The Steelers are among several NFL teams that closed team headquarters on Friday in observance of Juneteeth as a company holiday. The holiday commemorates the day that slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865. The state of Pennsylvania began recognizing Juneteenth in 2001.
While the Steelers and the NFL are working toward a commitment to employ minorities of all racial backgrounds, this post will focus specifically on the Steelers’ history of hiring individuals from the Black community.
Art Rooney
Art Rooney founded the Steelers (then known as the Pirates) in 1933. He was known for his progressive disposition, especially toward Black athletes. While operating the Pirates, he offered financial support for the Homestead Grays, the famed Negro League baseball team located near Pittsburgh.
Rooney also brought in Duquesne tackle Ray Kemp, who was an original member of the Pirates when they entered the NFL in 1933. He was the sole Black player on the team and one of only two Black players in the league.
According to this Pro Football Hall of Fame profile on Ray Kemp, he was released after a 21-6 loss to the Boston Redskins on Oct. 4. “I received a letter saying I had been dropped from the roster,” Kemp recalled, according to the Hall of Fame article. “I talked with Art Rooney, and I can recall his exact words. He said, ‘Ray, I feel you are as good a ballplayer as we have on the club, but I am not going over the head of the coach [Jap Douds]. You know how I feel about you personally.’ I didn’t talk to [head coach] Douds personally, but he was a player-coach at my position — tackle — and he had a lot of cronies on the team. I just think it was a combination of things.”
The Pirates won just two of their remaining eight games that season, and at one point, Kemp received a call from the team asking him to return. “I guess I could have felt humiliated about being cut earlier and said no. I didn’t need the money — I only got $60 a game. But I felt someone had to keep the door open. You have to pay a price for being a pioneer,” Kemp said.
Kemp returned for the Pirates’ last game of the 1933 season, then was hired as the head football coach at Bluefield State College in West Virginia; thus, his tenure in the NFL was short-lived. “The Pirates didn’t ask me to come back,” Kemp recalled, “but I wouldn’t have anyway because I really wanted a coaching job.”
No other African American would play in the league again until 1946. In January 1952, fullback Jack Spinks (11th round) and halfback Bill Robinson (25th round) became the first Black players to be drafted by the Steelers. Spinks appeared in three games, and Robinson didn’t play in any.
That spring, Pittsburgh went out an signed 6-foot-5 Black tackle, Ted Benson, out of Morris Brown University. Kemp had recommended Benson to new Steelers head coach Joe Bach.
Also on the training camp roster were four other Black players: tackle Charlie Thomas, offensive guard/tackle Ray Newman, and halfbacks Willie Smith and Clyde Atkins. Newman made it through camp but was released before the Steelers’ first preseason game. Benson and Smith were two of 12 players cut on July 30, 1952. It’s unclear how long Atkins’ and Thomas’ tenure lasted.
In 1953, Rooney selected wide receiver Lowell Perry in the eighth round of the draft. Perry was committed to the Air Force ROTC for three years and would not play for the Steelers until 1956. In his sixth game, he sustained a broken hip and dislocated pelvis, which ended his playing career.
Upon Perry’s release from the hospital, Rooney offered him a position as a wide receivers coach. In 1957, he became the first Black coach in modern NFL history. The next year, Perry worked in the Steelers’ scouting department until leaving to obtain his law degree at Duquesne.
Recognizing the importance of integrating Black players on his team, Rooney hired Bill Nunn, the NFL’s second Black scout.
Nunn, a sports editor at The Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper, had his finger on the pulse of football programs at historically Black colleges. Rooney found exceptional value in the knowledge Nunn could bring to the Steelers and hired him as a part-time scout in 1967. He became a full-time employee in 1969. By 1970, he was promoted to assistant director of player personnel.
Over the next decade, Nunn discovered a bevy of players from Black colleges and universities who went on to help the Steelers win four Super Bowls. Among them were cornerback Mel Blount (Southern), defensive end L.C. Greenwood (Arkansas-Pine Bluff), defensive tackle Ernie Holmes (Texas Southern), defensive back Donnie Shell (South Carolina State), wide receiver John Stallworth (Alabama A&M), and defensive end Dwight White (East Texas State).
