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The 1969 Pittsburgh Steelers season constitutes what many consider to be the turning point of this once-moribund franchise. 1969 was the first season for Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll, the first season for defensive lineman "Mean Joe" Greene and L. C. Greenwood, the first season for longtime Steelers public relations director Joe Gordon, and the team's last season in Pitt Stadium before moving into then-state-of-the-art Three Rivers Stadium the following season. Although considered a turning point in the team’s history, the results were not immediate; after winning the season opener against the Detroit Lions, the Steelers lost every game afterwards to finish 1–13. The Steelers became the first team in NFL history since the 1936 Philadelphia Eagles to win its season opener and lose every remaining game, a feat not matched until 2001 when the Carolina Panthers won its season opener against Minnesota before losing every game en route to a 1–15 finish. The Steelers finished 1969 4th in the NFL Century Division and tied with the Chicago Bears for last in the NFL. With the Steelers finishing 1–6 at Pitt Stadium, it marked the last time the Steelers finished the season with a losing record at home until 1999. As a result of their 1–13 records, Art Rooney of the Steelers won a coin toss with George Halas of the Bears to determine who would select Louisiana Tech quarterback Terry Bradshaw (the consensus number 1 selection among league teams) with the number one pick in the 1970 draft. By modern NFL tiebreaking rules, the Steelers would have automatically been given the first pick anyway, as the Bears' one win came against the Steelers in Week 8. ==Offseason== In the 1969 offseason, the Steelers hired former defensive coordinator Chuck Noll from the Baltimore Colts days after his loss to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III. Noll became the team's 14th head coach in the franchise's history. While it took 36 seasons to go through the first 13, Noll stayed through 1991 , establishing coaching stability for the Steelers not seen in other NFL franchises for the next 46. Since Noll's retirement, only Bill Cowher and current head coach Mike Tomlin have served as head coach of the Steelers. According to Linebacker Andy Russell and other Steelers present, Noll assembled the team for their first meeting and plainly stated his thoughts on why the Steelers had lost so often for so long. “So Coach Noll’s first meeting, I’ll never forget the speech he gave,” said Russell, who became a highly successful businessman after retiring from football in 1976. “He gets up and says, ‘I’ve been watching the game film since I took the job, and I can tell you guys why you’ve been losing.’ You could have heard a pin drop in that room. He says, ‘The reason you have been losing is you’re not any good.’” he said, ‘I’m going to get rid of most of you.’ Five of us made it from that room to the Super Bowl in ’74.”〔Andy Russell recalls genius of Chuck Noll, ESPN, June 14, 2014 http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers/post/_/id/7138/andy-russell-recalls-genius-of-chuck-noll〕 Only a handful of players were carried over from the 1968 squad to the 1974 Super Bowl Squad, most notably veterans Andy Russell, Rocky Bleier, Ray Mansfield, and Bobby Walden. Additionally, Dick Hoak, who retired before the 1974 season, became the team's running backs coach and remained with the team in that capacity through the 2006 season. Bleier, who played his rookie season the year before and later became a major contributor to the Super Bowl championship teams, was fighting in Vietnam during this time and was wounded in combat just before the start of the season.〔http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/1974_roster.htm〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1969 Pittsburgh Steelers season」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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