The 1969 Pittsburgh Steelers season constitutes what many consider to be the turning point of this once-moribund franchise. 1969 was the first season for Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll, the first season for defensive lineman "Mean Joe" Greene and L. C. Greenwood, the first season for longtime Steelers public relations director Joe Gordon, and the team's last season in Pitt Stadium before moving into then-state-of-the-art Three Rivers Stadium the following season.
Although considered a turning point in the team’s history, the results were not immediate; after winning the season opener against the Detroit Lions, the Steelers would go on to lose every game afterwards to finish 1–13. The Steelers would become the first team in NFL history since the 1936 Philadelphia Eagles to win its season opener and go on to lose every game remaining afterwards, a feat not matched until 2001 when the Carolina Panthers won its season opener against Minnesota before losing every game en route to a 1–15 finish. With the Steelers finishing 1–6 at Pitt Stadium, it would also mark the last time the Steelers would finish the season with a losing record at home until 1999.
As a result of the 1–13 record, the Steelers finished tied with the Chicago Bears for the league's worst record. Art Rooney would win a coin toss with George Halas to determine who would select Louisiana Tech quarterback Terry Bradshaw (the consensus number 1 selection among league teams) with the number one pick in the 1970 draft. By modern NFL tiebreaking rules, the Steelers would have automatically been given the first pick anyway, as the Bears' one win came against the Steelers in week 8.
Read more about 1969 Pittsburgh Steelers Season: Offseason
Famous quotes containing the words pittsburgh and/or season:
“The largest business in American handled by a woman is the Money Order Department of the Pittsburgh Post-office; Mary Steel has it in charge.”
—Lydia Hoyt Farmer (1842–1903)
“The instincts of merry England lingered on here with exceptional vitality, and the symbolic customs which tradition has attached to each season of the year were yet a reality on Egdon. Indeed, the impulses of all such outlandish hamlets are pagan still: in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaieties, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem in some way or other to have survived mediaeval doctrine.”
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