Terry Bradshaw already was feeling immense pressure — internally if not externally — when he took the field for the biggest game of his young NFL career 50 years ago.
The sight of an apparently dead body lying in front of him only heightened his anxiety before he led the Pittsburgh Steelers onto the field for Super Bowl IX.
“That was frozen in my mind,” Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw overcame that disturbing sight as well as unexpectedly frigid temperatures to help the Steelers secure their first championship with a 16-6 victory against the Minnesota Vikings at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the Steelers’ first of four Super Bowl wins in a six-year span, with Bradshaw becoming the first NFL quarterback to earn a quartet of championship rings.
Bradshaw has few recollections of the game — aside from the only touchdown pass thrown by either quarterback, his 4-yard scoring toss to Larry Brown that cemented the victory late in the fourth quarter. His fondest memory is of watching franchise founder Art Rooney Sr. hoist the game ball afterward in the cramped locker room.
Bradshaw, though, agrees with teammates from that 1974 team that the ensuing five decades have passed by in a blink.
“Heck no, I can’t believe it’s been 50 years,” Bradshaw told TribLive in an interview earlier this week. “Amazing, unbelievable.”
The Steelers held a weekend-long celebration in October, gathering more than two dozen members of the ’74 team for a Saturday dinner and then a Sunday reunion prior to their prime-time game against the New York Jets.
Because of his broadcasting commitments with FOX, Bradshaw did not attend and wasn’t able to share in the stories that flowed freely from his contemporaries.
“What happened, with the great memories and to be part of that team and do it in this city, it will live forever,” said running back Rocky Bleier, another four-time Super Bowl champion. “Fifty years has gone by so quickly, but when we have times like this and no matter what age we are or what our health is, we go back, and we’re 25 or 26 again and living in that time.”
In 1974, the Steelers were two years removed from the Immaculate Reception win over the Oakland Raiders that represented the first — and only — playoff victory since the franchise’s inception in 1933. The Steelers lost in Oakland in the first round of the ’73 playoffs and had to overcome the turmoil of a player strike in training camp and uncertainty at quarterback while compiling a 10-3-1 record in 1974.
In his fifth season with the Steelers, Bradshaw began the year on the bench behind Joe Gilliam. Bradshaw regained his starting job but lost it to Terry Hanratty for one start. When that move backfired, coach Chuck Noll turned back to Bradshaw, who remained the quarterback through the rest of the season.
Little wonder, then, that Bradshaw was feeling some self-doubt entering Super Bowl IX. Not even playoff wins against Buffalo and Oakland eased his pressure.
“I was scared,” Bradshaw said. “I wasn’t the most confident quarterback because of the year I had.”
After beating the Bills and star running back O.J. Simpson, 32-14, at Three Rivers Stadium to open the postseason, the Steelers had to avenge their previous year’s playoff loss in Oakland. The Raiders had just beaten back-to-back Super Bowl champion Miami to reach the conference championship.
“The talk was, here is the Super Bowl winner,” Bleier said, referring to the much-hyped Dolphins-Raiders matchup. “Chuck’s response was very direct in that, ‘They haven’t had to play us. We’re the Super Bowl team.’ ”
The Steelers used three fourth-quarter touchdowns to steamroll the Raiders, 24-13, and were installed as a three-point favorite against the Vikings, who were appearing in the Super Bowl for the third time in six seasons.
Noll did his best to keep the Steelers from focusing on the magnitude of playing in the Super Bowl.
“Chuck kept it simple, and he kept it grounded, too,” tackle Jon Kolb said. “You didn’t have a sense of what was going to happen down the road. We had one practice at a time, one game at a time. We reviewed it, saw who we were going to play the next week. There was emotion to it, but Chuck was very goal-oriented and functional, technique-oriented. You didn’t lose focus.”
Noll also decided to cut his players loose on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter before reigning them in for practice later in Super Bowl week. It was another button Noll pushed that worked to his advantage.
“By Wednesday, we were done (partying),” Bleier said. “I know I needed to get rest and prepare for this game.”
Featured Local Businesses
While his teammates enjoyed the time off and the nightlife, Bradshaw maintains he rarely strayed from his hotel room.
“I didn’t have any steam to blow off,” Bradshaw said, laughing. “There was so much pressure on me because the way the year had gone that all I thought about was, ‘Don’t lose the Super Bowl. Don’t lose the Super Bowl.’ ”
Bradshaw’s sense of inferiority extended to a press conference he attended with Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton, a 14th-year vet who was playing in the Super Bowl for the second year in a row.
