A Legacy Of Friendship My chance encounter with Bill Priatko, and why I haven’t let go ever since by David Villiotti

he bad news is time flies,” motivational speaker Michael Altshsuler once said. “The good news “T is, you’re the pilot.” I was not the pilot, though, on the flight from Boston on the night of October 13, 2006, carrying my then-13-year-old son and myself to for our annual father-son Penn State-Steelers weekend. As we began our descent to Greater Pitt, the poignancy of time gone by was overwhelming. The bright lights of high school football fields dotted the landscape. I shook Anthony in the seat next to me, imploring him to remove his headphones and listen to his old man for a few minutes. “Look at those lit fields,” I said to him. “On every one of them, high school football players competing. That was me 25 years ago.” I paused:. “Wait. I mean 35 years ago.” “Cool,” said Anthony, having spared a few seconds, and back in went the headphones. .It had, in fact, been 35 years since I had last taken the field on a Western Pennsylvania Friday night. That was November 5, 1971, and the Swissvale Gold Flashes were visiting the Yough Cougars. My high school football career ended as it had begun on an early September evening in 1969, on the short of a 7–6 score in Herminie. On Sunday of that weekend, less than two short days removed from my trip down Memory Lane on Friday evening, I was making my way through the concourse in the 500 level at . I sought a pre-game refreshment at the Yuengling stand as the kickoff for the Steelers’ clash with the Chiefs rapidly approached. In my haste to acquire last-minute refreshments, I man- aged to spy a familiar face, one I’d not seen since graduating from Swissvale High in 1972. “Bill Priatko!” I called out.

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One day short of his 75th birthday, Priatko still sported was 2–6 at the midway point that season—and that he’d had the linebacker’s build and moved with the athlete’s determined “a hard time concentrating on anything else.” gait. Priatko stopped in his tracks, flashed his trademark broad Yes, Priatko donned the black and gold, and he’s been smile, and recognized me instantly even though 34 years had forever proud of it. But he’ll also be the first to admit that passed since our last encounter. The coach of the ’71 Gold his NFL playing career didn’t amount to much. A self- Flashes hugged me and said that seeing me after so long had deprecating joke will probably be involved. In fact, Priatko made his month. was recently asked by an acquaintance if he was in the Pro Accompanying the former Pitt Panther, one-time Steeler Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. Priatko joked that (1957), and longtime coach and athletic director at both his shoulder pads are in the basement of the Hall of Fame, the high school and college level was his daughter, Debbie, honoring the player who had missed the most tackles in an her father’s long-time and equally passionate gameday NFL game. The acquaintance believed him. companion. Not present, but equally important to Priatko, What’s no joke, though, is that Priatko is a Hall of Famer was his high-school sweetheart, Helen. The two first met as in the hearts and minds of scores of young men who plied three-year-olds at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in the gridirons, baseball diamonds, and basketball courts of Braddock, and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary Western Pennsylvania during Priatko’s days as a coach and in 2007. They have another daughter, Kathy, and two sons, athletic director. Throughout our correspondence since that Daniel and David, both West Point graduates. David, a encounter, I’ve also learned that he’s made a Hall of Fame lieutenant colonel, recently returned from his fourth tour of impression on just about everybody—from his family and duty in Iraq. friends, to his former coaches and colleagues, to the local Bill is a zealous Steelers fan. He’s traveled all over the US media, and to the countless young adults he either coached or to attend all eight of the Steelers’ appearances. administered over the years. He drove cross-country in an RV with 15 friends for Super Bowl XIV in Pasadena. And as I learned after bumping into Growin’ Up his daughter at Heinz Field, he’s a longtime season ticket The five Priatko kids of North Braddock were raised by a holder who doesn’t miss a game unless he absolutely has to. mother who was widowed at 29. Young Bill was just six years “Once a Steeler, always a Steeler,” said Priatko. “You’re old at the time of his father’s passing. He attended Scott High part of a big family.” School and played football under Johnny Reed. Fran Rogel, I emailed him shortly after our chance meeting at Heinz. later of “Hey diddle diddle, Rogel up the middle” fame, was Priatko wrote back, apologized for the delay, and confessed an upperclassman star for Scott when Priatko began high that he had been “so upset about the Steelers”—their record school. The freshman Priatko described the elder Rogel, then a senior, as “my hero.” After attending rival institutions for college—Rogel at Penn State and Priatko at Pitt—they crossed paths again as Steeler teammates in 1957. Rogel was playing what turned out to be the last of his eight NFL seasons, all in Pittsburgh. He led the Steelers in rushing for five of his eight years with the organization, an accomplishment exceeded only by and . It was during the ’57 season when their

lifelong bond truly formed. Priatko Photo this page: Bill Priatko

recalled a comical incident later in their lives, long after their lone year together with the Steelers. “Fran and I drove up to take in the Pitt-Penn State game some 25–30 years ago or so. At the Pitt practice session the

