PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s been 50 years since the Steelers won a first Super Bowl and the team is celebrating all season, including a new exhibit at the Hall of Honor museum at Acrisure Stadium.
Team President Art Rooney and Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Ham were on hand to unveil the section dedicated to a first ever NFL championship in Pittsburgh.
As Ham said in his first remarks, he can’t believe it’s been 50 years. Among the great players on that team, Ham credited a fellow linebacker and rookie for helping make a huge impact.
“I think for that year the guy who probably made the most impact of those guys was Jack Lambert,” Ham said. “He was a rookie on our football team and he was calling the fronts and changing secondary coverages.”
“We know a lot of things about Jack Lambert, he’s kind of a crazy guy, but he was also probably one of the smartest guys I’ve been around on a football field because you don’t come in as a rookie and play as well as he did in big games like that. I guess that was the key for us defensively that kind of put us over the top.”
Ham also mentioned the play of the defensive front which allowed all of the linebackers to make plays along with the leadership of the unheralded Andy Russell. Ham said he was told by his coach in college after being drafted by the Steelers, to just do everything Russell does and you’ll be successful.
“Pro football has changed a lot since that first Super Bowl, but a lot of things stayed the same,” Ham said. “Number one, if you are a defense, you have to take away the running game initially. You have to do it today and we had to do it back then. We were able to do that in our playoff games against Buffalo, the Oakland Raiders and against Minnesota as well. We made that Minnesota team one dimensional. They were able to run the ball for 17 yards the entire game and our defensive line was the key part.”
It was a rocky start for all NFL teams as the 1974 season began with a players’ strike, so veterans weren’t at training camp. When you think about it, it may be a reason that rookie class had so much success as Ham noted they had a lot of opportunities where maybe they wouldn’t have if the older players were in Latrobe.
Joe Gilliam started the season at quarterback and had a hot hand, eventually replaced by Terry Bradshaw. Gilliam was 4-1-1 (45.3% completion, 1274 yards, 4 TD, 8 INT, 41 yards rushing, TD) and Bradshaw 5-2 (45.3% completion, 785 yards, 7 TD, 8 INT, 224 yards rushing, 2 TD), Terry Hanratty also started a game and was 1-0.
That season was about running the ball as Franco Harris started 11 games and rushed for 1,006 yards. On the season, the Steelers rushed for 2,417 yards (172.6 yards per game) and 19 touchdowns while holding teams to 1,608 yards (114.9 yards per game) and seven TDs.
“The defense really was so dominant, the consistent part of the team,” Rooney said. “They held the record in the playoffs in terms of holding all those teams to less than 50 yards rushing every game still stands as one of the most remarkable stretches in playoff history.”
Ham described returning to Pittsburgh after the win in New Orleans, calling it phenomenal and magical.
“We were trying to win this championship for a long time,” Ham said. “We were finally able to do it. I think the fan reaction started even back in 1972, when Franco came on and we became a team to be reckoned with. ’74 put us over the top. That fan base, when you’re playing here in Pittsburgh, it is truly a home-field advantage. They were fabulous after that Super Bowl. They’ve been fabulous for a long time.”