We have lost a great Catholic gentleman, teacher, citizen, and leader who only happened to be the greatest pro football coach of all time. Don't worry if you know nothing about Chuck Noll other than his four Super Bowl wins...it really is a Pittsburgh thing.
From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Legendary Steelers coach Chuck Noll dies
Charles Henry Noll, who lifted the Steelers
from the depths of the National Football League and coached them to
four-time Super Bowl champions by adhering to simple, long-held
principles, died Friday in his home in Sewickley.
Noll, who had been under a doctor's care for an undisclosed illness, was 82.
His wife, Marianne, found him unresponsive at 9:45 p.m. and called 911. Paramedics pronounced him dead 10 minutes later.
In recent years, Noll suffered from severe back pain that limited his mobility and forced him to walk with two canes.
Noll served as Steelers head coach for 23
seasons from 1969-91, winning Super Bowls after the 1974, '75, '78 and
'79 seasons and guiding what is considered one of the greatest sports
dynasties ever.
His 209-156-1 record and record four Super
Bowl titles earned him induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in
1993, his first year of eligibility.
“Chuck Noll is the best thing to happen to
the Rooneys since they got on the boat in Ireland,” said Art Rooney Jr.,
the oldest son of Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr.
Noll was known for choosing his words
carefully. His oft-repeated remark, “Whatever it takes,” was short and
succinct. It became the slogan for his coaching career.
Noll inherited a franchise that had won 18 total games the previous five seasons, and his first team finished 1-13.
But by the end of Noll's fourth season, the
Steelers had advanced to the AFC championship game. Two years later,
they were Super Bowl champions.
Steelers Hall of Fame wide receiver Lynn
Swann said Noll “never gets the credit he deserves for managing one of
the great teams in NFL history.”
Noll was a perfectionist and loved to teach, those who worked with him said.
“He was really knowledgeable about any and
all things,” said Hall of Fame coach Don Shula, who hired Noll in 1966
to be member of his staff with the Baltimore Colts. “We used to
kiddingly call him Knute Knowledge,” a nod to former Notre Dame great
Knute Rockne, considered one of the greatest football coaches of all
time.
Rooney Jr., who headed the Steelers' scouting department from 1971-86, likened Noll to “the toughest professor you ever had.”
“He was not a pizzazz guy. He knew where he
was, where he was going and where he wanted to go and how to do it,”
Rooney Jr. said. “He had a very, very strong moral compass. ... My dad
respected that.”
Noll was a reluctant celebrity and turned
down only one interview request, longtime Steelers publicist Joe Gordon
said. That came from Howard Cosell.
“He never really considered Cosell a serious
journalist,” Gordon said. “Any other time, regardless of the
circumstances, he was always accommodating.”
Noll rejected many offers to appear in commercials, some of which could have been financially lucrative, Gordon said.
“He preferred to be a football coach and not
a celebrity,” Gordon said. “After a while, they stopped calling because
they knew he wasn't interested. If he would have had his way, after the
game on Sunday, he would have just picked up his briefcase and gone
home.”
Noll was loyal to his assistants and those
who worked around the team at Three Rivers Stadium, said former
defensive assistant coach George Perles.
“He always took the grounds crew people on the plane to away games and the families to the championship games,” he said.
Born in Cleveland on Jan. 5, 1932, Noll
attended Benedictine High School, where he played running back and
tackle before earning all-state honors and a football scholarship to the
University of Dayton.
At Dayton, he played tackle and linebacker
before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 20th round in 1953.
Chosen as a linebacker, Noll was converted into a messenger guard by
legendary coach Paul Brown. Noll alternated with another player at
running plays into the huddle.
“After a while,” Brown once said, “Chuck
could have called the plays himself without any help from the bench. He
was that kind of football student.”
Noll played through 1959, when he decided to retire at age 28 to pursue a job opening on the Dayton coaching staff.
Before Noll could accept the job, however,
he was hired by coach Sid Gillman, and he spent six seasons with the
Chargers through five AFL Western Division championships.
Noll, a food and wine connoisseur who flew his own plane and sailed his own boat, separated his personal life from football.
His family lived in Upper St. Clair for many
years, and Noll's son, Chris, played football and soccer at the high
school. Noll seldom attended the games, but his son said it was not from
lack of interest.
“They were trying to give me my space,”
Chris Noll said. “They would sneak in once in a while. They made a
decision not to put that kind of pressure on me.”
The younger Noll remembers coming home from
football practice as a freshman and telling his father the team needed a
long snapper.
“He took me out in the driveway and showed me how to do it,” he said.
Chris Noll, director of communications at
Miss Porter's School, a private, all-girls institution in Farmington,
Conn., where he also has been a teacher, soccer coach and computer
specialist, said his father seldom talked football at home.
“After (Steelers) games, we would stop
someplace to get something to eat, and we didn't talk about the games at
all,” he said. “It was a pretty clear separation.”
Longtime assistant coach and former Steelers
running back Dick Hoak said Noll maintained certain values, and family
came first.
“That came before football, and football was after that,” Hoak said.
Many times, when the NFL Draft lasted until
late into the night, Noll ended the day by bringing out his favorite
bottles of wine and sharing them with team officials and reporters. He
also enjoyed discussing politics and loved classical music and
photography.
“He was very intelligent,” Hoak said. “He knew a lot about a lot of things.”
One year at training camp, he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony during a live performance.
“He relished the opportunity,” Gordon said. “I never saw him so happy as when he was conducting the symphony.”
In addition to his wife, Marianne, Noll is
survived by his son, Chris; and two grandchildren, Katie, and Connor.
John A. Freyvogel Sons Inc. on Centre Avenue in Shadyside is handling
funeral arrangements.
Under Noll, Steelers enjoyed unparalleled success
By Jerry DipaolaPhoto gallery — Chuck Noll: 1932-2014
By Tribune-ReviewNoll influence extended to Guild for the Blind
By Megan HarrisShortly after Chuck Noll retired as Steelers coach, former Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese Bishop Donald Wuerl recruited him to join the board of directors for the former Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind. Noll served as the board chair from 1997 …
Noll the ultimate winner
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Fans, city enjoyed connection with Noll
By Megan HarrisEveryone has a Chuck Noll story. There’s the time he dropped off Christmas goodies to a Catholic high school. And when he visited ailing fans …
Noll’s team-first approach helped to make Steelers winners
By Alan RobinsonTo understand how good of a coach Chuck Noll was, it is necessary to comprehend how bad the Steelers were before he arrived.
Noll made us all Steelers
By Dejan KovacevicFormer Steelers laud Hall of Fame coach Noll during public viewing
By Bob CohnChuck Noll knew a great deal about many things, Jon Kolb was saying, from wine to the best place to vacation to how to identify …
Roethlisberger: Noll should be remembered as ‘greatest coach of all time’
By Alan RobinsonSteelers legends, NFL luminaries arrive for Noll funeral mass
By Alan Robinson 10:11 a.m.Scores of his former players, team officials and even former coaching rivals of Chuck Noll attended the funeral mass for the former Steelers coach Tuesday morning at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland. Long before the service began at 10 a.m., …
And yet, life goes on. A bit less brightly, perhaps, but it does go on...