Bill Priatko remains in contact with Hall of Famers and Joe Schmidt. previous Thursday, the Pitt equipment Photo on previous page: Bill Priatko

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Fran Rogel, a lifelong friend of Priatko’s and one-time Steeler, being honored at halftime during a game against Pitt.

man, Boo Conner, gave me a bench pass for the game that guarding those and you can’t do that.’ The kid finally listened Saturday. After we parked and started to head in to Beaver to me and didn’t give it to Fran. Stadium, Fran says to me, ‘Come on up in the press box with “Fran always said he hated Pitt. I would say, ‘Fran, is me, Penn State gave me press box passes; [I’m being] honored it because they stopped you on the one-yard line in the at halftime.’ He didn’t mention this to me until then. I told Pitt-Penn State game of 1948?’ He said, ‘No, because Pitt him I had a bench pass and I would see him when he came recruited me by having me take a street car from North down at halftime. Braddock to Oakland to talk to me about a football scholar- “It was a cold day, probably 35 degrees. When Fran ship.’ He and I always had friendly barbs between each other came down at halftime, he only had on a sport coat and on the Pitt-Penn State games.” was shivering. I asked him, ‘Where is your topcoat?’ and he As Rogel suffered with Parkinson’s disease later in life, said he came down on the elevator from the press box and Priatko, and another long-time North Braddock friend, Rudy left his coat in the press box. I told Fran he was going to Celigoi, organized a testimonial in his honor. They wanted freeze, [because] the Penn State Blue & White band had 15 to make sure Rogel knew how much he had meant to all of minutes of their routine before Fran’s honoring ceremony. them before it was too late. Celigoi was Rogel’s line coach at A Pitt student manager was guarding the Pitt team warm- Scott and went on to become superintendent of schools in up capes that were on the bench. Fran turned around and Swissvale. Former Penn State and Packers linebacker Dave said to the manager, ‘Hey kid, give me one of those capes, Robinson, a key player on ’s Super Bowl I’m freezing.’ teams, was one of the speakers. “Now, would you believe, Fran is going to go out in the “You know, Fran,” said Robinson, looking straight at middle of the field to accept an award from his alma mater Rogel from the dais, “When I was playing at Penn State, we with a football cape that has big Pitt Panthers on the back. all heard about you, how tough you were, and we wanted to I said, ‘Fran you can’t wear that, are you nuts?’ He said, ‘I emulate you. You were a role model for us.” don’t care, I’m freezing.’ He said, ‘Kid, give me that cape.’ I With Rogel’s health failing, he was visited in the nursing

Photo: Bill Priatko said, ‘Son don’t you give that to him, you are responsible for home by Priatko, and the Pitt alum sang the Penn State

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Priatko feels fortunate to have played for Brown in Cleveland during his brief NFL career. alma mater to the dying man. When Rogel succumbed to upset of #8 Notre Dame in South Bend in 1952, Priatko notes Parkinson’s, Priatko delivered the eulogy at his funeral. that victory was keyed by an impassioned locker-room plea During his high school days, Priatko also befriended from their defensive stalwart from Brentwood, the legendary Swissvale star Dick Groat. Groat, the longtime voice of Pitt Joe Schmidt. basketball, went on to an All-American collegiate basketball “We were more scared of Schmidt than we were of the career at Duke. He shined even greater in a different sport Irish,” joked Priatko. though, being named National League MVP in 1960 as the As he’s done with so many acquaintances and friends over shortstop for the world champion Pirates. Priatko shared a the years, Priatko maintains regular contact with Schmidt. story about this friendship as well: After graduating college, Priatko, who had been involved “We won the game, something like 90–30; Groat had 68 in ROTC at Pitt, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant points and held his man to one point. We were presented a in the Air Force. His football career wasn’t put entirely medal about the size of a 50-cent piece for winning the cham- on hold, as he played for the Bolling Air Force Team in pionship. Dick said he still has his but I can’t remember what Washington, DC. (The Air Force Academy had not yet been happened to mine. Of course, Dick now lives in Edgewood established). Priatko and the Bolling Air Force Team won the and owns a golf course in Ligonier. We still run into each National Service Championship in 1956, with 10 of the team’s other and always, in that Gold Flash humility of his, he remi- starting 11 players (all except Priatko) having previously nisces about our days growing up in the area and he always played in the NFL. comments about how he will always remember the guys from the North Braddock Swissvale, Braddock, and Rankin area On To the NFL that he played against. He will always be a favorite of mine After completing his commitment with the Air Force, Priatko who I have great respect for as a man and athlete.” landed a spot on the Steelers roster in 1957. First-year coach After graduating high school and matriculating at Pitt, Buddy Parker plucked him off of waivers as the Packers tried Priatko forged a new set of relationships on and off the play- to sneak Priatko onto their “taxi squad.” Priatko described

