Forty-five years ago, the Pittsburgh Steelers won their first Super Bowl, and on this Super Bowl weekend, we should recall that joy and explore how they did so

Commissioner Pete Rozelle with Art Rooney, Sr., the Lombardi Trophy, and Game Ball

Jan. 12, 1974 Photo: Associated Press

… first championship in 42 years

[First in a three-part series]

The 1974 season did not begin propitiously for a Pittsburgh Steelers team that everyone felt would be a Super Bowl contender for the first time.

However, it ended well in Tulane Stadium on Jan. 12 when the Steeler defense and a fabulous running game simply ran away from an overmatched Minnesota Vikings squad.

That team now has ten players who are in, or who shortly be, the NFL Hall of Fame. They were that good, but that game was not an easy one for the Steelers.

I am writing a series of stories on this Super Bowl Sunday about the game itself, about how Terry Bradshaw did not become a starting QB that year until week 7, and about how an off-the-field decision by Coach Chuck Noll showed how much better a coach he was than Bud Grant — and perhaps why he won four Super Bowls.

First, the game.

Super Bowl IX

The Steelers had finally developed into a defensive identity in the 1974 season: The Steel Curtain. That defense was awesome, and it was pivotal in that victory.

In fact, the game was just 2-0 in Pittsburgh’s favor at halftime, but the Steelers were very confident at that point.

As linebacker Andy Russell said decades later,

Our attitude as a defense was, “We’re going to win this game 2-0. That’s it.”

Andy Russell, “America’s Game, 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers,” You Tube

While the final score was 16-6, it did not reflect the dominance of the Steelers in the game. The stats do.

The Steelers outrushed the Vikings 249-17, held the Vikings to just nine first downs and just 119 yards of total offense, and did not allow Minnesota to score any offensive points.

In fact, the Steeler defense was so dominant that it demonstrated why Fran Tarkenton should never have been a Hall of Fame quarterback,

The Steelers shut down the Minnesota ground game just as they had Buffalo and Oakland. The Vikings ran the ball 20 times for 17 yards.

Quarterback Fran Tarkenton fared no better. He completed just 11 of his 27 passes and threw three interceptions.

1975: Super Bowl IX, “Story of the Game,” NFL.com

The two points came in the second quarter when Dwight White downed Tarkerton in the end zone for a safety after he bobbled the snap from center.

Chuck Noll’s first attempt in the Super Bowl was a victory, for the franchise, and it accentuated his emphasis on defense: The Steel Curtain was not just a name, it defined a Super Bowl champion.

Chuck Noll: The first of four Lombardi Trophies

Rushing attack shredded Vikings’ Purple People Eaters defense

The Steeler offense recorded 333 yards, and running back Franco Harris rushed for 158 of their 249 total and scored the Steelers first TD. Harris simply ran through the Vikings defense that had two future Hall of Famers on its defensive front.

The way the team had played early in the season, starting off 1-1-1, Harris had never envisioned at that time being named Super Bowl MVP,

In my wildest dreams during the season, I was like, “Score a touchdown in the Super Bowl?” It was the furthest thing from my mind, and here it is.

Franco Harris, “America’s Game, 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers, YouTube

After the Steelers had recovered a fumble on the second-half kickoff, Harris scampered off his left side behind Gerry “Moon” Mullins to score from nine-yards out and give the Steelers a 9-0 lead.

That was the lead going into the fourth quarter.

Vikings only points? A blocked punt

The Vikings' only real chance to score came after a 42-yard pass interference call gave Minnesota possession deep in Steelers territory. Tarkenton still could not engineer a score, but they did come back early in the fourth quarter to narrow that lead.

Steeler punter Bobby Walden had his punt blocked and recovered in the end zone for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

That was the limit of the Vikings’ offense. They even missed the kick for the PAT to keep the lead at 9-6.

Then Terry Bradshaw came into his own

At that point, the Steeler offense asserted control, moving the ball 66 yards to a touchdown that put the game out of reach for the Vikings.

Bradshaw engineered that drive, and he finally developed the confidence that had been lacking in previous years, hitting tight end Larry Brown for a four-yard TD to set the final score at 16-6,

Narrator: Harris’ coronation was Terry Bradshaw’s validation. With the Steelers clinging to a 3-point fourth-quarter lead, the game was in the quarterback’s hands. Bradshaw engineered a seven-minute drive that finished off the Vikings and laid to rest any remaining doubts in the blond bomber.

Andy Russell: “Brad throws a strike, and I’ll never forget that. It hit Larry Brown in the chest and you could hear it ricochet off his breast-plate. It sounded throughout that stadium as if it was a gun going off.”

Joe Greene: “It sounded like a cannon had gone off. Maybe it was my heart. I don’t know. I don’t think that anyone was as happy as Terry was. Terry had more ups and downs after that, but that probably gave him the confidence, the staying confidence that regardless of how things come out, you’re still good enough to play.”

“America’s Game, 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers,” YouTube

Russell presented the Game Ball to “The Chief”

As team captain, Russell presented the game ball to the founder of the Steelers, Art Rooney, Sr., and it was a very emotional time for everyone as The Chief won his first championship in 42 years,

It would have been natural to give it to Franco as MVP or to Joe Greene or L.C. [Greenwood], but we had to give it to the Chief. You could almost see tears in his eyes. I think that I had tears in my eyes. I had such respect for that gentleman, to see him for all those years to rise to the top of the mountain, was quite an experience.

Andy Russell, "America’s Game, 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers"

Links

America’s Game, 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers, You Tubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbRt4ssqfs