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Part XXV: The great Roy McHugh
Writers talk. It’s what made Myron Cope, deep in his heart — where his innate ability emanated — one of the great sports writers in Pittsburgh history, if not American history, and a rather successful broadcaster. Roy McHugh was, and remains, a writer’s writer. After all, Myron entrusted him to edit Cope copy from the [...]
Part XIII: Tunch-n-Wolf
Lunch with Tunch-n-Wolf, nothing could be better. These two old friends came in together as back-to-back draft picks, fifth round and sixth, in 1980. They played shoulder to shoulder through much of the 1980s. They remain side by side a generation later, on radio broadcasts for their talk show or Steelers games — though WDVE-FM [...]
Part IV: Kevin Colbert
It was the first Thursday in June and, apparently, the Steelers’ director of player personnel had nothing better to do. So he wondered if I had time to talk for the book. Going through the proper channels, I requested a handful of folks at the top of the Steelers’ flow chart. A couple of weeks [...]
Part XIX: At the Joe Moore O-Line camp
The instructors at the West Allegheny High football camp in honor of the late Pitt, Temple and Notre Dame line coach Joe Moore? They constituted a virtual Who’s Who from Pitt in the NFL. Dan Marino showed on Saturday. Among the coaches were the Bears’ Jimbo Covert of the College Football Hall of Fame, the [...]
Part XVII: The oldest living Steelers player and coach
LAKELAND, Fla. — Chuck Cherundolo, 94 years young, looked over from his senior-citizen recliner — the kind that lifts folks forward so they can ease out — and made a stunning remark. “You were an education for me.” No, young man, it was the other way around. Cherundolo (pronounced “Churr–UN-duh-low) was a pleasant, 2-hour [...]
Part VIII: In the Chief’s image, Art Rooney Jr.
He puts on the bowler to head out the door and take me to lunch — despite it being 80-something degrees outside — and the image is unmistakable. That is a young Art Rooney, all right. Junior is his father’s son, indeed. He has written a book on his family, on their Steelers background, “Ruanaidh: [...]
Part XX: The Bobs connection — John Banaszak, Joe Walton of RMU
You know, the Bobs of Robert Morris U. Joe Walton founded the program, nurtured it from its infancy as a bag of balls and a converted closet, even picked out the spot for a field. Which, of course, was named for him. When John Banaszak left Division III Washington & Jefferson, Walton ultimately gave [...]
Part V: Dick Hoak, 45 years a Steeler
Dick Hoak as a player… …and retiring as a coach in 2006 Where did the time go? Dick Hoak wore on his firm right hand — the one with lines like dive plays in a playbook — the Super Bowl rings that dazzled the most: IX and XL. Or, as he put it, the [...]
Part XIV: Longtime trainer Ralph Berlin
It’s all because of the blasted cigars. Ralph Berlin blames and embraces the Chief at the same time. Art Rooney Sr. is the reason for his expensive habit. Art Rooney Sr. is the reason for his quarter-century of wonderful times with the Steelers, the four rings, the countless memories, the health problems (well, not most [...]
Part VII: The ubiquitous Andy Russell…and he can spell it, too
Sitting in his Downtown office last fall, 31 floors above the city street below, he remembers his inaugural Steelers meeting with coach Buddy Parker. His new boss admitted that he “hated” rookies like him . . . but wound up starting him at outside linebacker in a move that fairly altered the course of his [...]
Part XI: Father of the stunt 4-3, George Perles
Dear Old Dad remembers it well. It was a Monday night. He was “doodling on a legal pad.” O.J. Simpson and the Buffalo Bills were coming to Three Rivers Stadium that weekend, and he was determined to keep the 1,000-yard rusher from all those cutbacks and gashing runs. That’s how he recalls fathering the stunt [...]
In the beginning: A trip to Bethlehem
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we launch the blog series leading up to “The Steelers Encyclopedia” fall launch with a tip of the Irish cap to the Rooneys. Who better than to start with brother Patrick? HELLERTOWN, Pa. — This interview (the 17th for the book) required a drive to this southern bedroom [...]
Part XV: Still Bad Rad after all these years
By the time you read “The Steelers Encyclopedia starting in roughly 10 weeks), Dan Radakovich hopefully has published his memoirs, entitled “Bad Rad.” But he was kind enough to share some stories for this book. If Bad Rad has anything, it is a deep and entertaining supply of stories. “I was a linebackers coach. I [...]
Part X: Kolb spends entire Noll generation as a player and coach