ing field. When recounting the unranked Panthers’ stirring that sequence of events more than 50 years later: Photo: George Silk//Time Life Pictures via Getty Images

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“I went to training camp with the that the Steelers were offering for the 1958 season, he decided in 1957, as a rookie. In those days, we played six pre-season to become a full-time chewing gum salesman. Missing foot- games and had two-a-day workouts for three weeks before we ball, though, Priatko soon realized that he made a mistake. played our first pre-season game—in essence nine weeks of When , the legendary Browns , called training camp, a vast difference from today. Anyway, I was do- in February 1959, Priatko ditched his salesmen’s attire and ing my best and we played the Steelers in our last pre-season signed with the Browns for $8,000 and a 1960 salary of game on a Saturday night in Minneapolis. The final cut was at $8,500. Priatko noted that today’s long-snapper—the position 4:00 p.m. the next Tuesday and the team NFL roster in those he had the best opportunity to make an impact at—“makes at days was 35 players; they were allowed to keep a maximum of least 40 times what I made totally. No complaints. I was glad two players in addition, on what was called the ‘taxi squad.’ to put on a uniform.” “We were ready to open the season against the The summer of 1959 at Browns camp in Hiram, Chicago Bears that Sunday. I came to practice that Tuesday OH yielded several long-term friendships for the young morning and knew that four players had to be cut; we linebacker from North Braddock. One of Brown’s messenger were at 39 players. The Green Bay radio announcer, Ray guards, a cerebral type named Charles Henry Noll, was Scott, told me that morning that I had made the team. I entering his final season playing on Cleveland’s offensive found out later that afternoon that he was right and I was line. Noll, of course, transitioned to coaching and went on naturally elated. I practiced on Wednesday and Thursday. to achieve a Super Bowl record unmatched in the annals of After practice on Thursday I was told that head coach Lisle professional football. A decade later when Noll was named Blackburn wanted to see me, [but I didn’t know] what it the new head coach of the Steelers in 1969, Priatko was long was all about. removed from the game, but back in his native Pittsburgh. “The Packers had made an off-season trade with the He was a regular sideline presence at training camp for a total of eight or nine players. One throughout Noll’s coaching career, and he’s one of the few of the players traded from the Browns to Green Bay was a individuals not formally associated with the team that can linebacker, Carlton Massey. He had been an All-American at Texas and had played four years with Cleveland and was All-Pro. He was in the Army National Guard and had to go on a six-month active duty tour in July and was due out until January 1958. Coach Blackburn told me that Massey had just called him and received an ‘early out’ and was reporting to Green Bay the next day. He told me they were going to put me on the taxi squad and the first guy that got hurt, they would bring me back up to the 35-man roster. In order for that to happen, they had to put me on waivers. If nobody claimed me they would recall the waivers and put me on the taxi squad. When they put me on waivers, Buddy Parker picked me up and I reported to and was now with the Steelers. “Life is like that. Thus, I was afforded the opportunity to wear the Black and Gold. Also, I can always say that I wore the Green and Gold of the Packers.” The earning power of an NFL player wasn’t nearly as strong a half-century ago, with players pursuing off-season employment in order to make ends meet. In 1957, while Priatko signed with the Packers for $7,500 and a signing bonus of $500 (which financed his wedding reception), the league’s #1 choice, “Golden Boy” , the Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame, signed a $12,000 deal with a signing bonus of $2,000. Priatko worked for Wrigley’s in 1958, and when he was When legendary Browns coach Paul Brown

Photo: Tony Tomsic/Getty Images offered an annual salary of $12,500, compared to the $5,500 came calling in 1959, Priatko answered.

