Chuck Noll is one of the greatest head coaches of the NFL in the last 40-50 years for the Pittsburgh Steelers.... If you have ever read his history, he was close to being a genius in being able to scout a team and identify the opponents tendencies... Known as a phenomenal teacher from the time he decided to coach. Some people like history so I thought I would share some on this Ohioan.
Chuck Noll was the type of guy who let the people around him as well as the elements in which he grew up to influence his life in a great way... He was born in downtown Cleveland, Ohio in a relatively poor neighborhood that was predominately African American.... He played youth football with Jesse Owens' nephew and possessed the sensitivity to the plight of inner city kids, especially African American, that influenced a lot of his personnel decisions later in his career. He literally worked to save every penny as a child to attend one of the traditionally strongest Cleveland Catholic high schools, Benedictine... Still true today... Noll played LB and offensive guard in HS and was said to be advanced in his ability to read what an opponent was going to do.... Noll went on to be recruited to Notre Dame under FRANK LEAHY.. The problem in Noll's freshman year was that he had an epileptic seizure on the Freshman team, which they had in those days. Leahy would not take a chance in giving a scholarship to the varsity at Notre Dame so Noll transferred to another Catholic college in Ohio, University of Dayton. Just a short distance away lived WEEB EWBANK who kept track of Noll even as EWBANK was building his own coaching career. Noll graduated from Dayton and was drafted by hometown Cleveland Browns, coached by PAUL BROWN...Brown used Noll as an offensive guard and a 'messenger' to bring in plays to the QB.. This negatively affected Noll as Noll didn't want to be referred to as a 'messenger boy' and was a big reason why Noll had his QBs call the plays in Pittsburgh. Still, Noll learned a lot of football from PAUL BROWN.
Noll retired very young(27 years old) when he was beaten out for a starting job in Cleveland... He then became an assistant coach in the AFL.... LITTLE KNOW FACT- The San Diego Chargers were ORIGINALLY the Los Angeles Chargers so recently they actually MOVED BACK to their original city..... One year in LA then moved to San Diego... SID GILLMAN was coach and hired Noll as a defensive assistant.. Noll got the nickname of "Pope" in college as a player because he seemed to know so much more than any of his coaches... This carried through as an assistant.
Noll developed a front four on defense that was the ORIGINAL FEARSOME FOURSOME.....This is a little known fact that the Chargers had the first FEARSOME FOURSOME... The term was coined 4 years earlier in one article in New York for the Giants' front four but did not stick... The Detroit Lions front four had the same distinction in an article out of Detroit. Obviously the most famous FEARSOME FOURSOME was the Los Angeles Rams with Deacon Jones and Lamar Lundy as defensive ends and Merlin Olson with Rosey Grier as defensive tackles..... BUT AS A HISTORIAN, THE LA RAMS WERE NOT THE ORIGINAL "FEARSOME FOURSOME". The Rams front four was named this only a few years after the Chargers front four bore the same name... It was the Chargers front four of Ron Nery and Earl Faison as DEs, and Ernie Ladd with Bill Hudson as DTs.. They were coached by CHUCK NOLL.
Gillman was very advanced in football strategies on both sides of the ball especially on offense,, Noll soaked up as much as he could and was a great student of the game as an assistant. Ironically, another assistant on that Chargers team at the same time was AL DAVIS, who ended up heading the archrivals of the Steelers, the Oakland Raiders. After 3 years, Noll moved on the Baltimore Colts.
In Baltimore, Noll was under another Cleveland, Ohio area legend in DON SHULA.. Shula had known about Noll for a long long time... Noll wrote down his coaching techniques and was very organized, which really impressed Shula.... Another great defensive mind who was a coaching guru was fellow assistant BILL ARNSPARGER, who eventually followed Shula to Miami as well... ARNSPARGER really formulated blitz packages and disguising defenses with Noll, which made them formidable... The Colts were getting more and more defensive talent to go along with Johnny Unitas and that offense... Noll's last game as an assistant was Super Bowl III where the Colts were shocked by Joe Namath and the New York Jets, coached by WEEB EWBANKS who watched Noll from the time he was little.