Jon Kolb was there for all of it, the entire Chuck Noll era. He was among that 1969 draft class. He was an assistant who got a plain telephone call from the Hall of Fame coach after the 1991 season: “Jon?” “Yeah?” “It’s over.” Kolb’s first response? It wasn’t selfish anguish or fear. It wasn’t [...]
Part XII: Mike Wagner’s view from the back end
Safety, it’s an interestingly named position when you think about it. Safety. In football? How much safety is there, truly? Mike Wagner played that position. In fact, he played both safety positions — in a move that surprised him most of all. Yet he played safety with consistency and panache and glee. And from his [...]
Looky what’s coming to bookstores…
The time has arrived. The book has arrived. And it feels like the arrival of a newborn. . . without the constant care and fears and worries. No, wait, I do have some of those. It’s an exciting and anxious time, but the 17-months-in-the-making project is coming before the public’s eyes in the next few [...]
Part III: Jack Butler — great hands, even better mind
The evaluator was still at work. Despite a glory-draped, newly-Cantonized career as a defensive back, earning him the same interception plane as Emlen Tunnell and Dick “Night Train” Lane, this 2012 Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist when we sat down for an interview was thinking more like the executive who spent four decades overseeing [...]
Part XVI: A table full of Steelerettes
The invitation was impossible to pass. Eight Steelerettes, the same number as started this whole business a half-century earlier, were meeting in the Strip District to formulate plans for their 50th-anniversary reunion in October 2011. The response was impossible to swallow: Fifty years? But none of you are older than 50, are you? These grand [...]
Part XVIII: The inimitable Bill Hillgrove
Lunch was only a bowl of tortilla soup for me, a bowl of vegetable and a fancy grilled-cheese sammich plus a brew for him. But it wasn’t about the food. The most delectable fare was Bill Hillgrove spinning yarns of Myron Cope. Triple yoi. The joy of yoi. Which would make a wonderful title for [...]
Part XXIV: The Flying Nunn
Two million miles. A gentleman who had a splendid career as a Pittsburgh Courier sports writer and then another as a Steelers scout, Bill Nunn indeed has been doubly blessed. Except for the part about doing all his flying about the country before frequent-flyer programs. Imagine what 2 million miles from the 1960s-80s would be [...]
Part XXII: A military mind — Army Gen. Vento
In the back office of an East Liberty pizza-and-sammich institution, military history was retold. The old three-star general relived the marching, the tanks, the wine, the kidnapping. Al Vento the pizza man and his bakery buddy, the late Tony Stagno, all started this helmet-clad fan club because of a woebegone football team, a new Steelers [...]
Part XXIII: Bubby Brister
His buddy and the Jeff to his Mutt, Merril Hoge, became a professional gasser on television. Yet the wild and innocent quipster of a quarterback, the Midnight Mayor of Shadyside who was honest and open perhaps to a fault (though calling the confluence “the lake” was merely a geographic mistake), went in a different direction. [...]
Part XXI: John Stallworth
In honor of yet another Steelers-tinged Canton weekend, with Jack Butler and Dermontti Dawson (both interviewed for this book) getting enshrined, we bring you another Hall of Famer…who went from player to part-owner. Talk about a pattern nobody else ever ran: From strike-camp rookie to Hall of Famer to owner of his old team. It [...]
Part VI: The Count (a.k.a. The Frenchman)
The goldfish croaked. It couldn’t be helped. “I took them to a banquet, took my shoes off. . . and they were floating on their backs. Dead.” John Fuqua, better known as Frenchy, was talking about the infamous 1970s platform shoes with the goldfish swimming in the heel. He was the hot halfback of the [...]
Part II: The Kielys
Second in a blog series. The interview process all began with two Kielys and one bacon cheeseburger. Incredible on all counts. We met at Tessaro’s in Bloomfield, by the choice of longtime Steelers PR man Ed Kiely and his local-television-production son Kevin. The choice was inspired, the company was keen and the burger was. . [...]
Thanks
Now that it’s out — and hang tight, we’re told that books are en route — we must pay homage. Not to give away the entire Acknowledgments section of the book, but here is a shout-out to the nearly 100 people who graciously consented to sharing their stories, histories, memories, anecdotes: + Pre-modern players Jack [...]
Book tours/Trivia contests: Florida for Steelers bye week
