Ed Bouchette: Tales from almost 50 years covering the Steelers and more, as I
hang 'em up
The Steelers<https://theathletic.com/team/steelers/> reported to training camp
at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., the first time I covered them. I
never made it to practice.
At the college entrance, several players, including Jack Ham, held picket
signs. Many but not all veteran players were on strike that summer of '74, one
reason Joe Gilliam overtook striking Terry Bradshaw as their starting
quarterback. As I recall, their signs read, "No Freedom, No Football." They
would wait two more decades before they achieved the goal of free agency.
I was 22 and newly hired by the Indiana (Pa.) Evening Gazette. I had no idea
what I would write from training camp that day when I ran into Ham and others
on the picket line. Joining them were striking electrical workers with their
own picket signs. I interviewed them, and that became my first Steelers story,
which included nothing from football practice.
Joe Gordon, the great PR man who will be honored at the Pro Football Hall of
Fame this summer, sent me a note after he read my story. He congratulated me,
and said the Steelers had no idea their striking players were joined by pickets
from outside.
I was hooked. I made time on a two-man staff to cover every Steelers home game
in 1974 and 1975. A decade later, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette made me their
main Steelers beat reporter, and I've been on the job ever since. Until now.
Today, I hang them up: The notebooks, the mini recorder I lost a week ago, my
Steelers press badge and, most of all, me. I did this sportswriting thing for
nearly 50 years, with some radio and TV thrown in here and there. As Chuck Noll
said when he retired, it's time.
I worked for six different newspapers, including 36 years at the Post-Gazette,
before I joined The Athletic three years ago and enjoyed every last one of
them. I covered the Steelers as my main beat since 1985. They were more than
willing to provide me with the richest of stories through the years, but I
wrote about other sports, too, and even covered a fabulous news story as well,
if I may say.
So come along for one final ride as I sprinkle recollections in no particular
order or importance from nearly a half-century career in journalism:
* The 1987 players' strike presented more good stories than I have space for
here. I'll tell two.
The Steelers set up their strike camp in Johnstown and stayed at the Holiday
Inn, where media were also housed. For security reasons, the Steelers wouldn't
provide us with a roster for replacement players for a while, and we could not
watch practice for three days.
I gathered my media colleagues together and presented a plan: We'll put
together our own collective roster. We asked anyone we saw in the hotel if they
were a player and their position, height, weight, age and college. We all
published the roster on the same day, and it was quite good.
The striking Steelers practiced at Johnstown's old Point Stadium, nestled in a
neighborhood with balconies overlooking the left field wall. Banned from
practice, Bob Labriola (covering for another newspaper) and I talked a neighbor
into letting us watch from their balcony, me with my binoculars and our
photographer with his zoom lens. At one point, Chuck Noll looked over at us and
waved.
The day the players went on strike, Joe Gordon gathered the media in a
conference room to detail the Steelers' plans. As I walked down the hall to
retrieve my recorder, notebook and pen, I was met by Art Rooney Sr. The Chief
invited me into his office. I tried to beg off by saying Gordon had stuff to
tell us. He said sternly that what he had to say would be more important. He
gave me a pen and his personal stationary to write down what he said. He was
upset by the strike and said it would ruin the
NFL<https://theathletic.com/nfl/>.
The next day, while everyone else had stories on what Gordon told them would
happen, I had an exclusive of what the team's founder feared would happen.
Fortunately for all involved, he was wrong. I still have my notes on Art
Rooney's personal stationary.
* During my college years, I worked in the summers at Ft. Indiantown Gap, near
my Lebanon County home. In 1975, that military base was among four chosen to
temporarily house refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia as the war in Southeast
Asia came to an end.
I talked my editors at the Indiana Gazette to allow me to cover what was
happening at the Gap. I returned with stories and photos. They ran them on the
paper's front page. I also wrote a sports column about watching newly arrived
Cambodian refugees learn the game of football. As one instructor explained
while the refugees lined up to play, they're Americans now, they should learn
the game of football. Among the first English words I heard them say: "Hike!"
* Back when the NFL was not a 12-month sport, the Post-Gazette sent me to
various outposts around the country after the Super Bowl to write stories on a
few basketball powerhouses leading up to the NCAA Tournament. This was late
'80s, early '90s.
Among my more memorable moments doing so was sitting with Mike Krzyzewski in
what I remember as a smallish office at Duke, just the two of us. I also
interviewed then-Duke player Danny Ferry in the empty stands at Cameron Indoor.
