The Birth Of The Nation – The Origins Of Pittsburgh Steelers Nation
By Todd
New Logo, New Coach, New Team
Those things on the side of the Steelers’ helmets are called astroids (not to be confused with the objects in space called asteroids). It is a geometric shape that would take me an hour to try to explain (after I would have spent three days trying to learn it myself). This logo, which endures to this day, was introduced in 1962. The colors of the logo represent the three ingredients in making steel: Yellow represents coal, red for iron ore, and blue for scrap steel.
The logo appears on only one side of the helmet because The Chief wasn’t sure how the logo would be received by fans. It was found to be to fans’ liking, but the team decided to keep it only on one side of the helmet, making the Steelers the only team in the NFL with their logo on only one side of their helmet. (The Browns are the only team to have no logos or symbols on their helmets.)
The hiring of Charles Henry “Chuck” Noll and winning a simple coin-toss would be the events that would transform the Steelers from lovable losers into a dynasty.
Noll’s first pick in the draft as Steelers head coach was future Hall of Famer, “Mean” Joe Greene. “Mean” Joe was not the first pick in the draft. He was the fourth. That means three other teams passed on one of the most dominant defensive players in NFL history. The first pick of that draft class was O.J. Simpson. Okay, not much of a stretch there, but picks two and three were George Kunz and Leroy Keyes. (Yeah, I thought the same thing, “Umm, who?”) Amazingly, Greene was the only defensive player taken in the first 11 picks of that years’ draft.
That coin toss gave the Steelers the right to draft in front of the Chicago Bears. They would use that pick to draft Terry Bradshaw.
Over the course of the next few years, Noll would draft one after an another Hall of Famer, including the remarkable 1974 class when he selected Mike Webster, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, and Jack Lambert. For a single team to find four future Hall of Famers in a single draft is nothing short of astonishing.
Flung Far and Wide
The collapse of the steel industry led to rampant unemployment in the so-call “Rust Belt” of the United States. With no jobs holding them to western PA, families packed up and moved to other areas of the country seeking jobs and a new life. With them they took their love of their football team.
This is one of the main reasons that the Steelers “travel well” to this day. Other towns never had the kind of mass exodus that Pittsburgh experienced in the 70s and early 80s.
In other words, all those Steelers fans you see in San Diego, Denver, and Minnesota didn’t fly in just for the game. They live in San Diego, Denver, and Minnesota. And they have since their parents, or grandparents, left their native Pennsylvania.
Also, because of the relative proximity of the Steelers’ division rivals, it is not unlikely that Steelers fans travel to games in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Baltimore from Pittsburgh. It would be a rare thing to have people who live in Pittsburgh traveling to Houston for a game.
It is the relative closeness of the four cities within the AFC North that helps make the rivalries between those teams so passionate. Because of the sheer distance between teams in other divisions, the fan bases rarely interact with each other. (A couple notables exception to this would be three of the four teams in the NFC East and three of the four in the AFC East.)
This interaction with fans of the Browns, Bengals, and especially the Ravens, gives Citizens of The Nation a sense of esprit de corps, like they are part of the team. While the team is fighting for football supremacy on the field, Citizens have to stick together while in hostile territory or risk having their asses whipped by twenty drunk, depressed and angry purple-clad members of Ravens Roost #29.
When Citizens see each other in an enemy city, they band together, forming friendships that last for years based on one and only one thing: Their mutual love of the Mighty Black and Gold.
Much like citizens of a political nation who meet each other in some foreign land and maintain contact long after any opportunity they have to see each other again. Friends within Steeler Nation are friends for life.
This is the proud Nation of fans I am honored to be part of. In any city or country I have been in, there are always Steelers fans. When I have walked into any Steelers’ bar in any city around the world, I have been made to feel accepted and welcomed into the gathering.
So be proud, fellow Citizen, on this day that we celebrate the birth of the best political nation on earth, for you are also part of the greatest sports Nation on earth: The group of passionate fans who love and revere the greatest sports entity in the known universe.
We are Steelers Nation! Happy birthday, USA!