1970 NFL Draft: Oral History – Terry Bradshaw triggers Pittsburgh's revival 

Packers team historian Cliff Christl has assembled an oral history series on the NFL Draft, highlighting significant and noteworthy years as a prelude to Green Bay hosting the 2025 draft in late April. New installments will be posted most weekdays. For access to the full series thus far, click here.

1970

The 35th NFL Draft was held over two days, Jan. 27-28, 1970, with the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York serving as headquarters. The 26 teams at the time made their selections from their home bases or in the case of the members of the BLESTO-V scouting combine at the offices of the Philadelphia Eagles, one of its five members.

The selections started at 10:05 a.m. (EST) the first day and the seventh round ended at 9:01 p.m. The draft resumed at 10 a.m. on the 28th and wrapped up at 7:49 p.m. The entire 17 rounds took 20 hours, 45 minutes to complete. Each team was given up to 15 minutes to make its picks in the first two rounds and five minutes for the remaining rounds.

One more loss on top of 1-13

The height of the draft drama in 1970 might have been the coin flip held Jan. 9 in New Orleans, two days before Super Bowl IV was played there. Both Chicago and Pittsburgh had finished 1-13 in 1969, the NFL's final season before its merger with the AFL went into full effect. Thus, the winner of the flip would get the No. 1 choice in the draft 18 days later.

The coin, a shiny 1921 silver dollar, was tossed by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle in a banquet room at the elegant Roosevelt Hotel, just steps away from the French Quarter. Team vice presidents Ed McCaskey of the Bears and Dan Rooney of the Steelers represented their respective teams.

With several hundred newspapermen in New Orleans for the Super Bowl and on hand for the flip, McCaskey called heads. "Tails it is," Rooney chirped when the coin landed on a table in front of them. The next day, the Chicago Tribune's eight-column headline all but screamed off the lead sports page: "… AND NOW BEARS FLOP ON THE FLIP!"

It was certainly one of the most consequential coin flips in the history of the draft.

The Steelers used the No. 1 choice to select quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989.

The Bears traded the second overall choice to archrival Green Bay six days before the draft in exchange for three veterans: linebacker Lee Roy Caffey, who would turn 29 before the next season; Bob Hyland, who started three games for the Packers the previous season as backup center to Ken Bowman; and halfback Elijah Pitts, who was about to turn 32 and had torn his Achilles tendon in 1967 and played sparingly since.

The trade proved to be yet another disaster for the Bears.

Caffey and Hyland each played one season for them and were traded. Caffey was shipped to Dallas for a seventh-round draft pick. Hyland and defensive back Bennie McRae were traded to the New York Giants for a No. 1 choice that turned out to be the third overall. The Bears used it to select tackle Lionel Antoine, who would start only 39 games in six years for them. Pitts was cut at the end of his first camp and never played for the Bears.

Changing course & building "The Dynasty of the 1970s"

After their first 37 seasons in the NFL, dating to 1933, the Steelers had finished with a winning record only seven times and had yet to win even a division or conference championship. Almost as bad were the results of their drafts.

Over the NFL's first 20 drafts, they hit on future Pro Football Hall of Fame halfback Bill Dudley in 1942 and not many others. And from 1956-68, they didn't do much better. In fact, in six of those years, they traded their No. 1 pick. And in a handful of others, they simply botched their pick.

In 1956, the Steelers won the flip for the bonus pick and drafted relatively unknown defensive back Gary Glick, of what was then Colorado A&M, based on a letter from a coach at the school. Glick had a nondescript career, lasting less than four seasons with the Steelers, although he actually might have been one of their better choices during that period.

Future Steelers president Dan Rooney ("Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL," as told to Andrew Masich & David Halaas, 2007): "From the time the coach's letter arrived I argued with (coach Walt Kiesling) until I was blue in the face. 'The guy's okay. But we don't need to take him as our bonus pick. He's a sleeper. Nobody knows a thing about him. In fact, we don't know a thing about him. We don't have film, nobody's seen him, all we've got is a letter from a coach we never heard of.' … We went ahead and used our bonus pick on Gary Glick, passing over future Hall of Famer Lenny Moore and quarterback Earl Morrall."