Maple Street Press | 5 Steelers History claim they attended the closed Friday workout prior to each of the Steelers’ quartet of Super Bowl appearances. Priatko still calls Noll periodically to check on his well-being. While with the Browns, Priatko’s assigned roommate just so happened to be the team’s fifth-round draft choice in ’59, Ohio State’s Dick LeBeau. LeBeau was Cleveland’s final cut. Priatko said then, as well as now, “Dick LeBeau should have made the final roster and should not have been cut. I was blessed the day I met Dick LeBeau.” And what of the coaching legend who cut the future Hall-of-Famer LeBeau? Brown wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. When the opportunity arose, he hired LeBeau onto the Bengals coaching staff in Cincinnati in 1980. Of course, typical of Priatko, he hadn’t lost touch with Brown, “The father of the modern offense.” Priatko often spoke to his Swissvale Gold Flashes of Brown, and how the coaching icon insisted that his players be made of “the firmer stuff.” Priatko’s Cleveland experience in 1960 was eerily similar to his Green Bay experience in 1957. It appeared as though Priatko had made the team because rosters by then had expanded Priatko’s character and friendship has positively affected many, including Paul Brown. Correspondence from to 40 players, and generally included Brown to Priatko in 1976 shows this. five linebackers. But Lou “The Toe” Groza struggled with a bad back throughout the preseason. the field of education. Priatko returned to Pitt, earned his Not wanting to put the future Hall of Famer on IR, Brown teaching certificate and his master’s degree in education, brought in two players to plug the holes left by Groza at and made high school and college athletics his life’s work. both tackle and kicker while “The Toe” healed, although He helped boys make the successful transition to adulthood Groza eventually sat out the entire season. This forced with the aid of the character-building lessons taught on the Brown to reduce his linebacker corps to four, and Priatko hardscrabble fields of Western Pennsylvania during coaching was the odd man out. stints at California State College and Swissvale High School, On the night following the final cut on his weekly then served as assistant athletic director at Robert Morris television show, Brown said, “I had a very tough roster move University for 11 years. Finally, he ended his career in the to make yesterday that was painful to make. I had to release same spot where I had played my final high school game, as Bill Priatko, a tough, intelligent man who is capable of athletic director at Yough High School. playing a long time in the NFL, but the circumstances left Along the way, when Priatko needed to supply a me with little choice.” reference to the Pitt’s School of Education, a form written After suffering yet another injury later that season, in longhand by Brown showed up at the Pitt Educational Priatko hung up his cleats and worked full-time for Wrigley Placement Office.

for the next decade before acting on a desire to pursue Once Bill Priatko’s friend, a friend for life. Photo: Bill Priatko

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performances I have ever seen in the NFL.’ In his normal humble way, he said, ‘My guys played well.’” Of course, their friendship also involves regular lunches at the Steelers’ South Side practice facility, as well as get-togethers post-game, even under the most difficult circumstances, including the Super Bowl loss in Dallas. Priatko recalled: “After the game at the party, Ben [Roethlisberger] was limping very badly, he apparently hurt his knee in the first quarter but kept going. We were sitting at the table, my daughter Debbie and I, Dick’s brother, son, and Dick’s wife, and Dick said, ‘I don’t want any long faces, we’ve had a great last five years, let’s enjoy our food and good conversation, onward and upward.’ I said to him, ‘Coach, that’s nice to say but I’m in pain.’ I was with him at the Duquesne-Rhode Island basketball game recently and we talk twice a week and he still has that positive approach, but I still can’t get the game fully out of my mind.” When assessing the current state of professional football, comparing it to the game that he played when it was first taking hold with the American sporting public, Priatko strikes the chords of Brown was happy to write a letter of recommendation when roster size, economics, and the physicality Priatko applied for a job at Pitt’s School of Education. that comprises the essence of the game. “Now, in those days, $12,000 was Continuity & Change considered big money. You can easily see the difference today. Priatko and LeBeau have sustained a half-century’s friendship The biggest factors that came onto the scene [are] television via several mediums, including written correspondence and and the big contracts. Personally, I think it has gone too far, telephone calls that now take place frequently. In a Pittsburgh the other way; I think greed has set in. How much does a Post-Gazette article written by Norm Vargo on the eve of man need? As long as the players are getting their fair share, Super Bowl XLIII detailing the Priatko-LeBeau friendship, receiving solid benefits and retirement and adequate provi- Priatko spoke of the pair’s twice-weekly phone calls, “Monday sions for game safety, compromise should always be the norm. nights we talk football, critique, the last game. Friday nights, As far as rule changes, some of the rules are not within the we just chat about things other than football, mostly reminisc- realm of common sense. Many times they are being decided ing about the old days.” by guys who don’t know the game. They have gone overboard In my own email correspondence with Priatko, he offers on some rules. glimpses of these conversations. Following the Steelers’ vic- “It has to be remembered that football is still a physical tory in Tennessee in last season’s second game, a Herculean game and some hits cannot be avoided, and a player is not defensive effort, Priatko wrote, “In our phone conversation intentionally going after somebody. It’s a case of using Sunday night after he came back from the Titans game, I judgment from the player’s standpoint and the game official.