“I could tell he thought they were going to beat us,” Bradshaw said. “He didn’t have a whole lot of respect for me. And I don’t blame him.”
Bradshaw’s temperament wasn’t helped by the temperature. A winter storm that surged through the Midwest sent the temps plummeting on Super Bowl weekend. It was 46 degrees at kickoff — still the second-coldest for an outdoors Super Bowl — with wind chill making it feel like it was in the 20s.
Then Bradshaw emerged from the locker room and watched a Vikings fan, who was shirtless and wearing giant horns on his head, collapse in front of him.
“The color of his body I’ll never forget,” Bradshaw said. “It was nothing like I’ve ever seen. It was almost purple. … We all walked around him, but I could not take my eyes off this guy. It sent shock waves throughout my body. I assume he was dead. He could have been so frigging drunk, but I don’t think so. I’ve seen drunk people, and they weren’t that color.”
Neither team’s offense heated up that afternoon, leaving the matchup of the Steel Curtain versus the Purple People Eaters to carry the day. The Steelers held the Vikings to 17 rushing yards on 21 carries and allowed 119 yards of offense.
“It took us awhile that year to develop our identity on offense,” Hall of Fame wide receiver John Stallworth said. “The defense was always there. We swept them down. The Vikings couldn’t do anything against our front four.”
Tarkenton, for all his experience, threw three interceptions, had a few others batted down by L.C. Greenwood and was tackled in the end zone by Dwight White for a safety that represented the only scoring in the first half.
Franco Harris, who rushed for 158 yards on his way to earning the game MVP award, scored on a 9-yard burst to give the Steelers a 9-0 lead in the third quarter. A blocked punt that the Vikings recovered in the end zone accounted for Minnesota’s only points and cut the Steelers’ lead to 9-6.
Bradshaw attempted just 14 passes, completing nine for 96 yards. His biggest completion was the touchdown pass he threw to Brown with 3 minutes, 31 seconds to play.
“I still don’t know how he caught that thing,” Bradshaw said. “I threw it 100 mph, and he was only 5 yards away from me. You could hear the ‘thunk’ when it hit him.”
After the Steelers retreated to the victorious locker room, Rooney was presented the game ball by linebacker Andy Russell and the championship trophy by commissioner Pete Rozelle.
“For all the years he owned the Steelers to be able to hold his first Super Bowl trophy,” Hall of Fame wide receiver Lynn Swann said. “You’d have to know him to understand the sheer joy on his face. He wasn’t one of those guys known for jumping up and down all the time. It was a great time for him.”
When the Steelers returned to Pittsburgh, they were greeted by fans that swarmed the old Greater Pittsburgh Airport. Thousands more lined the Parkway West to see the buses filled with players and coaches roll past. Downtown was packed as well.
“People were on bridges, on streets, five deep,” Kolb said. “I’d never seen anything like that. That’s what it was like coming home, something you never could have imagined as a kid.”
The Steelers also couldn’t imagine what was to come the rest of the decade — the championships that followed the 1975, 1978 and 1979 seasons. The greatest period of success in franchise history.
“Not after that first year,” Stallworth said. “Everything was new, at least to me. I had no sense of anything other than what we went through that year and won a Super Bowl.”
Swann added: “In our minds, we had to go out and cement it and do it again. That’s the momentum we got from Super Bowl IX and carried over.”
Swann was named MVP the next year in Super Bowl X. Bradshaw earned the honors in Super Bowl XIII and XIV as the Steelers emerged from a running-oriented team behind Harris to one that could win games with the quarterback’s strong right arm.
Featured Local Businesses
The constant that carried through the decade was the dominating defense led by Joe Greene, the Hall of Fame defensive lineman who became only the second player in franchise history to have his uniform number retired.
“Joe was the building block, but a leader is only as good as his followers,” Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount said. “We had great players, great people. Joe is the guy who showed us the way on defense. We had the same on offense. When you look at that team, there were leaders at every position. There was a group of guys that had the same purpose — and that was winning.”
A few months shy of the 50th anniversary of that first championship, members of the 1974 team reunited to relive the good old days.
“All of us are grateful we’re able to be alive and witness this,” Blount said at the reunion. “We’ve lost so many great players over the years. To see these guys is pretty special.”