Read Online Dan Rooney by Dan Rooney - Free Book Online

Pitt juggernaut rolled over all opposition, until the university’s administration determined to deemphasize the football program in order to focus more attention on academics. Pitt would not attain national standing again until 1976, under Coach Johnny Majors.

    Jock turned to the NFL, coaching the Eastern All-Stars against the New York Giants in 1939, then signed the following year with the ne’er-do-well football Brooklyn Dodgers. In two seasons he turned the club around, finishing a strong second behind the Eastern champs, the Washington Redskins.
    In late 1941, the war interrupted Sutherland’s pro coaching career. He accepted an active duty commission in the Naval Reserve and served ably until 1945. That’s when Dad and Bert Bell caught up with him and talked him into taking on the Steelers. Jock played hard to get, but the co-owners double-teamed him. He didn’t have a chance. Dad and Bert signed Jock to a five-year deal that included a big salary, options, and profit sharing. This was a turning point for the Steelers. George Halas remarked that Sutherland’s hiring was not only good for the Steelers but a great step forward for the league. The day after the newspapers reported that Sutherland had signed with the Steelers, season ticket sales went through the roof, from 1,500 the previous year to 22,000 in 1946.
    Jock Sutherland’s first Steelers training camp began in mid-August, 1946, at the municipal field just outside Hershey, Pennsylvania. I was there. Already there was a fall crispness in the air enhanced by the sweet smell of chocolate that permeated everything for miles around the Hershey factory. Everyone was excited about Dr. Sutherland—that’s what we called him, no one called him Jock to his face—and the new brand of leadership he would bring to the team.
    We were a little worried, too. Frank Scott, the equipment man, was in awe of the man and could barely function in his presence. Just an hour before the first practice was scheduled to begin, Frank came to me with a look of sheer terror in his eyes.
    â€œI can’t find Dr. Sutherland’s blackboard!”
    Everybody knew that the blackboard was an extension of Jock’s being, the very symbol of the man. He used it on the field to diagram every play, offense or defense.

    â€œWhat do you mean you can’t find the blackboard?” I asked.
    â€œI’ve lost it! It must be back in Pittsburgh!” he moaned. “You gotta help me—can you drive?”
    Now, I’m only fourteen at the time, but I tell him, “Sure I can drive, but I don’t have a license.”
    Without hesitating, Frank pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and pressed it into my hand.
    â€œThat doesn’t matter. Get to the department store as fast as you can and buy a board. There’s no time to lose!”
    I took off in Frank’s old Ford and drove for town. I was a little nervous driving through the heavy downtown traffic—I’d only driven a car for short stretches in the country on family trips to Ligonier—but I found the department store okay, illegally left the car in a loading zone out front, dashed through the glass doors like a madman, and asked the first person who looked like a clerk where the blackboards were. I was directed to the basement, where I found just what I was looking for: a wood-framed blackboard about two feet by three feet, and a big box of chalk. I paid the seven bucks, threw the board in the backseat, then drove through the traffic back to camp just as Dr. Sutherland and the players jogged onto the field. Frank Scott was the happiest man I’d ever seen. He hugged me and told me to keep the change, then nonchalantly propped the blackboard up as if it had been there all the time. I’d saved the day and made thirteen dollars to boot. The Steelers used that same blackboard for the next fifteen years.
    Jock turned the team around, all right. We went 5-5-1 in 1946,