First, let us what did you do after your NFL career and why?
After football, I went into the insurance business in Pittsburgh for four years, then I coached at Duquesne University and Baldwin High School.
Then an opportunity came up for me to coach at my alma mater, New Mexico State. I coached the tight ends and special teams for six years. Then the head coach got heart problems and had to bail – he had to retire.
I stayed in the area and got my Masters Degree in Educational Diagnostics and coached and taught at a local high school. I coached there for a while then went back to New Mexico State and coached there again. I coached 10 years in high school and 10 years at New Mexico State.
What lessons did you lean on most as a coach and, and why?
I think the one thing is that human beings are human beings. They aren’t robots – they make mistakes. Working on weaknesses is not what people like to do though. But I knew that taking the time to work on weaknesses was important.
So what I did was work with players after practice for 15 minutes only on their weaknesses. As Chuck Noll told us, that’s the only way to get better and to make the team better. By cutting down on mistakes and improving weaknesses and keeping things simple. So I drilled that into players – the techniques and drills. Of the tight ends I coached, we ended up having three drafted into the NFL
You were a Canadian who played high school football in Honolulu and went to college in New Mexico. How did you manage through all of that transition/difficulty and how do you think that affect your approach to football?
It was a lot of moving around. I had a lot of siblings – 10 in our family. Both my parents were from the Ukraine and were farmers. Hard workers. They just didn’t have money for 10 kids.
I played ice hockey, baseball, and soccer in Canada. I didn’t play football until the ninth grade. After my father died, I moved to Takoma, Washington to live with my older sister and her husband. She was 15 years older than I was. It was the best move for me. My mother didn’t want me to move but she knew it was my best chance – to go to the states and finish my education. It was my toughest move. My brother-in-law worked for IBM, for a think tank that worked on military bases. So we moved around – from Takoma, to Rockville, Maryland and then to Honolulu.
I got a scholarship to play at New Mexico State. I played running back and defensive back in high school and settled into defensive back when I got to college. I never kicked until my junior year. My brother was an All-State football player who kicked for the BC Lions of the CFL. He wrote me a letter telling me he saw folks in Canada kicking footballs soccer style, and that I should try it too. That I could have success doing it. I started kicking the ball before and after practice on my own. No one knew I was doing it – it was my own business.
Later, a coach saw me and he had played for Houston. He started working with me and told me he thought I had pro potential and that if I kept it up he’d have a scout from Houston come in and take a look at me.
Well, he did, and Houston drafted me in the fourth round. Houston saw that I could play defensive back as well as kick, and as Chuck Noll would say, the more you can do the better! I couldn’t believe I was drafted.
But you ended up in Pittsburgh later on.
There was a coaching change in Houston. The coach who came in from San Francisco cut me. He didn’t want a competition for the spot – I asked him. He said he knew what he wanted – a guy from San Francisco. So the punter, holder and I all went to Pittsburgh.
After my release Pittsburgh picked me up. I joined them just in time for their game versus Cleveland. The Monday afterwards they had two other kickers in camp, but Chuck ran up to me and said I did ok versus Cleveland. He told me that he liked what he saw of me in Houston, and that their loss was his gain. I was going to be his kicker for the year so I should be ready on Sundays. And he let the other two guys go.
Who helped bring you into the fold – taught you the city and team?
I stayed in a hotel until everything was cemented then I got an apartment. The Steelers PR guy, Joe Gordon, steered me in the right direction. But I more or less stuck to myself. I played against Joe Greene and Terry Bradshaw in college so we’d talk about those games. And Bobby Walden was there for a while before me – he and I would go out to eat sometimes.
Gerela’s Gorillas – what started that sensation and were you aware early on of it’s existence?
They were great guys – blue collar workers from Portsview. Early that season they met with me and told me they wanted to put a sign up for me. I told them don’t do it for me – do it for guys like Franco, Rocky, Lambert, Bradshaw – guys like that, But they said no – they wanted to do it for me. They said they hadn’t had a decent kicker in a long time and they thought I could be good and decided on me.
They talked to the Steelers organization about putting up the sign but they told them only affiliates of the NFL could do so. They checked with the NFL home office who said the same thing, but they did it anyway. They said it was their seats. They were next to the railing near the tunnel so they tied it to the rail and unfurled it before the anthem.
Get any fun ribbing from players?
Hanratty saw the sign first and told me to look at the sign. I told him I told them not to do it – I was embarrassed. Terry thought it was great though. He just joked with me about it. The other guys thought it was cool.
You ended up kicking on turf, who some said hurt your and other kickers’ careers? How did it affect your kicking and health?
It was a Tartan Turf they first put in. It was real hard – it looked like cement. There was little padding and it was slick. They replaced it two years later. But the more you kicked on it the more comfortable you got.
Super Bowl X – you had to chase balls in practice in the stands before the game?
They never put up the netting during warmups. We only had four footballs to use, so I moved further back but still kicked it in the stands. Some people would throw the ball back but others wouldn’t. I was down to two, then one ball. I told myself when there were none left I’d go up and try to get them. The last ball was caught by a gentleman in a beige jacket and turtleneck. He tucked the ball in his jacket. I trotted over the barricade and into the stands and reached out to him to get it when I felt a pull on my shoulder pads. The fans were tugging at me and hitting my shoulder pads – so hard it was really loud – and pulling at me. Not in a mean way – just excited. But I got worried and got out of there.
Any other good stories of your time as a Steeler?
During the season, we always practiced kicking on Saturdays. I’d have to kick for our team and pretend to be the other team’s kicker. I always noticed that I didn’t feel as strong on Sundays after a Saturday practice.
We didn’t practice special teams then on any other day. I approached Paul Uram, who was the part-time special teams coach. I told him that I was more worn out on Sundays because of Saturday practices. Most teams didn’t have their kickers kick on Saturdays. I asked Paul to talk to Chuck about moving the kicking time. Paul said he was only part-time – that I should talk to him myself. Bobby Walden heard us talk about the idea and thought it was a great idea too and told me I should talk to Chuck.
Well, I procrastinated for a couple of weeks, when Walden told me I should just go talk to Chuck already. I saw him walking across the field in a hurry and confronted him, while we were both walking quickly across the field. I asked him to now kick on Saturdays, and he looked at me and smiled. “I don’t have time for this.” he said, and kept on walking.
The guys laughed their asses off at me. I told them next time I’m keeping my mouth shut!
In 1978 you were released. Did you know why it happened?
I know why. I had a partially torn groin up to my pubic bone. I played a little more than half the year like that and went to three different doctors in the offseason. They said it would heal if I let it rest – they all said the same thing. Another doctor said they could operate, but it would calcify and pull apart when I kicked again after a while. I’d feel a pull at some point.
Well, I rested and tried to give it time to heal and ease back into it. But I was told even doing that, at some point if I kicked again I would likely feel a pain like a toothache that would get progressively worse to the point I wouldn’t be able to walk. That’s what happened. I was kicking when I felt the pull and knew there it went. I could do some easy kickoffs to help me get through each game but I just wasn’t as productive anymore. I hung in there for as long as I could.
Lastly, do you like direction of kicking game in today’s NFL?
Well, they have different balls now. Different kicking balls. They help add more height and distance to avoid run backs and collisions. I watch the punters practice and see them jacking them right up there. And kickoffs blasted out of the endzone.
That kicker in Pittsburgh – I think he’s in a class by himself. If anybody is going to go through a year not missing any field goals, it’s him.
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
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