Over at Chapel Hill, I interviewed Dean Smith in his massive office at the
relatively new Dean Dome, just the two of us. While the coach chain-smoked, he
happily showed me new gadgets that he controlled from his desk to open and shut
curtains, pull down a projector screen, etc.
At Auburn, I met up with coach Jerry Tarkanian for a story on his UNLV team the
night before they played a game there. He took me to dinner with his entourage.
At Alabama, I interviewed football coach Bill Curry, basketball coach Wimp
Sanderson and school president Joab Thomas, who talked about turning the
university into the "Penn State of the South," with its football and
educational excellence. Coincidentally, Thomas would move on to become Penn
State's president in 1990.
When I interviewed basketball coach Gene Keady at Purdue, our conversation
drifted to the time the Steelers drafted him in 1958 (he never played for
them). I watched Happy Chandler sing "My Old Kentucky Home" before a game in
Lexington for a story on the Wildcats.
They were nice diversions from football.
* I'd never flown in a small, private plane. Never wanted to. But then Dan
Rooney and I were to attend a Hall of Fame meeting in Canton, Ohio, and he told
me I could fly with him in his Beechcraft Bonanza. It was the same small plane
he crash-landed while returning to
Pittsburgh<https://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20020802rooneyreg5p5.asp>
from training camp in 2002 when the wheels would not lower.
I hesitated, nervously. No, you come with me, he said, you'll love it. I asked
if I could get back to him on that.
The next day I agreed to fly. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. I climbed up on the
wing to get to my seat, and three of us took off: Dan, the co-pilot - whom his
family talked him into having after the 2002 incident - and me. Dan piloted the
plane up and back the same day. Simple, and when we approached Allegheny County
Airport on our return, the Bonanza's wheels lowered.
* I was assigned to write a story on the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's
debut in Major League Baseball, most specifically his first appearance in 1947
in Pittsburgh. I leaned heavily on the great Bill
Nunn<https://theathletic.com/2723717/2021/07/31/bill-nunn-built-the-steelers-dynasty-changed-the-nfl-and-at-last-enters-the-hall-of-fame/>,
who before he became a Steelers scout was sports editor of the Pittsburgh
Courier in the 1960s. He had known Robinson well, his wife, his associates,
former teammates, etc. Bill opened doors for my story that no one else could.
He also put me on the heels of the first player to break the Pirates color
barrier in 1954, Curt Roberts. Bill told me not many people were aware of
Roberts' place in Pirates history because he wasn't very good, didn't last long
in the league and died young. That turned into a fascinating
story<https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tMtRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6m0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4054,5029992>
- Branch Rickey was the Pirates GM who called up Roberts from the minors to
the bigs, and he told him much of what he had told Robinson in '47. After my
story, Roberts was widely celebrated as the Pirates' first Black player.
* Both Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher blew up at me for various reasons. Noll did
so because I was pursuing a complaint by halfback Walter Abercrombie, who
accused the Steelers of abandoning the ground game. Noll accused me of "driving
a wedge" through his team. He used naughty words. I wrote the story and some of
his
reaction<https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19851004&id=47NRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QG4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2519,1284822>
to it without getting into the naughty word stuff. We were fine after that.
With Cowher on one occasion, he was not happy about something I wrote involving
the reporting of an injury to another halfback, Barry Foster. We ran into each
other in the team's main hallway and exchanged a few thoughts on it. Cowher
blasted me right there in the team's main lobby at Three Rivers Stadium, in
front of their four Super Bowl trophies, his voice booming around the executive
offices. He and I, too, were relatively fine after that and are to this day.
It's never hearts and flowers between the coach and the people who cover the
beat. It shouldn't be. But there should be respect on both sides, and I've
found that with all three head coaches I covered with the Steelers.
* The press room at Three Rivers was smack in the middle of the team's
executive offices. They allowed us to walk down the hall, past the offices of
Art Rooney Sr. and Dan Rooney, and pour from their coffee pot at the end.
I did so one day after a terrible Steelers loss in Cleveland. Dan Rooney must
have seen me, shot out of his office and joined me at the coffee pot. He railed
about the loss, mentioning "stupid coaching decisions." Noll was still
coaching. I always assumed that small kitchen area was off the record, but I
asked Dan if he wanted to go on the record because he seemed eager to. He
nodded. I wrote it, and as you can imagine, it was well received by everyone,
except Noll and his coaches.
