Now I know how those of you that watched the 70's Steelers must feel...

I am old enough to remember the Steelers playing at Pitt Stadium, I have seen the good and the bad Steelers
Then Chuck Noll was brought in, then Joe Greene and it kept building. To be able to grow up with your hometown team
and to see the transformation of a franchise and the SUPERSTARS, Bradshaw,Blount, HAM, Franco, Lambert, Stallworth,
Swann, Russell, Shell, Edwards,Webster oh hell there is just too many. We lost a playoff game and I forget what year to the
great Miami Dolphin team on a fake punt, I was so mad I cried. We locals knew from there on we had something great.
The rivalries with the Raiders and Oilers with the GREAT Earl Campbell were great. I went to the Super bowl in LA
1979-80 the ticket at that time for me was 35 dollars, my have things changed. Then the retirements started, and it was hard
in the 80's going from a dynasty to a mediocre team. Then the 90's so on and so on. I have lost a little enthusiasm over the years
and don't like the changes in the game that they are making. It is hard for us dynasty people to accept anything less than the play
we grew up watching. Oh well time goes on, as will the STEELERS, THE GREATEST FRANCHISE ON THE PLANET.

 

Dat was to show off dem "guns"

 

I grew up in Pittsburgh with the 70's dynasty teams. In grade school, many of us could name every starting player and their number. I remember sitting in class and watching a TV broadcast Steelers special after the first super bowl win. As the dynasty players left in the 80's, I lost interest. About ten years ago, I began to start following the Steelers again despite living in Portland, OR. It was tough to see Hines and Harrison go, but I still will be following the Steelers closely again this year.

 

well, i'm 53 and have seen them come and go. the first hardest loss was just about the time they started on the roll. andy russell. i loved russell as a kid. i believe he was only here for the first SB. possibly 2. he was here before noll when they played at Pitt. we got season tickets in 1970, in 3 rivers and i've been there ever since. i was a fan since conception i've been told. LOL

 

I'm 45, became a fan in the summer of '74, and lo and behold they won the Super Bowl. I became hooked. Most strange: I have never lived in Pittsburgh, and soon after latching on to the Steelers, I did the same with the Bucs, Pens, and Panthers.

I disagree with 86's sentiment: "First and Foremost I would never consider a professional athlete to be a hero." I do think pro athletes can be heroes. I guess it depends on how old you are. For sure, those 70s players were my heroes, as they were larger than life figures, Sunday afternoon warriors, who--no matter what--always seemed to win big games with big plays.

 

Difference between then and now is after the games they all run out to the middle and give each other handies.....You may love the Steelers but the players love the check. Today it is a business. There was a sense of pride in back in the day. You used to see real emotion on the faces of the players while and after a big loss. Not in todays game , chit, they get paid to much!

 

Its a dam shame it has got to that Steel City NB, my older brother was living in Cali, so i stayed with him for a week.
As a young man in a very big city it was almost overwhelming, this is also the last time I was in Cali, I hope before
I buy the farm, I can get back to Cali and explore more of this beautiful state.

 

Ditto. This will be the 44th year with a season ticket. My dad went for 53 years.

 

I started following in '72. Then,(BST [before Sunday ticket]),we rarely got to see the games here in San Diego. I had to rely on the newspaper and sports highlights. I used to tease my Dad's dog by repeating "Dwight White" in his face. I didn't have as hard a time as many when the retirements started as I didn't get to see them much anyway. When Franco went to Seattle? Now, that hurt!

 

I became a fan in 1975 in New York they played the game the way it was meant to be played. In the 1980's and 1990's those were some lean years had to wait 25 years between Superbowl wins. It was hard seeing all the great players from the 1970's get old and retire right around the same time.

 

Ok, I turn 51 in a couple months. The High School in my town where my much older sibling went was named the Vikings. I remember watching Fran running around and passing. One Sunday they played the Steelers and I watched Mean Joe chase Fran all over the field that day. I became a fan for life that Sunday. It was 72' and I was 10.

Playing football in the vacant lot I was Bradshaw, Everyone else wanted to be Roger the doger. Man I loved beating the boys in 2 SB. There wasn't many Steeler fans here in NC back then. It seemed everyone was either for the boys,skins or vikings.