Nunn also was responsible for the Steelers drafting their first Black quarterback. Joe Gilliam was drafted in the 11th round of the 1972 draft. In 1974, Gilliam battled with Terry Bradshaw and Terry Hanratty to earn the starting QB spot. Gilliam became the first Black quarterback to serve as an opening-day starter in the NFL, although his 45.3% completion rate led him to lose the spot after six games.
Nunn retired from his full-time position with the Steelers in 1987 but continued as a talent consultant and advised in draft preparation until he died in 2014. He was one of the longest-tenured employees of the organization and one of the few with six Super Bowl rings to his name.
“The one doggone thing I’m proud of is the way I might have been a part of opening some doors to pro football for Black men, not just as players, but as coaches and front-office personnel. I’ve been able to see progress,” said Nunn in a 2007 interview with the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette.
The Rooney Rule
Dan Rooney, the son of Art, was often by the family patriarch’s side in team operations throughout the years. His first role with the team was director of personnel. Though Art remained the face of the franchise until he died in 1988, Rooney was given full operational control in 1975.
Rooney shared his father’s progressive nature. He served as chairman of the NFL’s diversity committee and authored the Rooney Rule.
First adopted in 2003, the Rooney Rule was created to help ensure that minority candidates would receive equal opportunities when applying for head coach vacancies and various senior football positions. The rule requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate. It was conceived as a way to hire more minority coaches in a profession where almost 70% of players are black, but just 6% were minority head coaches at the time.
In the early days of the Rooney Rule, teams that violated it faced hefty fines from the NFL. In 2003, the Detroit Lions hired Steve Mariucci without interviewing a minority candidate and were slapped with a $200,000 fine. Since then, teams arguably have figured out ways to sidestep being penalized, as no penalties have been handed down even though there are only three current black head coaches in the league.
While there have been a few points when the number of Black head coaches was much higher (six in 2006, seven in 2008, seven in 2018), the number has since reverted to the same level as when the rule was first created.
Because of this, many observers feel the Rooney Rule is ineffective, and concerns remain about implementation and enforcement. Critics say it allows teams to merely check a box saying they’ve addressed diversity without any further action.
Since its implementation, the Rooney Rule has assisted in the hiring of 14 coaches with minority backgrounds. But Steelers president Art Rooney II knows those numbers should be significantly higher.
“I think where we are right now is not where we want to be, not where we need to be,” Rooney told NFL Network’s Steve Wyche in a January interview.
“We have about one-third of the coaches in the National Football League are from the minority communities. That’s really not a bad pipeline,” said Rooney. “And so, the question is, why aren’t more of those people getting interviews? Why aren’t more of those people advancing through the process? Like I said, there are a lot of pieces to it that we have to look at. We have a lot of work to do that.”
Rooney, as chairman of the NFL’s Workplace Diversity Committee, outlined the expansion of the rule, following a recent owners meeting.
“There are three things in particular that we got done today that are very important,” said Rooney. “No. 1, we are going to ask all clubs to develop a diversity and inclusion plan over the next year that really impact all levels of hiring at the league and club levels; No. 2, we approved a series of enhancements to the Rooney Rule that will require two minority candidates to be interviewed for a head coaching position, one minority candidate to be interviewed for any coordinator position, and one minority candidate to be interviewed for any senior football or GM position, and for other senior-level positions around the league and the clubs, there must be an interview for a minority or a female candidate; and finally No. 3, we passed a resolution that is aimed at increasing mobility throughout the league.”
Coaches
Four years after the Rooney Rule was enacted, Rooney interviewed and hired a minority candidate as Pittsburgh’s head coach. Mike Tomlin became the 10th Black head coach in NFL history and the first for the Steelers franchise. On Feb. 1, 2009, he became the second Black head coach to win a Super Bowl. He is the longest-tenured Black head coach in the NFL.
Currently, there are five Black coaches on the Steelers staff: defensive line coach Karl Dunbar; tight ends coach Adrian Klemm; running backs coach Eddie Faulkner; wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard; senior defensive assistant Teryl Austin; and coaching assistant Denzel Martin.
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