I've missed that coffee room.
* Art Rooney Sr. would occasionally pop his head into the press room, which was
directly across the hall from his office. Many times, he'd say to me in that
baritone, "Wanna go to lunch?" I always accepted his invitation, always to the
Allegheny Club, but it wasn't for the food.
* When I began covering the Steelers, anyone off the street could waltz through
their glass front doors, which were unlocked, and into their lobby, where their
four Lombardi Trophies gleamed in a case. Many citizens did just that, some
taking photos in front of the trophies.
There were no security guards nor cameras, not even a receptionist out front.
Everyone sat in their offices, hidden away. Conceivably, someone could have
strolled in the front, walked down the hall and stopped in Dan Rooney's office
to say hello, but I never heard of an incident.
This past weekend for the
draft<https://theathletic.com/3286145/2022/04/30/steelers-draft-colbert-pickens-leal/>,
I had to go through a gate to park, go through another gate with a guard and
then pass through a door guarded by security to get in the Steelers' training
facility. There, I had to show my driver's license and type in my employer's
name on a computer screen. Security printed a sticky badge with my name and
photo that I had to wear and give back when I left the building.
Times change, but then when I started in this business, I carried around a
portable typewriter and not a computer.
* Jerry Reigel, a buddy of mine from back home, kept stats during games for the
Raiders<https://theathletic.com/team/raiders/> in their press box when they
were in Los Angeles, a diversion from his regular job as a car salesman. We
planned to go out after the Steelers had played there, and he said he'd take me
to where the Raiders cheerleaders go after games and party with them.
Sure, I'm thinking skeptically, let's just go party with the Raiderettes. We
pulled up to the spot, and as we entered the place, about half of the
Raiderettes screeched at once, "Jerry!!!"
* I still regret I never went to watch Muhammad Ali train in the 1970s at his
Deer Lake compound of cabins in Schuylkill County, Pa., about an hour's drive
from where I grew up in Lebanon County. Fans were permitted to watch - I think
it cost a buck to get in.
The only time I saw Ali was by chance. I was hanging out in the ballroom-sized
press room on Jan. 29, 2000, the eve of Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta - the
Rams<https://theathletic.com/team/rams/> would beat the
Titans<https://theathletic.com/team/titans/>. The big-screen TV in the room
would carry the fight between Mike Tyson and Julius Francis live from England
that apparently wasn't readily available in many places.
Suddenly, in came Muhammad Ali and a small entourage. Ali walked straight to an
oversized easy chair near me and plopped down to watch the fight. I blew off
the fight and watched Ali the entire time. He sat motionless without saying a
word, his arms shaking slightly from his Parkinson's. Tyson polished off
Francis with a TKO in the second round, and as Ali rose from his seat, everyone
in the press room gave him a standing ovation as he walked silently out the
door.
* The Steelers had the 10th pick in 1987, the second draft I covered them. They
desperately needed cornerbacks, and Purdue's Rod Woodson was a top prospect
they did not figure to have a chance at. I wrote they should trade up and draft
him. They didn't trade up, but because of foolish picks by the
Cardinals<https://theathletic.com/team/ari-cardinals/> and
Browns<https://theathletic.com/team/browns/>, he fell to them at No. 10.
In my final draft covering the Steelers, I wrote they should
draft<https://theathletic.com/3271501/2022/04/26/steelers-nfl-draft-kenny-pickett/>
Kenny
Pickett<https://theathletic.com/player/nfl/steelers/kenny-pickett-stWwj88awWgSegzc/>
at No. 20.
So they listened to
me<https://theathletic.com/3280542/2022/04/29/kenny-pickett-steelers-pitt-marino/>.
But all the drafts in between? Not so much.
* I began covering Pitt football in 1976 after joining the Tribune-Review in
Greensburg, Pa. I covered their Sugar Bowl victory against Georgia that
clinched their '76 national championship. It was my first visit to one of my
favorite cities, New Orleans. I've returned about 18 times, all but one on
business.
Three years later, I covered the Pirates for all seven games of their 1979
World Series victory against Baltimore. Three months after that, I covered the
Steelers' Super Bowl victory against the Rams in the Rose Bowl. Giddy times
they were in Pittsburgh.
