Steel Dynasty: The Team That Changed the NFL [Hardcover]

Bill Chastain (Author), Rocky Bleier (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

Author Bill Chastain takes the reader back to the glorious days when Steelers football dominated the NFL. Combining interviews with Steelers players and their opponents with extensive research, Steel Dynasty is a compelling story about excellence and how it was achieved.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Whenever I run into people all over the country, they remember our team. Many of them watched us during their own formative years, whether they rooted for us or against us. Some of the names may have been forgotten, along with some of the games, but what they remember is that the Steelers were one of the all-time great teams." —From the Foreword by Rocky Bleier

"The Pittsburgh team from the seventies is probably the best of all time. Cumulatively, between offense and defense and special teams, and the coaches and owners, I put them up against any team. . . . They not only had the power and the grit, but they had the flash and the great talent and athletic ability. . . . Defensively, they had no weaknesses." —Vince Ferragamo, L. A. Rams quarterback, Super Bowl XIV

"Yes, we won a lot of games. But I don’t think that’s what developed a fan base and almost a cult following that we had then and even to this day have. It wasn’t so much that we won a lot of games, but it was the way we won the games. You knew that when you came into Pittsburgh, what you wanted to do was get out of here alive. . . ." —Dwight White, Steelers 1971–1980

From the Inside Flap

Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium was not particularly alluring—just another cookie-cutter ballpark with artificial turf. But during the seventies the thought of visiting Three Rivers unnerved even the NFL’s best teams. Pittsburgh is built on the Three Rivers—a point where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio. For most of the 20th century the city was a hard area inhabited by blue-collar workers who preferred their football to be played by hard men. Unfortunately, the Steelers’ brand of hard football had never amounted to much in the way of winning. All that began to change in the seventies. Steel Dynasty is the remarkable story of how Chuck Noll took a perennially underachieving franchise and turned it into one of the most fearsome and successful in the history of the NFL. Built around a legendary defense comprised of future Hall of Famers and incredible personalities, the Steelers, from 1974 to 1979, romped to a dazzling 67–20–1 regular-season record—going 38–6 at home—while nearly doubling the points total of their opponents (2,075–1,189). Along the way they won an unprecedented four Super Bowls. So dominant was the Steelers defense, famously dubbed the "Steel Curtain," that the NFL felt compelled to institute rules changes designed to give offenses a fighting chance. In this book, defensive stalwarts Jack Ham, "Mean Joe" Greene, Mel Blount, and everyone who made up the luminous Steel Curtain share their memories, perspectives, and best stories. The Steelers, however, were not all about defense. The collection of talent on the offensive side of the ball was just as impressive. Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, Mike Webster, and John Stallworth are all in the Hall of Fame, and they contributed to an offense that was fundamentally sound and highly effective. They too share their unvarnished and insightful thoughts about the era when Pittsburgh was the most feared destination in the league. Evocative, entertaining, and full of fresh stories and anecdotes, Steel Dynasty is more than just the tale of a great football team—it is a revealing yet nostalgic look back at one of the signature decades in the history of the NFL.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books; 1st ed edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572437383
• ISBN-13: 978-1572437388
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Pennsylvania

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Steelers!, June 11, 2006

By 

SageRad (Clayton, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steel Dynasty: The Team That Changed the NFL (Hardcover)

I am a lifelong Steelers fan and enjoyed reminiscing and reliving my 1970's Steelers experience through this book. It is well-written, utilizing interviews from players (Steelers and opponents), coaches, and front office personnel, to create an candid first-hand impression. Along the way, I learned lots of things I did not before know or understand about the game of football, the history of the "Stillers", and the Super Steelers of the 1970's. Great read and highly recommended!

5.0 out of 5 stars More Steeler Dynasty, June 4, 2011

By 

David Wyncoop - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Steel Dynasty: The Team That Changed the NFL (Hardcover)

For those of you out there who are football purists this is a must read. Although a lot of the information is "common knowledge" to ardent Steeler fans, you can never get enough of it. I have found that in all of the Steeler Dynasty books I've read each one is unique in its presentation of the story of the '70's. Buy this book.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good as memory - but not fact, April 10, 2007

By 

D. Weidenhamer (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Steel Dynasty: The Team That Changed the NFL (Hardcover)

Steel Dynasty will help anyone a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers relive the glory days of the 1970s. But don't take any statement of fact in this book as - well, fact.

Page 34 - "Three Rivers [Stadium] also sat on a Delaware Indian burial ground where General George Washington fought many battles while protecting nearby Fort Duquesne." I don't know anything about a Delaware burial ground, but I lived in Pittsburgh for over 30 years and never even head such a claim. George Washington passed by the forks of the Ohio once in 1758 when he was in his 20s. No fighting involved. Later, George Washington did fight one battle about 8 miles upriver, where the Turtle Creek empties in to the Monongahela. He was then Aide-de-Camp to General Braddock who was killed there. George Washington did not become a General until the American Revolutionary War which kept him far away from a fort of any kind in what was then the country's interior. If this isn't convincing enough, consider that no matter what war or skirmish he was involved in, he never would have defended Fort Duquesne. Fort Duquesne was a French fort, and George Washington of Virginia, as an English subject, or an American, would have fought to protect Fort Pitt.

Page 34 is pretty early in the book. The book one just paid for and wants so badly to read - so one keeps on. Then comes some commentary on the pass that Lynn Swann caught in Super Bowl X. The one that everybody remembers, not only because it was a fantastic play, but because it's been immortalized by NFL Films, just like author Chastain says. Except that he's describing a different catch. He discusses also that very acrobatic, indelible catch, but speaks of it like just another play.

The remainder of the book is therefore suspect in its credibility. It becomes a nostalgia of the four Super Bowl seasons without enough on the league's rule changes to merit the subtitle: The Team That Changed the NFL.

Bill Chastain is not too bad of a writer, and somewhat hard working, but not hard enough. This book should be written by a Pittsburgher.