Noll had never made a lot of money up to that point, as a player or assistant coach.. In fact, as a pro player, he worked as a teacher at Cleveland Holy Name HS..His bachelor degree was in education so he had an affinity for teaching. Some know that Noll went to law school but he did not like the constant arguing and confrontation in that line of work. Shula had suggested to Art Rooney that Noll interview after JOE PATERNO turned down an offer to coach the Steelers. Noll interviewed with the Steelers the day after Super Bowl III.
Noll had much of the same sensitivity that Hank Stram had at Kansas City... Noll gave lots of opportunities to African Americans from historically black schools or small colleges. This was the case with LC Greenwood, Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes, and Dwight White... Greenwood and Holmes came from historically black colleges as did Mel Blount, Glen Edwards, Donnie Shell, and John Stallworth. He also had the first starting black QB in the AFC with Joe Gilliam, who came in after Bradshaw was hurt. Brought in black assistant coaches as that was unheard of for the most part, in those days. He looked at underdogs with great athletic ability as Noll thought Franco Harris had more talent than his backfield mate, the much more heralded Lydell Mitchell who played for the Colts. Harris was the 'blocking back' at Penn State whereas Mitchell was the feature back. Of course, he could not pass on Lynn Swann either... He drafted local talent like Jack Ham and Jack Lambert(Kent State is not far from Pittsburgh) and talent that he thought was tough from Notre Dame... Terry Hanratty and Rock Bleier came from Notre Dame though getting a talent like Terry Bradshaw really set them at QB.... Bradshaw was recruited at Lousiana Tech by an upcoming assistant who became a famous head coach in Jimmie Johnson, and of course those 2 are on the Fox pregame and halftime together today, ironically...
As strict as Noll was, he actually gave a lot of leeway to his players as many went out and celebrated in town before their first Super Bowl against the Vikings. Bud Grant was actually more strict in keeping the players away from the hoopla.
You can see the Influence of some of the greatest in the sport on Noll.. Frank Leahy, Paul Brown, Sid Gillman, Don Shula, Bill Arnsparger. Plus he was as intuitive as anyone that has coached the game..... I love to study why coaches and players are successful and who influenced them in their greatness... Appreciation for mentors is a great thing and Noll was a product of that greatness even though he came from very humble roots.
Chuck Noll was the type of guy who let the people around him as well as the elements in which he grew up to influence his life in a great way... He was born in downtown Cleveland, Ohio in a relatively poor neighborhood that was predominately African American.... He played youth football with Jesse Owens' nephew and possessed the sensitivity to the plight of inner city kids, especially African American, that influenced a lot of his personnel decisions later in his career. He literally worked to save every penny as a child to attend one of the traditionally strongest Cleveland Catholic high schools, Benedictine... Still true today... Noll played LB and offensive guard in HS and was said to be advanced in his ability to read what an opponent was going to do.... Noll went on to be recruited to Notre Dame under FRANK LEAHY.. The problem in Noll's freshman year was that he had an epileptic seizure on the Freshman team, which they had in those days. Leahy would not take a chance in giving a scholarship to the varsity at Notre Dame so Noll transferred to another Catholic college in Ohio, University of Dayton. Just a short distance away lived WEEB EWBANK who kept track of Noll even as EWBANK was building his own coaching career. Noll graduated from Dayton and was drafted by hometown Cleveland Browns, coached by PAUL BROWN...Brown used Noll as an offensive guard and a 'messenger' to bring in plays to the QB.. This negatively affected Noll as Noll didn't want to be referred to as a 'messenger boy' and was a big reason why Noll had his QBs call the plays in Pittsburgh. Still, Noll learned a lot of football from PAUL BROWN.
Noll retired very young(27 years old) when he was beaten out for a starting job in Cleveland... He then became an assistant coach in the AFL.... LITTLE KNOW FACT- The San Diego Chargers were ORIGINALLY the Los Angeles Chargers so recently they actually MOVED BACK to their original city..... One year in LA then moved to San Diego... SID GILLMAN was coach and hired Noll as a defensive assistant.. Noll got the nickname of "Pope" in college as a player because he seemed to know so much more than any of his coaches... This carried through as an assistant.