* I've covered 33 Super Bowls and made my only trips overseas because I covered
football - Steelers preseason games in Barcelona, Tokyo and Dublin and a
regular-season game in London. I covered the Steelers in two other countries:
Mexico City (Colts<https://theathletic.com/team/colts/>) and Toronto
(Bills<https://theathletic.com/team/bills/>) in the preseason.
I visited the White House twice and saw two presidents there, George W. Bush
and Barack Obama, and interviewed then-USFL team owner Donald Trump in 1984.
I've been to Maui twice because I covered football (NFL meetings). I saw it
snow in Florida while covering a 1989 Steelers game in Tampa. I flew into a
hurricane in South Florida with Gerry Dulac to cover Ben Roethlisberger's first
NFL
start<https://theathletic.com/3057082/2022/01/27/ben-roethlisbergers-path-from-nearly-a-bill-and-starting-in-a-hurricane-to-steelers-legend-and-future-hall-of-famer/>,
against the Dolphins<https://theathletic.com/team/dolphins/>. All because I
covered football.
* I did not want the Steelers beat initially at the Post-Gazette. I had covered
the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers in 1984, and when they folded, the boss put me on
the Pitt beat in basketball and football. The Panthers were decent back then in
both sports, and I enjoyed it. When the paper's Steelers beat guy left for a
columnist job elsewhere, the boss asked me in 1985 if I'd like the job. I said
if it was OK by him, I'd like to stay with Pitt.
The late, great John
Clayton<https://theathletic.com/3198705/2022/03/21/john-clayton-espn-nfl-death/>
told me to take the Steelers beat because I'd love it. Eh, I stayed with Pitt.
The boss hired someone else to cover the Steelers, and when he did not work
out, fired him and this time, he did not ask but told me I was his Steelers
beat guy. There were three days left in training camp at Saint Vincent College
in 1985. I've been on it ever since, until now.
* From the time I started on the beat in 1985 through the 2018 season, I missed
just two Steelers games, home or away: One when my mom had heart bypass
surgery; the second because my boss tried to save money by sending me to New
York the morning of an afternoon game, and the plane was delayed. When I joined
The Athletic in 2019, I wanted to cut back on travel, and they graciously
allowed me to do just that.
* These are some things I'll miss: Jacksonville Beach; New Orleans; Baltimore's
Inner Harbor and Little Italy; my many media colleagues and good PR people,
home and away; Dealey Plaza in Dallas; fans shoveling snow from the stands at
Lambeau Field; trying to find our way out of old Riverfront Stadium hours after
a game; watching smoke from barbecues engulf the parking lots as we approached
Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City; the Tex-Mex restaurants in Houston;
Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge; crossing into Tijuana from San
Diego; the Rose Bowl; old Cleveland Stadium as John Elway conducted The Drive;
the mountains that frame Denver; Pike Place Market in Seattle; Facebook Live in
the car to and from driveable games for the Post-Gazette with my friends and
colleagues Gerry Dulac, Gene Collier and Ray Fittipaldo. And so much more.
* Most of all, I will miss Dan Rooney for too many reasons. He found me to say
hello and chat before every game and before every Super Bowl, and he attended
them all. The last time we did so, the last time I saw him, was at Super Bowl
LI in Houston. He wasn't very mobile, getting around in a wheelchair. I visited
him in his box that day at his request. Joe Greene and Franco Harris also were
there. Two and a half months later, Dan Rooney died. He was among the most
decent men I knew. The entire Rooney family is a Pittsburgh treasure.
* One glorious Pittsburgh spring morning maybe 10 years ago, I walked through
the Steelers' facility onto the field where they held OTA practices. Playing
off Robert Duvall's famous line from the movie, "Apocalypse Now", I stretched
and said, "I love the smell of OTAs in the morning."
Mike Tomlin overheard me and shouted, "You don't love football, Ed."
Tomlin may be right; maybe I didn't love football. But I sure did love covering
it.
RUSS GOODMAN
Professor of Mathematics
Assistant Women's Soccer Coach (Goalkeepers)
Central College | 812 University Street | Campus Box 043 | Pella, Iowa 50219
goodmanr@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:goodmanr@xxxxxxxxxxx> |
www.central.edu<http://www.central.edu/>
Office: 641.628.7640
Web:
www.central.edu/faculty/russell-goodman<http://www.central.edu/faculty/russell-goodman>
Office Hours: tinyurl.com/ProfGOfficeHours
Schedule an Appointment: profg.youcanbook.me
Twitter: @CentralsProfG; @CentralWSoc
