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 theDavid 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.

 

 

DEFENSIVE LINE

 

Joe Greene – Defensive Tackle (1969-81)

 

 

Only the truly great can change history, and that’s what Joe Greene did. When Chuck Noll first met the team he inherited in 1969 he told the players that the goal was to win a Super Bowl championship but that most of them weren’t good enough to be a part of that. Then, the first player Noll added to that room was Joe Greene. He’ll be the first to say he’s getting way too much credit, but Joe Greene’s legacy to the Steelers transcends any statistics. Greene was all about the winning, and his standing among his peers in the locker room guided them in that same direction. In a 1972 game the injury-ravaged Steelers had to win to make the playoffs, Greene had five sacks and blocked a short field goal attempt by the Oilers; he recovered one fumble and forced another, and those takeaways led to two field goals in a 9-3 win. In 1974 the Steelers won their first championship, and Greene had nine sacks and an interception during the season, and then another interception and a fumble recovery in Super Bowl IX. He earned All-NFL honors five times and was voted to 10 Pro Bowls. Greene was twice the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.

 

   

L.C. Greenwood – Defensive End (1969-81)

 

 

Jack Ham remembers it well, still. It was in 1976, when the Steelers defense was so dominant that it forced rules changes, and the team had a game in Kansas City. So dominant were the defensive linemen on his side of the field – Joe Greene at left tackle and L.C. Greenwood at left end – that he, as the left outside linebacker, went through most of the entire first half without being touched. Picked in the 10th round by the Steelers from Arkansas AM&N, Greenwood was too slight to play for many teams, but Chuck Noll and line coach Dan Radakovich nurtured his athleticism. Recognized for the gold high-top cleats he wore, Greenwood was known as a big-game player. From 1973-75 he had 25.5 sacks; in Super Bowl IX he batted down three passes; and in Super Bowl X he sacked Roger Staubach three times. He is ranked second on the team’s all-time sacks list with 73.5.

 

 

Casey Hampton – Nose Tackle (2001-Present)

 

 

He is known throughout the NFL as a nose tackle who stops the opponent’s running attack, but Casey Hampton’s most memorable stop came on a different playing field. Lined up with the rest of the players and coaches on risers in the East Room of the White House, Casey Hampton stopped the President of the United States with his smile. Hampton always claimed to know George W. Bush from their days working out together at the University of Texas in the late 1990s. When the Steelers were invited to Washington, D.C., to be recognized for winning Super Bowl XL, Hampton proved it. “Hey, Hamp, how ya doin’,” said Mr. Bush, who stopped to shake hands on his walk to the podium. Hampton has appeared in three Pro Bowls during a six-year career so far, and he was voted co-MVP by his teammates during the 2005 championship season.

 

 

Ernie Stautner – Defensive Tackle (1950-63)

 

 

“That man ain't human. He's too strong to be human ... He's the toughest guy in the league to play against because he keeps coming head first. Swinging those forearms wears you down.” That’s the way Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jim Parker once described Ernie Stautner.  A nine-time Pro Bowl selection, Stautner came to the Steelers as a second-round draft choice from Boston College who had been told by the New York Giants that he was too short to play professional football. But he anchored Pittsburgh’s defense for 14 seasons and was voted the NFL’s Best Lineman Award in 1957 because of his strength and toughness. “What made him was his strength,” said Dan Rooney. “This was a time players didn't have strength, they didn’t lift weights. I remember we were playing the Giants at Forbes Field one time and it was a very close game, and they were moving the ball. He sacked the quarterback three times in a row.” The Steelers retired his No. 70 jersey in 1964 following his retirement, and he remains the only Steelers player to have received that honor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

 

 

Dwight White – Defensive End (1971-80)

 

 

It will go down as one of the most courageous efforts on a football field in NFL history. After arriving in New Orleans a week before Super Bowl IX, Dwight White was diagnosed with severe pneumonia complicated by pleurisy, a lung infection. White spent the week in a hospital being pumped with antibiotics and losing 18 pounds, but he showed up on a wet, 46-degree day and played virtually the whole game. Seven of the Vikings’ first eight running plays attacked the right side of the Steelers defense, and White made three tackles for a grand total of no yards gained. The Vikings finished with 17 yards on 21 rushing plays, and White scored the game’s first points when he covered Fran Tarkenton in the end zone for a safety. Nicknamed “Mad Dog” for his intensity, White was voted to two Pro Bowls (after the 1973 and 1974 seasons), and his 46 sacks is seventh in team history. From 1972-75, White had 33.5 sacks and he capped that era with three sacks against Dallas in Super Bowl X.