The 80's were hard for me. I was entering my mid to late 20's, the team went from dynasty to mediocre and it seemed as though the great noll was stuck in a rut as the game was passing him by. The niners(walsh) and skins ( Gibbs) was getting it done.

Cowher was hired and I had a renewed energy. Kordell really tested my allegience to the team.

Today I pull for the Steelers more than I pull for a player as they come and while go the org. remains.

Cajun-

 

The earliest Steelers game I can remember watching was in 1975. Back then the Steelers were only on television here in Virginia perhaps twice a year before the playoffs so I would get super excited to be able to watch the games.


Interesting that one of my earliest Steelers memories wasn't necessarily a good one. The Steelers lost to the Broncos and Joe Greene got tossed for a vicious uppercut.

[video=youtube;HkAZZObba_c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkAZZObba_c[/video]

 

Why did he punch him? I never could really establish why he did it. I wonder if this board would have been around in 75 if Mean Joe would've been crucified around here for that? Or if the 24 hr sports networks would've existed would they have given him the Suh treatment? Probably. LOL.

 

LOL. It probably does but you gotta ride out your performance til the curtain calls.

 

I remember this and can answer. The guy was holding Joe all day. Joe kept complaining to the ref and the ref kept ignoring it. Notice right before he punches the guy Joe says something in disgust to the ref and walks away. He also kicked a Baltimore Colt guard square in the nuts for the same thing a few years before this. In another game Joe was so disgusted with the holding he reached down and ripped the ball out of the center's hands, threw it of off the field, and walked off.

 

i remember the kick. there was alot of retaliation for stuff in those days. there was a time in the 70's that the offensive linemen couldn't use their hands either.

the defense had such an advantage back then. i was a lineman then, so you had to get your shots in where you could on O. i played both ways so you could, get some payback when on defense. you could spear guys with your helmet (guarenteed that's how i broke off two vertabrae's in my neck) and head slap them , you could bring a forearm up under his chin chopper too. it was alot rougher of a game then.

 

i remember the kick. there was alot of retaliation for stuff in those days. there was a time in the 70's that the offensive linemen couldn't use their hands either.

the defense had such an advantage back then. i was a lineman then, so you had to get your shots in where you could on O. i played both ways so you could, get some payback when on defense. you could spear guys with your helmet (guarenteed that's how i broke off two vertabrae's in my lower neck) and head slap them , you could bring a forearm up under his chin chopper too. it was alot rougher of a game then.

 

Sorry but this game wasn't in 1975 but instead was in 1977.

Cajun-

 

Correct

 

In case you're wonering, that 1972 game vs the Vikings is available on DVD. I have it. It's in pretty good condition, too. A screen shot, for you:

View attachment 402

 

I've been a fan since 1974. That dynasty inspired me to play football growing up. I would have to mention Blunt in a conversation like this. Not many people cause the rules of the game to change (except Brady). What I really wanted to address is the hero thing... I really think it depends on your definition of a "hero". What is important is to remember that "hero" can have more than one definition and can be many things. The guy that helps an old lady across the street may be a hero to her but not to you. Holmes might be a hero to me because he caught a game-winning touchdown in a Superbowl. What Holmes wouldn't be is a role-model. I think people confuse the term hero and role-model. Just my opinion!

 

stop it!! how dare you make sense here. holmes is a roll model. he'll roll you up a big fatty and be your hero because he brought a bag of oreo's for later.

 

And I'm older than any of you. Love this discussion, because I am retired and have followed the Steelers since 1963. First game I saw was at Pitt Stadium, got tickets at the gate on a Sunday morning, saw St. Louis Cardinals kick 5 field goals and beat Kent Nix. Now those were bad teams. Then came Chuck Noll. Must also say no one was tougher than Jack Lambert. I wonder if he could play today, because he only weighed about 210. Lambert was meaner than Mean Joe, and I remember the Dallas Super Bowl when the Dallas guy tapped our kicker on the head when he missed a field goal. Lambert came and body slammed him. Today he would have been thrown out of the game. I can hardly believe he retired because of turf toe. I hold Lambert in the same esteem as Roberto Clemente, and I saw Clemente play a lot. I even went to the '60 world series in Pgh. Excuse my rambling, but you sure brought back some memories. I loved those 70s Steelers.