In 1959 and again in 1963, former Steelers coach Buddy Parker didn't have a draft pick until the eighth round because of trades.

In 1962 and '66, the Steelers chose bulldozing fullbacks Bob Ferguson of Ohio State and Dick Leftridge of West Virginia fifth and third overall, respectively.

Both were colossal busts.

Ferguson (5-11, 220) was a two-time All-American who rushed for more than 2,000 yards and averaged 5.1 yards per carry for the Buckeyes. With the Steelers, he rushed for 37 yards on 20 carries and was waived after five games in his second season.

Leftridge (6-2, 230), as a three-year star for the Mountaineers, rushed for 1,701 yards and scored 21 touchdowns. His pro career lasted four games and amounted to 17 total rushing yards on eight carries. His weight ballooned and various ailments kept him on the Steelers' taxi squad until the final four games of his rookie year. When Leftridge reported to camp a year later at 245 pounds, he was cut.

Steelers director of player personnel Art Rooney Jr. on Ferguson (Christl & Don Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "They used to have a touch-tackle game on Tuesdays to get the kinks out. Everybody would put a little dough up and nobody would ever want Ferguson. Nobody wanted him on their team. That told me something about him as an athlete. He wasn't a good athlete. I'll never forget Buddy Parker said, 'If I could have seen his face, I wouldn't have drafted him.' Buddy just didn't think he had that gung-ho look."

Mike Nixon, Steelers head coach when Leftridge was drafted (Christl interview, Jan. 10, 1979): "They drafted him over my protest. I didn't want him. I was overruled by the Rooneys. (Leftridge) had a lot of talent, but he had a big weight problem. He'd fluctuate from 250 to 275."

Dan Rooney (Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 11, 1967): "BLESTO told us that Dick Leftridge was a top football player if we could get him to play, but a bad actor. We took a chance on Leftridge and found out we were not psychologists."

Art Rooney Jr. (Christl interview, 1983): "(Leftridge) had no intangibles. He let himself get big and fat. He had all the physical stuff. It was like having a big Cadillac that you can't put gas in. I think he got up to 270, and he was only 5-11½."

When Chuck Noll was hired as Steelers coach in late January 1969, he brought with him a philosophy maybe foreign to his new team but one tried-and-true across most of the league.

First, he cleaned house. Only four players, who had entered the NFL under the Steelers' previous regime, lasted more than two seasons with Noll: former fourth-round choice Ben McGee, 16th-round selections Rocky Bleier and Andy Russell, and former rookie free agent Sam Davis.

An even better sign was that despite their 1-13 record in Noll's first season, the Steelers had their most fruitful draft in 34 years.

They chose future Hall of Fame defensive tackle "Mean" Joe Greene with the fourth overall pick; Jon Kolb, who would become a mainstay of their offensive line for 13 seasons, in the third round; and future six-time Pro Bowl defensive end L.C. Greenwood in the 10th round. They also had drafted Notre Dame quarterback Terry Hanratty in the second round and still had hope that he'd have a successful career.

Art Rooney Jr. on the Greene pick (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "That's the one that turned it around. No doubt about it. That's the year Chuck came in. To give ourselves a little bit of credit, we now recognized our approach to the draft was to take the best athlete."

Art Rooney Jr. (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "People came off Joe in the Senior Bowl. Why I don't know. Joe Greene was a third-down player in college. Any time he had to get to the passer, he got him. He was brilliant. But you got the impression watching movies of him that it had to be a crucial situation before he put out a lot. Of course, in pro football, when you're in a championship-type thing, every play is a third-down play. He clearly had the talent to play. Maybe there was a little question: Was he an all-outer? But that didn't disturb us that much. I thought he was a tremendous competitor myself. He was the man. You needed a pass rush, and it was third-and-12, he was the guy who sacked the guy."

Terry Bradshaw: It was all about weighing risk vs. reward

By winning the flip for the No. 1 choice, the Steelers were in position to add a second cornerstone to their roster a year after taking Greene, who was voted the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1969.

