The Pittsburgh Steelers are the leading Super Bowl trophy holders at the moment. They are known for their defense otherwise known as, “The Steel Curtain.” They also claim many NFL greats in the Hall of Fame including coaches and players including John Lambert, Terry Bradshaw, “Mean” Joe Greene, great running back Bill Dudley, and of course the owner and founder himself, Art Rooney. The whole organization was started and built on up Arthur Joseph Rooney.

Arthur Rooney was born on January 27, 1901 in the city of Coultersville, Pennsylvania. He was born the oldest of nine total children, their parents being Daniel and Margaret Rooney. Arthur, well known as “Art”, was a very intelligent young dude, and he began after high school attending college at Indiana [PA] normal, which is todays Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The schools he attended before college were St. Peter’s Parochial and Duquesne University Prep School.

He loved playing sports and he was a great athlete overall. Of all the sports he did he was mainly known for boxing and he was actually a great champion at it too. He went on to be a part of the 1920 Olympic team in boxing, but didn’t actually get to box in the Olympics. After the Olympics he began playing minor league baseball until a bad arm injury ended that career early. After that he began to play semi pro football for a long while. During those years of playing football he married a young woman by the name of Kathleen McNulty, whose name was of course changed to Kathleen Rooney, and had five sons.

After being married for a little while, Art Rooney decided he wanted to own a professional football team but he didn’t have the fortune to do so, but he was sure soon to find it. He loved going to the track races and he would always bet money. It was said that he would win up to 338,000 dollars as early as 1933. When he finally obtained the amount of money he needed to begin his franchise he cashed it in and began his organization. With the name Pittsburgh Pirates, they began off bad and weren’t really progressing at all. As a matter of fact they went seven seasons with only 22 wins and many losses. They even went through many head coaches. In 1940 Art Rooney decided to change the Pirates name to the Pittsburgh Steelers representing the heritage of their city. It seemed when he changed the name of the organization the team started progressing greatly, even after having to merge with other teams due to players leaving to join the armed forces during wartime. About three to four years later players began returning and Rooney gladly received his star running back, Bill Dudley, back to the team with great honors. Upon receiving the honors Dudley, the returned player, came and led the NFL in rushing, interceptions, and punt returns. After retirement Dudley was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

During these rising years the Steelers just continued to progress and began to have more NFL leaders on their team by the second. Art Rooney’s name was becoming greater and he was becoming very popular in the sports world. He began raising more hall of fame coaches, players, and coordinators. He helped raise one of the greatest defenses known as the “Steel Curtain”. The fans Loved Rooney and was grateful to know Art Rooney was inducted into the hall of Fame.

In the early 1980’s he became ill and had to slow down with a lot of activities he was doing in football and running the organization. His son was already taking over the organization so he didn’t have too much to worry about. In 1988 Art Rooney experienced a very crucial stroke and died at the age of 87. He left behind a great family and an amazing and successful Organization, The Pittsburgh Steelers who went on to win many super bowls and still have great coaches. Art Rooney’s Legacy lives on through them.