Steelers All-Time Team Bios

 

 

Thirty-three players were named to the Steelers All-Time Team the club announced the members as part of the Steelers 75^th Season Celebration. The squad includes both former and current Steelers players who make up the official Steelers All-Time Team.

 

The players will be honored at the team’s Nov. 4 Gala event at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and at the Steelers Nov. 5 Monday Night game against the Baltimore Ravens when the Steelers will wear their throwback uniforms for the second and final time this season. Thirty-three players were selected in recognition of the team being founded in 1933.

 

Throughout this week www.steelers.com will feature bios of the players who were voted to the team. Be sure to check back each day for those bios.

 

 

OFFENSIVE LINE

 

Larry Brown – Offensive Tackle (1971-84)

 

 

It almost seems to be a commentary on what Chuck Noll thought of both positions. The move of Larry Brown from tight end to offensive tackle showed what attributes Noll valued from the guys who played both positions. He wanted tight ends who could block, and tackles who were athletic. Brown played 14 seasons here, the first seven at tight end and the last seven as a starting right tackle. Franco Harris ran for 1,000 yards in four of those seven seasons, and was 13 yards short in another. The play of the Steelers tackles (Brown and Jon Kolb) vs. the Cowboys defensive ends (“Too Tall” Jones and Harvey Martin) was a critical part of Pittsburgh’s win over Dallas in Super Bowl XIII.

 

Dermontti Dawson – Center (1988-00)

 

 

It was 1993, and the Steelers were worried about their 1992 third-round draft pick. Joel Steed had been selected to be the anchor of the defensive line as the nose tackle in the 3-4, but he was struggling. He had troubles all through his rookie training camp, then throughout that season. He was inactive for the playoff game in 1992, and his second training camp wasn’t getting off to a rousing start, either. Then the Steelers traveled to Barcelona, Spain, for an American Bowl game against the San Francisco 49ers. The trip included several days of combined practices, and in those Joel Steed started to look like a player. By the end of the week, he was handling 49ers veteran center Jesse Sapolu, and that’s when the Steelers figured out Steed’s problem: He had been going against Dermontti Dawson every day. After eight games at guard as a rookie in 1988, Dawson won the starting center job during the following training camp and played the position for 12 of his 13 years with the Steelers. Dawson combined Mike Webster’s power with an uncommon athleticism for a center, and he was named to seven straight Pro Bowls from 1992-1998. Dawson played in 171 consecutive games, until he missed a combined 16 in1999-2000 with a severe hamstring injury.

 

Alan Faneca – Guard (1998-Present)

 

 

During the days leading up to the 1998 NFL Draft, Jimmy Johnson was surveying the pool of talent. Then the Dolphins coach, Johnson had much draft-day success when he built the Cowboys championship teams of the early 1990s. “The guy most ready to play in the NFL,” Johnson told a reporter, “is that kid Faneca from LSU.” The Steelers picked Alan Faneca in the first round of the 1998 draft, and he is in the midst of a career in which he ultimately will be judged one of the best offensive linemen in franchise history. Faneca is a five-time All-Pro, and he has played in six Pro Bowls, with five starts, in his first nine seasons. In 2003, Faneca exhibited uncommon versatility by playing nine games at left tackle when injuries ravaged the line.

 

Tunch Ilkin – Offensive Tackle (1980-92)

 

 

Tunch Ilkin always jokes that the title of the book chronicling his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers would be: “Too Late for the Super Bowls; Too Early for Free Agency.” Drafted on the sixth round in 1980 as a center from Indiana State, Ilkin became a starting tackle who played both sides of the offensive line during his 13 years with the Steelers. Ilkin played in consecutive Pro Bowls -- 1989 and 1990 – and also was an active member of the NFLPA when it negotiated the salary cap/free agency system still in place today. Reggie White finished with 198 career NFL sacks, but he never got one against Tunch Ilkin.

 

Jon Kolb – Offensive Tackle (1969-81)

 

 

Professional football games of that era were won and lost on the line of scrimmage, and when Chuck Noll was hired in 1969 he quickly realized the Steelers were lacking there, on both sides of the ball. He addressed it as soon as possible, which during the pre-free agency era meant the NFL Draft. Noll picked a North Texas State defensive lineman named Joe Greene on the first round and an Oklahoma State offensive lineman named Jon Kolb in the third. Two pieces of the puzzle were in place. One of the strongest players in the NFL during his playing days, Kolb started 177 games at left tackle over the course of his 13 years, including four Super Bowls. Kolb never was voted to a Pro Bowl, but he never was out-played in a big game either.

 

 

Mike Webster – Center (1974-88)

 

 

The Steelers had just won the 1974 AFC Championship Game, and offensive line coach Dan Radakovich was grading the film of a unit that contributed to the team’s 224 yards rushing. “Not a bad job, Ray,” Radakovich told starting center Ray Mansfield, “but don’t forget I have that rookie, Mike Webster, waiting in the wings.” A guard during his first season with the Steelers after being a fifth-round draft choice from Wisconsin in 1974, Webster didn’t have to wait in those wings too long – the next year he was alternating quarters with the veteran. Webster holds the franchise records for seasons (15), games (220) and most consecutive games played (177). A seven-time All-Pro who played in nine Pro Bowls, Webster was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997. But none of that happens without Dave Lechnir’s dedication. Growing up on a farm in Harshaw, near Tomahawk, Wisconsin, Webster’s day began with chores followed by an 18-mile bus ride to rural Rylander High School. Dave Lechnir was the school’s football coach, and when he tried to get Webster to go out for football, the teenager told the coach that chores and the school bus schedule made it impossible to participate in any after-school program. Lechnir assured Webster and his father that he would drive the teenager to and from school so he could do his chores and stay late for practice. “If the coach hadn't been able to drive me, I guess I'd still be working for my dad,” Webster said upon retiring from the NFL.