Steelers Nation, here we come. We’ll start, fittingly on the bye week, where fans enjoy about 37 sunshine-filled, less-warm other bye weeks every year: F-L-A. (Ya know, as in: Steelers weeks raise their internal temperatures beyond their local mercury readings.) “The Steelers Encyclopedia Tour,” not to be confused with “The Wrecking Ball Tour” by Bruce [...]
Flo-rider
If this is Saturday, it must be. . . Orlando? Yep, there’s the Mouse. Greetings from Florida, where the rental car burned through a tank of gas within the first 24 hours. Had a blast at O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Tampa, 8 miles north of Raymond James Stadium (wasn’t there a famous comeback and catch [...]
Placing 2-3 in historical perspective
In the modern era of Steelers football, meaning since Chuck Noll and fortunes arrived, the club has started 2-3 like this just 11 times since 1969. Once they rallied to finish with as many as 10 victories, 2002. Twice they turned it around and made the playoffs, 2002 and 1989 — but failed to win [...]
See you at Sharky’s, Sun. Oct. 21
Western Pennsylvania’s first trivia contest and “Steelers Encyclopedia” signing: starting 6 p.m. Sunday at Sharky’s Cafe, Route 30, Latrobe watch Steelers-Bungles, enjoy food and libations, play trivia…and books!
Tour time: Oakmont, Heinz History, Manhattan this week
The Steelers Encyclopedia hits the road this week, and stays on the road for most of the next two months. Gotham City, D.C., Charlotte and more are among the forays deep into Steelers Nation. Some of the local stops ahead include Downtown Pittsburgh for Light Up Night, the Strip District, Robinson to help Latitude 4o [...]
Good luck, NY/NJ…see ya next month!
Postponed tour stop in NYC’s Public House to Dec. 9 from Sunday — and we reached that decision before the NY Marathon opted to cancel around dinnertime Friday! Meanwhile, we had a ball Thursday night chatting with folks and fellow author David Shribman of Post-Gazette at Oakmont’s nifty keen Mystery Lovers Bookshop…which carries a ton [...]
The Immaculate Reception tale of Sharon and Mike
The year was 2000. It was mid-December, and this romanticizing writer wanted to author a memorable holiday column. The anonymous folks who named the Immaculate Reception resonated, for some reason. So I looked up telephone numbers, and began cold-calling. Dame Fortune, some 28 years after shining on the Steelers, offered up Sharon Levosky. Who, at [...]
Latitude 40 opening night, Light Up Night at Dahntahn Macy’s…a busy Steelers trivia/book-signing week
And so the Pittsburgh-centric tour picks up pace. We’re all over the local map Nov. 13-17, so join us anywhere. . . everywhere! Tuesday night, we’ll be playing Steelers (and Immaculate Reception) trivia in earnest on the upstairs stage normally reserved for bands and DJs at the swanky new bowling-arcade-restaurant-bar-placetobe, Latitude 40. After a preview [...]
The Perfect Christmas Gift … The Perfect Hanukkah Gift …The Perfect Kwanzaa Gift … oh, heck, it’s just The Perfect Gift for the Steelers fan in your life
It’s in bookstores from Barnes and Noble to the Pittsburgh International Airport to little shops in Dormont and Oakmont and any other local -monts. It’s online at Amazon and B&N and Temple.edu/tempress. And it’s on display at upcoming book signings/trivia contests in Steelers bars in D.C., New York and Charlotte along with Western Pennsylvania bookstores [...]
Pour House in D.C. Sunday for Steelers-Ravens
Steelers Nation members in the Baltimore, D.C. and NoVa areas, come on down to the Pour House and join us for trivia, Steelers talk and books starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2. It’s the start of another busy Steelers Encyclopedia week (that actually started today, 12-1-12, at the Heinz History Center Book Fair with [...]
Immaculate Reception turns 40, and a grand man passes
One happy item, one sad: This weekend marked a celebration of the Immaculate Reception hitting the middle age of 40. It was a rollicking time, with Frenchy Fuqua in his I’ll Never Tell T-shirt and Franco Harris posing and a conspiracy theory from a playful Raiders’ Phil Villapiano (whom the Steelers almost drafted instead of [...]
Short leashes, and other Steelers tidbits
When the Steelers appeared so unSteelers-like last April in picking up Mike Adams and Chris Rainey and their baggage, people wondered. When fellow rookie Alameda Ta’amu was arrested early in the season on a dozen charges related to drunk driving, eyebrows raised. The actions of Thursday proved one thing: The Steelers accept only so much [...]
My Bo Jackson experience
Watching this ESPN “30 for 30″ for the second time, it sent me back to the archives…. On Oct. 22, 1985, the Post-Gazette published a story after my visit to Auburn, Ala., about Bo possibly being a No. 1 pick in both football and baseball, where — of course — the Pirates owned that first [...]

