How long have steelers been a football team

Officially, the team never played a single game as the Iron Men nor the Eagles, and Rooney never spent a season in Philadelphia.

Bell became head coach and Rooney served as general manager. To explain the swap, things were just different back then and funds were tough to come by. It has since become known as one of the most unusual trades in the annals of sports in the United States.

And to make matters worse, college graduating seniors and juniors were drafted into the armed services as well. Talent was scarce. NFL team rosters were cut from 33 players to The Cleveland Rams closed down completely for the season.

The club sported a respectable record, just one game out of first place in the Eastern Division. The home schedule was split between the dual cities, with Philadelphia hosting four games and the other two in Pittsburgh. The Steagles wore the green uniforms of the Eagles, marking the first time Pittsburgh did not don black and gold.

Several players were aging or draft rejects. Veteran end Bill Hewitt, well-known for never wearing a helmet, came out of retirement to help fill the roster. Running back John Butler was graded 4-F on Saturday by the war department and the proceeded to play the next day. Receiver Tony Bova was blind in one eye. Two offensive linemen, Ray Graves and Ed Michaels, had severe hearing problems. Even though these two teams combined for one season, the owners only allowed the merger for the regular season.

This meant the new team could not compete in the playoffs if it had qualified. With the season, the NFL had 11 teams. The Eagles were able to fill a complete roster, but Pittsburgh was not. In order to field a favorable schedule, the league contacted Pittsburgh to inquire if they would again combine rosters. At first, a combination of Pittsburgh and the Brooklyn Tigers appeared imminent.

Rooney eventually rejected that idea and instead merged with the Chicago Cardinals , who had several players called into the war and was short on players. The year before, the Cardinals had gone Unfortunately for fans of the black and gold, the players that vacated were the better ones. And once again, a suitable quarterback was an issue as Zimmerman remained with the Eagles and starting QB Coley McDonough was drafted into the Army after the first game against the Packers.

Running back John Grigas was the lone star player on a roster full of hard-pressed football players. For the year, the team missed every field goal and did not throw a single touchdown pass. Once, while pinned down on their own 1-yard line, they punted on first down, which sailed a paltry nine yards. Since World War II, only five teams have gone winless in a season.

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Submit Now. Follow Us. He stayed with the team for one season. The Steelers also have strong ties with another big name outside of the sports world. Fast forwarding about 45 years into the future, Married…with Children was one of the most popular shows on television in the late 80s.

Sadly, though, Ed never made the final Steeler roster as he was cut during training camp. As previously stated, the moniker Steelers is not the only name that the football franchise has been known by. At the time of their founding, they were named the Pirates. Military and thus had to quit the Steelers in order to defend our country.

During this period with the shortage of players in the early 40s, Art Rooney sold the team to Alexis Thompson and Rooney went to work with his friend, Bert Bell, the owner of the Eagles. Thompson then merged the players of his team with those of the Philadelphia Eagles and held a small player draft.

A couple of years later, due to more men being lost to the military during World War II, the two teams were forced to merge, thus becoming known as the Steagles. Only one year later in , the Steagles went their separate ways. Once again, and for the same reasons as before, the Steelers were forced to join forces with another team. This time the team was the Chicago Cardinals. The new winless team was known as Card-Pitt. By the following season, the two teams had gone their separate ways, and the Steelers reverted to being called the Steelers, all by themselves!

The Steelers were the first team to be entirely home grown. Joe Gilliam was drafted by the Steelers in the 11th round of the draft.