The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s were legendary. They were the first team to win two back-to-back Super Bowls twice. Now, nearly five decades later, they remain the only team to accomplish that feat. Not even the exceptional Tom Brady and the New England Patriots managed to do what Terry Bradshaw and the Steelers did under Head Coach Chuck Noll.
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Steelers’ Jim Clack, #50, and Ray Mansfield, #56, lift Head Coach Chuck Noll onto their shoulders. Terry Bradshaw, #12, and John Fuqua, #33, are also pictured.
The players on those '70s teams are remembered as blue-collar, tough, gritty, and determined. The whole lot played with a giant chip on their shoulder and believed in themselves even when others did not. Former Black and Gold offensive tackle Jon Kolb was one of the originals with the team from Noll's arrival in 1969 through all four Super Bowls.
Recently, Kolb joined former Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats on his show, The Arthur Moats Experience, before the Week 4 Indianapolis Colts game. Moats asked Kolb, out of all those Super Bowls, what his favorite memory was. Kolb said it was from their first trip to the Super Bowl after the 1974 season. The Steelers played the Minnesota Vikings in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Oklahoma State legends return for a visit: Terry Brown, Jon Kolb and Ron Freeman.
Kolb's best friend and college roommate from Oklahoma State, safety Terry Brown, had also been drafted in the same year, but by the Vikings. Noll and Vikings Head Coach Bud Grant forbade all of their players from mingling with each other. However, Kolb, Brown, and Brown's parents all snuck off to meet for dinner on Bourbon Street. He said Brown started bragging about Ed White, the Vikings' starting guard.
"He said, 'Did you know that Ed White can take a New Orleans phone book and tear it in half? New Orleans' phone book is that thick (indicates several inches).' I said, 'There's a trick to it. You curl it up.' 'No,' White said. So I went back to the room. I was sitting there on the bed, and on the other bed, Sam Davis had left the New Orleans phone book on his bed. I looked at it and it was laughing at me."
Kolb reminded Moats and the crowd that this was a true story. He swears that every bit of it happened exactly this way, and he added that the story only gets better as it continues.
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Jack Ham (59) and Jack Lambert (58) haul down Vikings fullback Dave Osborn (41) with other Steelers players in support during Pittsburgh's 16-6 win in Super Bowl IX.
He said he recognized that Brown was trying to get in his head when he was just legitimately trying to have a nice dinner with one of his best friends. The phone book taunted him until the legendary Jack Lambert entered Kolb's hotel room.
"Jack Lambert walks in the room and he said, 'What are you looking at?' I said, 'Did you know that Ed White can take that phone book and rip it in half? What do you think he's going to do to your neck?' Jack Lambert picks it up, he's got that long blonde hair. You know what happened? Nothing. Didn't tear it. My roommate tried it, couldn't tear it. Terry Bradshaw couldn't tear it. Finally, they said Jon, you got to try and tear it. They've been trying to rip it like this (indicates through the middle), but I did it like this, like if you crack a stick. And it ripped the New Orleans phone book. But we only had one phone book in the room, so Jack Lambert and Sam Davis ran out of the room looking for another. Jack came out of his room with a phone book, ripped it in half. Sam Davis got Larry Brown's book and ripped it in half. By the time we played the football game, there was not a phone book left in the whole hotel and we knew we were going to win the game. You know why? They only had one guy on their team that could tear up the phone book, we had a whole team full of guys that could."
The Steelers players ran all over the hotel, gathering all the phone books they could find to prove they could break the book as Kolb did. It isn't really surprising that Kolb was the first player to do it, he was always admired for his incredible strength, even winning strongman competitions.
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Steelers' Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes, and Chuck Noll at Super Bowl IX.
Lambert didn't get his neck broken by Brown, but he suffered a rare injury that game and missed most of the second half. Kolb allowed zero sacks from Minnesota's Purple People Eaters defender Jim Marshall. The Steelers beat the Vikings 16-6 to win their first ever Super Bowl and hand the Vikings their third championship loss out of four.
Steelers' Jon Kolb Was Given A Fright
Kolb spent his first two seasons with the Steelers learning the offense before finally getting a shot in 1971. Once Noll allowed Kolb to come in, he realized what a force he was and how well he protected Bradshaw.
However, before Kolb made his way onto the field, he said he had a terrible scare. He knew that when you were being cut, an assistant came and got you and told you to bring your playbook to Noll's office. When he got that summons, he said he panicked. He ripped all 300-plus pages out of his playbook and threw them all over his room. He pulled himself together and made his way down to Noll's office.
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John Kolb was part of Chuck Noll's first draft class.
When he got there, Noll pulled out all these pictures he'd taken and started showing them to him, describing the various birds and animals. He explained the difference between a crocodile and an alligator. Kolb said he was so confused, he couldn't focus; he was just waiting for the axe to fall. Then, all of a sudden, Noll said that was all; he'd just heard that Kolb liked wildlife and traveling, and thought he would share his photos with him.
Are you surprised to hear that the whole team's pregame ritual involved ripping phone books in half? Click to comment below.
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