Archive for September, 2011
Posted on September 22, 2011 - by ChuckFinder
About the book: Russell, Rooneys and more
March 2012 update: The list grew to an impressive length, breadth and depth. Hall of Fame names. Rooneys. Dozens of players, from starters to reserves. Head coaches, assistant coaches, trainers. Competitors.
Once a week, keep an eye out for blogs that provide a behind-the-pages peek at “The Steelers Encyclopedia,” coming in August.
Please tell your friends.
Tell even Ravens fans. (There’s something in this book for everybody!)
December update: There are a bunch more names, including some present and future Hall of Famers, to add to this late-September list. More than 80 names, in all…….
Haven’t posted/blogged much lately.
Been a liiiiiiittle busy.
Andy Russell. Dick Hoak. A couple of Rooneys. The longtime trainer. Two longtime PR directors and reporters, going back to the World War II days. Tunch-n-Wolf. Jack Butler. Kevin Colbert and Dick LeBeau and more. John Banaszak and Joe Walton. A member of the Steagles. The oldest living Steelers player and coach. Russ Grimm. Dan “Bad Rad” Radakovich. George Perles. Bill Hillgrove. And many more still to come.
Yeah, we’ve been doing a lot of talking, interviewing, laughing, learning.
And wait until you see the photographs — never before seen or glimpsed maybe once, in a long-gone newspaper.
Longtime PR director Joe Gordon, who shared an office with the Chief and once had Chuck Noll fix his broken file cabinet on the morning of an AFC championship game.
So much in this book will be new, breath-taking, enlightening and entertaining to the Steelers fan. Just had to share that with you. . . slightly less than a year away from when it’s scheduled to hit the bookstores. Not a tease. Merely a peek behind the
curtain, behind which I’m so busy toiling.
More details — about the book, the research and interview process, and the bread broken among many of the subjects — is forthcoming.
Coming soon: a photo contest to show the rest of the world what is this thing known as Steelers Nation.
Here’s a brief excerpt from one of the blog items I’ve written soon after each interview — I plan to post them weekly starting next spring, part of the carpet rolling out slowly until next fall’s book launch.
This is from Interview 10: – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
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: The Story of Art Rooney and his Clan.” He spent 500-some pages spinning great stories. I asked him if he had any that he left out of the book. Surprisingly, he did.