R.I.P Chuck Noll...

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Chuck Noll, Coach of Steelers’ 1970s Dynasty, Dies at 82

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    Chuck Noll, right, with Terry Bradshaw in 1973. Associated Press

     
      Chuck Noll, who built the “Steel Curtain” Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s into one of the most dominant teams in pro football history, becoming the only N.F.L. coach to win four Super Bowl championships, died Friday night at his home in Sewickley, Pa., outside Pittsburgh. He was 82.
    His death was confirmed by his son, Chris, who said he had Alzheimer’s disease as well as heart and back problems.
    When Noll was named the Steelers’ head coach in 1969, they had never reached a league championship game since their founding in 1933, and they were coming off a 2-11-1 season. Noll had played at guard and linebacker on powerful Cleveland Browns teams of the 1950s, but he had never been a head coach.
    The Steelers won only one game in Noll’s first season. But he went on to coach four Super Bowl champions in a span of six seasons with a host of brilliant draft picks that helped create the memorable Steel Curtain defense and a high-powered offense.
    Noll’s Steelers won the Super Bowl of the 1974, ‘75, ‘78 and ‘79 seasons and captured nine American Football Conference Central Division championships in his 23 years as coach. They became one of the N.F.L.’s most dominant franchises, echoing George Halas’s Chicago Bears of the 1940s, Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns of the 1950s and Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers of the 1960s.


    Mr. Noll with his bust outside the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1993. Bruce Zake/Associated Press

    Noll was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

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