Exclusive with Tim Rooney, Director of Pro Personnel for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1972-1979

First, let me know what you have been doing since your football days?

I’m fully retired. We go to Florida in the Winter usually. But outside of that I’m just here with my grandkids. I like to golf, Swim, and my wife and I go on walks. We like to travel usually one or two times a year and see our son in New Jersey, but of course now we’re grounded.

I had three successive back surgeries a few years ago and that set me back a year, but I can walk, golf – I can still do those things now.

As a kid, what memories of your time with the Steelers stand out to you most?

My father worked in the ticket office so we would be very actively involved with the team – we’d g to games, and when I was a Sophomore in high school – around 1955, when the team trained at St. Bonaventure – I would go work at training camp. I was one of the camp boys – I’d do whatever they needed me to do there and on Sunday I’d work as a waterboy.

One memory that stands out to me was when we played the Giants at Forbes Field. Back then the teams lined up on the same side of the field in front of the bleachers – it was just the way the field was constructed.

The Giants were powerhouses then – we weren’t that good but we were a tough team.  Jim Lee Howell was the Giants coach – he was a huge man. It was a rainy day – the rain and mud were brutal. That helped Pittsburgh – it slowed down the fast guys on those Giants team like Gifford and Connelly.  My job was also to dry off the footballs. Every play I would take the wet ball from the official and switch it with the ball I just dried off.

Well, when the Giants were on offense I wasn’t doing a great job drying off the ball. Someone said something to John Lee Howell and he lost his cool. He chased me down the sidelines past the Steelers plays and coaches!

What’s funny – when I got to the Giants in 1985, Lee Howell was still active with the team. I got to see him there and we went out for cocktails after practice. I told him that story but he didn’t remember it. But he told me that it was a lucky thing he didn’t catch me!

You coached before you joined the Steelers organization – how did that help you and who helped shape your approach – and how?

As a coach it was a cumulative effort – I learned from everyone I saw and worked with. At the college level, I started with Jack Gregory at Villianova. He had tremendous organizational skills – that was the first time  really learned how to prepare a team for practices and games.

When I got to the Steelers in 1972, I had coached for four years. Pittsburgh wanted to hire another scout then. Then they only had three Bill Nunn, Dick Haley, and Art Rooney Jr. They needed a fourth guy.

Why?

Noll and Haley talked about the need to start up a pro personnel department. They wanted to be out in front of free agency – they anticipated it and wanted to be the first team to have scouts ready in advance for it. They anticipated that need.

Chuck wanted a scout who would also do game advance scouting – someone with coaching experience. Now, I was a Rooney – nothing like nepotism! But I had coaching experience. I wasn’t married  – so I could travel easily. They wanted someone to go scout the next week’s teams ahead of the current week’s game as well, so I rarely saw the Steelers play unless it was on Mondays.

So, the coaching experience helped me get the job – what Chuck wanted is what I did – we developed that job.

What did you bring to the job – how did you make that process work so well?

The organizational skills I developed at Villianova helped – we developed a system to retain the information I gathered and how to access it. What I endeavored to do was to grade a player myself – then I took all of his college information – including BLESTO and our own scouting reports – and blended it with my scouting report for an up-to-date file on every player.

For the terms we played regularly like Cleveland, Cincinnati and Houston – I’d spend 80 hours scouting those teams – every player’s strengths and weaknesses. We built an information database for every pro player – by player, not just by team – so it followed the player wherever they went – if they were traded or released and signed elsewhere.

We were one of the first to do all of that. We used it for free agency and for advanced team scouting. I’d submit the advanced-team personnel report of each team to the coaches a week before each game so the coaches could use it as a thumbnail sketch of the players’ strengths and weaknesses.

Any good success stories/memories from your role there?

People always want to give me credit for Lambert. It was more of a fluke. What happened was, I went to Kent State in August to scout a wide receiver named Gerald Tinker. I think he was an Olympic sprinter – that’s when Don James was coaching there.

Tinker was the impetus for me being there. Lambert was a senior – he played defensive end his junior year and was playing linebacker for the first time.. He looked awful – he was all upper-body, with skinny legs. And he ran a bad 40 time. But Don James told me about him – told me to take a good look at him. He was in the BLESTO book already but wasn’t rated very high.

