The first coach to win four Super Bowls cemented his legacy long before he battled Alzheimer’s, a horrible disease made even more cruel in Chuck Noll’s case as a constant seeker of knowledge.
Noll helped transform a franchise that perennially did not win into a phenomenon. The 1970s Steelers he led inspired a rabid following that did not retire even after players like Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert and Franco Harris did. But Noll never wanted to be defined as a coach.
Jim Rooney, son of the late Dan Rooney, recently said that as much time as he spent with Chuck Noll, they rarely talked football. Jim Rooney probably knew Noll better than most. He was a private man who kept reporters at arm’s length. His players only less so — strategic as that might have been.
Noll passed away 12 years ago today at the age of 82. What he did for a football-crazed region that called itself the ultimate champion four times from 1974-79 has been well-documented. What he once did for a working-class Steelers fan shines a light on the man.
John Barnett and Chuck Noll’s paths crossed through Bill Priatko, the oldest-living Steelers player. Priatko and Noll became good friends in 1959 while spending more than two months together in Cleveland Browns training camp.
Almost three decades later, Priatko was an associate athletic director at Robert Morris College (it later became University). He successfully lobbied the academic dean — and ultimately the school’s Board of Trustees — to award Noll an honorary doctoral of education degree.
Barnett worked in maintenance at Robert Morris and was a huge Steelers fan. Priatko promised to get a picture of him with his hero.
Noll being Noll had asked not to speak that day because did not want to take any attention away from the graduates. He was more than happy to pose with Barnett at a reception following the graduation ceremony.
Not long after that, Barnett was diagnosed with brain cancer. Priatko visited him one day at West Penn Hospital. It only confirmed how he felt about Noll.
“His doctor was standing there, and he was holding this letter, and I heard him say when I walked up to the bed, ‘John, how do you know Chuck Noll?’” Priatko said.
Priatko had told Noll about Barnett’s battle with cancer. Noll’s letter did not just include best wishes. He invited Barnett and his wife to have dinner with Noll and his wife, Maryanne. Barnett died shortly after receiving Noll’s letter.
But he passed away knowing a man he idolized wanted to spend time with him.
“That is a perfect example of the way Chuck was,” Priatko said. “He did things like that that nobody knew. I’ll never forget that man. Never.”
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