Pittsburgh’s major pro sports franchises have won 16 championships since the early 1900s. Nearby colleges Pitt and Penn State have contributed a handful of national championships in football through the years, too. So which team is Post-Gazette readers’ favorite? We’ll find out in our Pittsburgh’s Favorite Champions series.
Today, we take a look at the Steelers’ six Super Bowl-winning squads. Vote for your favorite below, and the winner will go up against readers favorite Pirates, Penguins and college teams in a new poll next week.
1974
The only defense that could challenge the dominance of the Steelers’ Steel Curtain unit of the 1970s had a nickname of its own. Minnesota’s Purple People Eaters led the Vikings to three Super Bowls in four years and put multiple members in the Hall of Fame, so the two units’ matchup in the 1975 Super Bowl was an important exercise in historical bragging rights. Fortunately for the Steelers, they got the better of the contest, notching a safety to open the scoring in the second quarter and then holding Fran Tarkenton and the Vikings offense to just six points in a 16-6 Pittsburgh victory. Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Mel Blount and Co. became key contributors to titles in three of the next five seasons, too. If you had to point to a signature victory in the big game, though, this would unquestionably be their finest hour.
1975
The Steelers’ best Super Bowl-winning team as judged by Sports-Reference.com’s simple rating system was similarly carried by the defense. The unit held opponents to 10 or fewer points eight times in 14 regular season games and twice in three postseason games. The Super Bowl, however, proved to be Lynn Swann’s show. In the first quarter, he made a beautiful leaping catch along the sideline that setup his team’s first touchdown. He followed that up with a 53-yard diving catch in the second quarter that’s considered by many to be one of the best in Super Bowl history. And he capped off a record-breaking performance against the Cowboys with a 64-yard touchdown that sealed the victory for the Steelers in the fourth quarter. He finished with four catches for 161 yards to become the first receiver to win game MVP.
1978
The latter half of the Steelers’ dynastic run was when the offense really came into its own. Before ‘78, Terry Bradshaw had not thrown for more than 2,523 yards or 18 touchdowns in a season. By the end of that year, he’d passed for 2,915 yards and 28 touchdowns, and primary weapons Swann and John Stallworth had posted career highs in receiving yardage, too. Paired with the still-solid defense, the Steelers sailed to the Super Bowl with a 14-2 regular season record and blowouts in both of their playoff games. Once again they drew the Cowboys, and once again they came away champs. This time, Bradshaw was the unquestioned star, piling up 318 yards and four touchdowns en route to MVP honors in a 35-31 win.
1979
The dynasty’s finale included all of the best it had offered fans throughout that magical decade. Bradshaw and the offense continued their surge from ’76 as his yardage spiked to a career high 3,724. Stallworth went over 1,000 yards for the first time. And Franco Harris had his best year since the early championships, averaging 4.4 yards per carry on the ground. On the other side of the ball, the defense held six out of 16 opponents to seven points or fewer and allowed no more than 19 points in the playoffs. The loss of core stars began soon thereafter, but for that moment, the Steelers still seemed invincible and their 31-19 triumph over the Los Angeles Rams at the Rose Bowl inevitable, even when they trailed at halftime.
2005
You won’t find many more improbable runs in football history, let alone Steelers history. A 38-31 loss to the Bengals on Dec. 4 left them out of the playoff picture with a 7-5 record. They needed wins in each of their last four games merely to climb back in with the sixth seed. Then they needed to defeat the AFC’s top three seeds — Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver, all on the road — to reach the Super Bowl. Led by a stellar defense and future Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis, they got it done, giving Bettis the chance to play for and win his only championship in his hometown of Detroit. A long touchdown run by Willie Parker and a trick-play touchdown pass from Antwaan Randle El to Hines Ward keyed a 21-10 victory over Seattle that marked a historic first in league history, as the Steelers became the first team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to win a title without the benefit of playing a home game.
2008
Three years later, the backstory wasn’t quite as interesting. This time, the Steelers cruised to the conference’s second seed with a 12-4 record, then comfortably beat San Diego and Baltimore in the playoffs to advance to the Super Bowl. Ho hum. The Super Bowl, however, was anything but as it generated two of the most iconic plays in franchise history. The first was James Harrison’s game-changing 100-yard interception return for a touchdown as time expired on the first half. It represented at least a 10-point swing, as Arizona was threatening to score. And Harrison needed to score for the Steelers to get those points. Doesn’t get more clutch than that — except for Santonio Holmes’ acrobatic catch in the corner of the end zone that gave the Steelers the lead for good in the final seconds of the game after Arizona had pulled ahead. Everything had to be perfect, from Ben Roethlisberger’s bullet pass to Holmes’ toe tap of the paint. Somehow, they pulled it off and the Steelers became the league’s first franchise to win six titles.
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.
First Published: July 6, 2020, 1:43 p.m.
