QUINCY (WGEM) - Former Western Illinois University football standout Mike Wagner -- a four-time Super Bowl champion safety with the legendary “Steel Curtain” Pittsburgh Steelers -- died this week, the team confirmed Wednesday night.
He was 76. No cause of death was given.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Mike Wagner, a tremendous player and an integral part of some of the most successful teams in Pittsburgh Steelers history,” owner Art Rooney II said in a statement released on the team’s social media sites.
“Mike played a key role on our championship teams of the 1970s. As a member of four Super Bowl-winning teams, his toughness and consistency were paramount to our secondary. His contributions on the field were significant, but it was also his steady presence and team-first mentality that truly defined him.
“On behalf of the entire Pittsburgh Steelers organization, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Mike’s family. He will always be remembered as a champion, a great teammate and a proud member of the Steelers family.”
Brian Spotts of Quincy, who played at WIU from 1976 to 1979, has been active with the school’s football alumni for many years. During that time, he got to know Wagner when he’d come to campus.
“Mike Wagner was a great person, very down to earth who loved coming back to WIU,” Spotts said. “One of his best friends was Bob Nardelli, a former WIU offensive lineman, who went on to become the CEO of Chrysler and Home Depot.”
Wagner, a Waukegan native who attended high school at Carmel in Mundelein, played for WIU from 1968 to 1970. As a Leathernecks defensive back, Wagner was an NAIA All-American honorable mention selection in 1969.
“Mike’s story was very interesting as he came from Carmel high school in Mundelein to WIU, and decided to attend a WIU football practice, and after practice, he went down to the field and asked the coach if he could walk on,” Spotts said. “And the rest is history.”
Steve Horrell, a Macomb native and currently the athletic director at Macomb High School, also enjoyed his relationship with Wagner.
Horrell graduated in 1981 and was well aware of Wagner and Pittsburgh’s success.
“We absolutely knew who Mike Wagner is,” Horrell said of those times. “He was great for the game of football and always gave back to the sport and WIU.”
Like Spotts, Horrell characterized Wagner as a “down to earth guy.”
Wagner is one of 42 former WIU players to play in the NFL with 37 chosen in the NFL Draft. Wagner was inducted into the Leatherneck Athletics Hall of Fame in 1976.
He remains the program record holder in interception return yardage (343) and single-season interceptions (nine) and is second in career interceptions (15).
After being selected by Pittsburgh in the 1971 NFL Draft, he played 11 years with Pittsburgh. As a starting safety, Wagner played on all four Steelers Super Bowl championship teams, a part of the legendary “Steel Curtain” defense. He was a two-time Pro Bowler in 1975 and 1976.
He recorded at least two interceptions in every season except one (1977) and led the NFL in picks in 1973 with a career-best eight. Wagner finished his career with 36 interceptions, which ranks sixth on the Steelers’ all-time list. Wagner played in 119 games with 116 starts and recorded 12 fumble recoveries.
“I think Mike was the best safety the Steelers ever had,” former linebacker and teammate Andy Russell once said.
Wagner’s feats on defense weren’t limited to the regular season, however, as he recorded an interception in back-to-back Super Bowl victories over the Vikings and Cowboys in 1975 and 1976.
In Pittsburgh’s first Super Bowl win, a 16-6 defensive blistering of the Minnesota Vikings to culminate the 1974 season, Wagner had a pair of tackles and an interception of Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton.
The next year, Wagner had the same stat line in Pittsburgh’s narrow 21-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, recording two tackles and another interception of a Hall of Famer in Roger Staubach.
Wagner called the interception against Staubach in Super Bowl X one of the highlights of his career because it came on the same play in which the Dallas Cowboys scored on a 29-yard touchdown to receiver Drew Pearson earlier in the game.
“Probably the reason why I liked that play so much is because it stuck in Staubach’s craw for over a decade,” Wagner said. “He was really flustered.”
The Steelers beat the Cowboys again in Super Bowl XIII 35-31 with Wagner tallying three more tackles.
Though Wagner got a fourth ring for a Super Bowl XIV victory against the Los Angeles Rams, he didn’t play in the game, as hamstring and hip injuries limited him to just eight games that season.
Ten of Wagner’s former teammates are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well as head coach Chuck Noll and Wagner was on the 2025 Seniors Class ballot but failed to garner enough votes.
Among his honors, Wagner was selected for the Steelers 50th Anniversary Team and is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Honor and the Pittsburgh Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“There are some Steelers that I played with, my teammates, who are not only the greatest Steelers of all time, but maybe the greatest NFL players of all time,” Wagner said at the time of his induction. “Debatable, arguable, but to join those guys, it’s really a treat. It’s really a thrill, and I’m proud to have earned it.”
After retiring, Wagner earned an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business and began a second career in investment banking for three decades, residing in western Pennsylvania. He was vice president of the private banking group for First National Bank and served on several non-profit boards.
_Copyright 2026 WGEM. All rights reserved._