Noll developed a front four on defense that was the ORIGINAL FEARSOME FOURSOME.....This is a little known fact that the Chargers had the first FEARSOME FOURSOME... The term was coined 4 years earlier in one article in New York for the Giants' front four but did not stick... The Detroit Lions front four had the same distinction in an article out of Detroit. Obviously the most famous FEARSOME FOURSOME was the Los Angeles Rams with Deacon Jones and Lamar Lundy as defensive ends and Merlin Olson with Rosey Grier as defensive tackles..... BUT AS A HISTORIAN, THE LA RAMS WERE NOT THE ORIGINAL "FEARSOME FOURSOME". The Rams front four was named this only a few years after the Chargers front four bore the same name... It was the Chargers front four of Ron Nery and Earl Faison as DEs, and Ernie Ladd with Bill Hudson as DTs.. They were coached by CHUCK NOLL.
Gillman was very advanced in football strategies on both sides of the ball especially on offense,, Noll soaked up as much as he could and was a great student of the game as an assistant. Ironically, another assistant on that Chargers team at the same time was AL DAVIS, who ended up heading the archrivals of the Steelers, the Oakland Raiders. After 3 years, Noll moved on the Baltimore Colts.
In Baltimore, Noll was under another Cleveland, Ohio area legend in DON SHULA.. Shula had known about Noll for a long long time... Noll wrote down his coaching techniques and was very organized, which really impressed Shula.... Another great defensive mind who was a coaching guru was fellow assistant BILL ARNSPARGER, who eventually followed Shula to Miami as well... ARNSPARGER really formulated blitz packages and disguising defenses with Noll, which made them formidable... The Colts were getting more and more defensive talent to go along with Johnny Unitas and that offense... Noll's last game as an assistant was Super Bowl III where the Colts were shocked by Joe Namath and the New York Jets, coached by WEEB EWBANKS who watched Noll from the time he was little.
Noll had never made a lot of money up to that point, as a player or assistant coach.. In fact, as a pro player, he worked as a teacher at Cleveland Holy Name HS..His bachelor degree was in education so he had an affinity for teaching. Some know that Noll went to law school but he did not like the constant arguing and confrontation in that line of work. Shula had suggested to Art Rooney that Noll interview after JOE PATERNO turned down an offer to coach the Steelers. Noll interviewed with the Steelers the day after Super Bowl III.
Noll had much of the same sensitivity that Hank Stram had at Kansas City... Noll gave lots of opportunities to African Americans from historically black schools or small colleges. This was the case with LC Greenwood, Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes, and Dwight White... Greenwood and Holmes came from historically black colleges as did Mel Blount, Glen Edwards, Donnie Shell, and John Stallworth. He also had the first starting black QB in the AFC with Joe Gilliam, who came in after Bradshaw was hurt. Brought in black assistant coaches as that was unheard of for the most part, in those days. He looked at underdogs with great athletic ability as Noll thought Franco Harris had more talent than his backfield mate, the much more heralded Lydell Mitchell who played for the Colts. Harris was the 'blocking back' at Penn State whereas Mitchell was the feature back. Of course, he could not pass on Lynn Swann either... He drafted local talent like Jack Ham and Jack Lambert(Kent State is not far from Pittsburgh) and talent that he thought was tough from Notre Dame... Terry Hanratty and Rock Bleier came from Notre Dame though getting a talent like Terry Bradshaw really set them at QB.... Bradshaw was recruited at Lousiana Tech by an upcoming assistant who became a famous head coach in Jimmie Johnson, and of course those 2 are on the Fox pregame and halftime together today, ironically...
As strict as Noll was, he actually gave a lot of leeway to his players as many went out and celebrated in town before their first Super Bowl against the Vikings. Bud Grant was actually more strict in keeping the players away from the hoopla.
You can see the Influence of some of the greatest in the sport on Noll.. Frank Leahy, Paul Brown, Sid Gillman, Don Shula, Bill Arnsparger. Plus he was as intuitive as anyone that has coached the game..... I love to study why coaches and players are successful and who influenced them in their greatness... Appreciation for mentors is a great thing and Noll was a product of that greatness even though he came from very humble roots.
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