They trusted us. I looked at that cluster in Miami. When the announcers can see a guy isn’t right, you have to be crazy to play him. You can’t do that – especially these days.
I was surprised at how much the coaches in Pittsburgh trusted and listened to us. If a guy was struggling in a drill, they also sometimes ask us if we felt it was an injury issue. They really wanted your feedback.
Did you differ in the way you trained different positions and players? How so?
We trained everyone at the same level and the same way. Maybe the quarterback was different. Terry always needed a bit of a psychological boost. He needed to hear how good he was sometimes – and he was!
But I never had a problem with anyone. I was there at the end of the rainbow there. We lost to Miami in the championship game after beating Denver, but that meant we got to work the Pro Bowl which was very cool. Seeing guys like Lester Hayes and Steve Largent – the way some of those guys caught balls in practice. One handed catches and they weren’t even trying!
Any of those guys stand out to you, looking back?
I didn’t hang out with the players much. The coaches told me that if we all went out and something happened, who did I think would get in trouble if something happened? They fire the trainer not the player!
Lambert was exactly the guy you think he was – he was a black and white guy – he either liked you or didn’t like you. There was no in-between. I knew him at Kent State. It’s funny because when I was at Kent State, I was on the field one day and saw a guy running laps around the field. It was a skinny guy – I asked a student-trainer who it was and they told me it was Lambert. I said to myself then there was no way he makes the pros – he was so skinny. It turns out you never know!
My office was on the way to the training room. You know, I never saw Mike Webster in the training room. He never stopped in except maybe to have Ralph tape him up.
It’s different today – guys are under the microscope now. It’s tougher for them and trainers in a way – there are so many people involved and so much money involved.
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