My Bo Jackson experience

by ChuckFinder on February 10, 2013

Short leashes, and other Steelers tidbits

by ChuckFinder on January 10, 2013

Immaculate Reception turns 40, and a grand man passes

by ChuckFinder on December 23, 2012

Pour House in D.C. Sunday for Steelers-Ravens

by ChuckFinder on December 1, 2012

The Perfect Christmas Gift … The Perfect Hanukkah Gift …The Perfect Kwanzaa Gift … oh, heck, it’s just The Perfect Gift for the Steelers fan in your life

by ChuckFinder on November 22, 2012

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Vitae

Chuck Finder ChuckFinder.com, @cfinder, Chuck Finder Communications on Facebook and LinkedIn Achieve and Communicate: * Dynamic communications professional with three decades of proven record working in all platforms of media and an array of messages…and in a scant few months making a mark in public/media relations. * Successful history in project, deadline, budget, planning [...]

Chuck Finder Communications

PACE/ImPACT event in Robinson 8/9

Meet Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, get his autograph and take a fun ImPACT test! When: Tuesday, Aug. 9 Time: 3-6 p.m. Where: Dick’s Sporting Goods at The Mall at Robinson 5000 Robinson Centre Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15205 (412) 787-1330 All part of the PACE campaign to get 1 million high-school and [...]

Finder's Keepers

My Bo Jackson experience

Watching this ESPN “30 for 30″ for the second time, it sent me back to the archives…. On Oct. 22, 1985, the Post-Gazette published a story after my visit to Auburn, Ala., about Bo possibly being a No. 1 pick in both football and baseball, where — of course — the Pirates owned that first [...]

Finder's Keepers The Steelers Encyclopedia

Short leashes, and other Steelers tidbits

When the Steelers appeared so unSteelers-like last April in picking up Mike Adams and Chris Rainey and their baggage, people wondered. When fellow rookie Alameda Ta’amu was arrested early in the season on a dozen charges related to drunk driving, eyebrows raised. The actions of Thursday proved one thing: The Steelers accept only so much [...]

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