Well, I watched the scrimmage, and he was so strong from the waist up. Long, strong arms. I watched him move around and his instincts. One thing the Steelers taught me was that when you see a player early on in the scouting season that you like, grade him high so you don’t miss him later on. You can always knock him down later, So, I just did what I was taught to do. I went out on a limb, but I knew we could always bring him back down to reality if we needed to. Of course, when you draft a guy, it better be realistic then!

But, I don’t think it took me to find Jack Lambert. I was just the first to see him.

In terms of free agents, any guys you brought in or processes you put in place you are most proud of?

We were so strong talent-wise then, the players we brought in in free agency were guys mostly that helped us when we had injuries, stuff like that. We weren’t signing big name, expensive free agents. We brought in guys like Mandich and Dockery. Dockery gave us a couple of good years. Those were the kind of guys we signed.

You worked closely with Bill Nunn. Should he be in the Hall of Fame? What made him such a good scout besides his inroads to HBCUs?

I have been saying he should be in the Hall of Fame for years. He could just look past what players were doing to see what they could do.

Donnie Shell was a good example of that.  He was signed as a free agent after the ’74 draft. I never scouted Shell but my understanding was he was he played the monster linebacker spot – a force guy in the box. People weren’t sure how fast he was or if he could cover. But Bill had the foresight – he could see Donnie could cover. He could see his footwork and reaction time.

And he also had sense of Donnie’s high football character. He was competitive – we knew he’d fit the personality of the team. He was tough – a quick reactor too,.

The first scrimmage was the first team offense versus the rookies and third-team defense. Franco Harris ran off-tackle and Shell came up and hit him head-on. The coaches all looked after that collision asking “Who was that?” It was an incredible straight-up collision and he drilled Franco. They called him “Torpedo” for a week after that. I think Donnie knew he needed to make an impact early on.

Any other memories on Bill Nunn?

On draft day people think you are making decisions on who to draft. But on draft day you are really making decisions that you already made weeks ago. It’s more about whether you want to take a receiver or linebacker at your pick – not about players in general.

One of the best Bill Nunn stories was on the ’74 draft. We didn’t have third round pick then – we traded it away, which was unusual for us. We had a first, two fourths and a fifth round pick. We took Swann with the first and when we got to the second round pick we had Lambert and Stallworth graded the same. Take your pick right? And we had no third round picks. This is when it got rough – we were scared to lose either one.

Well, Bill stood up and said he thought we could get Stallworth in the fourth round. He didn’t run a good 40 time at his pro day – it was a bad field. The day he ran the scouts all left, but Bill was there and he stayed an extra day. That next day he took Stallworth to a local high school field that was much better than the field he ran on and had him run the 40 there. He ran much better- and Bill had the time that no one else got.

It was still a gamble – but that’s how he stood up and we got Stallworth. We never would have gotten Lambert in the fourth round. The scouts were on to him by then.

Know what’s funny about that too? The Atlanta guys called me right after we picked Lambert and told us they were going to take him with the next pick. Instead, know who they took? Gerald Tinker! And he didn’t pan out -he couldn’t catch the ball!

Do you like the way the NFL has changed since your time there?

I love the game today. The speed of the game – teams use the entire field. Today’s athletes are bigger and faster and better trained. It’s a different game – faster.

I never dreamed the guys would be the great athletes they are today. And back then we ran very basic sets – the Steelers were mostly one tight end, two backs and two receivers. You didn’t need many different types of guys. Now coaches are using more players in ways they never did before. It makes scouting guys even more important – every guy is expected to be used every game.

Any last memories before I let you go?

I remember in 1972, when we played Oakland in the Immaculate Reception game. If we won, I had a flight scheduled for right after the game to advance scout the Miami-Cleveland game. Miami won of course and beat us the following week. But I remember when the Immaculate Reception happened, I was sitting next to Art Rooney Jr. We didn’t know what to do after Franco made the play. But right after it Art leaned back his chair and leaned back down and the chair landed on my foot. There was a spike on the chair leg and it went right through my shoe. But I had to catch my flight – so I had to run to the airport with a bloody foot and hole in my shoe! I had no time to get a new shoe or get it bandaged!

That’s the life of a scout!

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