Photo: Bill Priatko said to Dick LeBeau, ‘That was one of the finest defensive There are enough rules to already cover safety; safety is not

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Bill’s always there for support. Never fails. He’s truly a special person.” From that serendipitous moment in the Heinz Field concourse five years ago, I’ve enjoyed a renewed friendship with my high school coach, marked by regular email cor- respondences, phone calls, and brief meetings at Heinz. Our conversations typically center on the latest Steelers contest, but they’re also filled with topics of life: past, present, and future. We talk about the names and places of the North Braddock-Swissvale area, the joys and challenges of our pres- ent lives, and remind each other that no one’s immune from life’s adversities. At last year’s Steelers-Falcons opener, I looked up at halftime to see Bill standing before me, having made the walk from his 50-yard line seat to my perch high in the double- letter rows of the Heinz Upper End Zone. I emailed the 78-year-old Priatko upon my return to New Hampshire to thank him for making this effort, and his response to me was typically humble. ”The pleasure was mine to stop over to see you. It was a double pleasure to meet your son, Anthony. He is a fine young man. I am still blessed to go three miles a day when I work out and do 200 push-ups or so, so the walk to see you was my short workout. Walking any distance to see you, Dave, is worth it. You always were a top notch man and still are… Current Steelers Your leadership abilities shone brightly on the football field Dick LeBeau roomed with Priatko as a rookie during Cleveland’s 1959 training camp before being cut. and continue to shine in a wonderful, meaningful lifetime occupation. I am so proud of you. as big a concern as the media and the NFL are attempting to “We have to root hard for our Steelers against the Titans. make it look like. This past season, the NFL went over the Dixon has to pick it up and play better this week; we can’t edge in blowing up the situation. Yes, the guys are bigger and always rely on the defense. We almost wasted a great defen- faster today but as far as hitting, the guys hit hard 50 years sive effort against Atlanta; if Atlanta holds on to three more ago, just as much as today. Football is football.” picks that they dropped, we would have lost. The bottom line To no one’s surprise, Priatko is well-regarded by the is we won and as Dick LeBeau always says, whether we win or media members who cover the Steelers and have a pulse on lose, ‘onward and upward.’” who is who in the extended family of not only the organiza- A man of rhythms and routines, Priatko took up the tion, but the broader community as well. As Ed Bouchette, the practice of doing 200 push-ups a day as a 13-year-old in Steelers beat writer for the Post-Gazette since 1985, said, “Bill North Braddock. He remains faithful to that routine, as he has kept in touch with me through the years and been a great does to his family, friends, and faith. As someone who has too resource for me. He’s been a good Steelers alum, keeping often failed at maintaining friendships throughout my life, I’m others informed and up-to-date on matters involving older fortunate to have run into Bill Priatko again. This is a man Steelers and he stays current with the new.” who keeps up with people whom he met a half-century ago as Jim Wexell, a freelance writer, longtime regular on a matter of common practice. Now he’s keeping up with me, the Pittsburgh media scene, and author of several books and I’m certainly richer for it. MSP on the Steelers, said, “Every time I run into Bill around town my mood brightens considerably. You could call him a beacon of the community, but he’s more than that. He’s David Villiotti has self-published two books about the Steelers: We’re from the Town with the Great Football Team: A Manifesto an anchor, a pillar. If something good is going on around and We Cheer the Pittsburgh Steelers: The ’70s. Villiotti is the CEO of a western Westmoreland County, you know Bill Priatko is in residential/education facility for at-risk youth and lives in New Hampshire

the thick of it. And likewise, if something has gone wrong, with his wife, two children, and pet rabbit, “Bettis.” Photo: Henry Barr Collection/Diamond Images via Getty Images

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