There were two potential franchise quarterbacks: Terry Bradshaw of Louisiana Tech and Mike Phipps of Purdue.

Certainly, the need was there for the Steelers. Dick Shiner, who entered the NFL as a seventh-round draft choice in 1964, had started nine of 14 games for them in 1969, while completing only 46 percent of his passes. Hanratty started the other five and completed only 41 percent.

But which one?

Phipps (6-3, 207) was a pure, pocket passer and three-year starter at Purdue, where he not only replaced Bob Griese but also surpassed his totals for passing yards and touchdowns. He was the consensus All-American quarterback in 1969 and all-Big Ten as both a sophomore and senior.

Back then, Time magazine selected an annual All-America team based on input from pro scouts, who were effusive in their praise for Phipps that year. Quoted anonymously, one scout said, "Phipps has all the qualifications of a top-flight quarterback. He has a great arm, plenty of poise and is a born leader." Another said, "He runs well enough to be an effective roll-out passer, too." A third scout said, "He can take a hell of a beating and still come back for more."

But Time named two quarterbacks that year because some scouts believed Bradshaw (6-3, 215) had the higher ceiling even if there was some risk to him playing in a small-school program and some reservations about him learning a more sophisticated offense. Bradshaw was a national high-school javelin champion, and his arm strength wowed scouts.

"If you were going to save a franchise with a quarterback, this guy would be the one," one scout told Time. "He's big, he stands in there like Gabe (Roman Gabriel), and he has a pro arm."

Bradshaw also erased some of the fears about him not playing at a major college level when he completed 17 of 31 passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns and was named MVP of the Senior Bowl. Even more telling perhaps was that Don Shula coached the South team and kept Bradshaw in the game for all but three series, when he intended to have him split time with Florida State's highly rated Bill Cappleman, who would be drafted in the second round.

If Phipps was the No. 1 quarterback on the boards of most NFL teams at the end of the college season, Bradshaw seemed to be overtaking him as the draft neared.

New Orleans director of player personnel Henry Lee Parker (Birmingham News, Jan. 6, 1970): "No. 1 is (Bradshaw's) physical qualities. He's 6-3, 215. He has a good strong arm and quick release. He has a lot of courage, a lot of poise. He's a great leader. There are things you have to look for. He's not playing against the greatest competition in the world, but by the same token the people protecting him are in the same category, so it balances out."

Cleveland director of player personnel Paul Bixler (Dover Times- Reporter, Jan. 9, 1970): "There is no question that the best quarterback available today is Terry Bradshaw, then Mike Phipps of Purdue. In fact, Bradshaw may be more in demand than O.J. Simpson was last year."

Cincinnati director of player personnel Pete Brown, on Bradshaw and Phipps (Dayton Journal Herald, Jan. 21, 1970): "It's like picking between Superman and Captain Marvel, although I think I'd probably go with Superman (Bradshaw)."

Miami director of player personnel Joe Thomas, (Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 22, 1970): "(Bradshaw's) got a greater arm than Joe Namath did when he was at Alabama."

Kansas City scout Lloyd Wells (Indianapolis News, Jan. 27, 1970): "(Bradshaw's) got the highest grade of any pro prospect I've ever scouted."

The Steelers' options

Once their 1969 season ended on Dec. 21 and Noll was able to turn his attention to the draft, the Steelers focused on three options: 1) Drafting another defensive lineman to team with Greene; or possibly Heisman Trophy winning halfback Steve Owens of Oklahoma; 2) Trading the pick for immediate help, including a veteran quarterback; 3) Taking a quarterback.

After all, the Steelers were members of the well-respected BLESTO-V scouting combine, and four other players had a better BLESTO score than Bradshaw's 1.3. Notre Dame defensive tackle Mike McCoy and Texas Christian fullback Norm Bulaich received 1.0 grades followed by Utah State defensive tackle Phil Olsen and North Texas State defensive end Cedric Hardman at 1.1.

In the BLESTO grading system, a 0.0 was the best possible grade although the highest score the combine had given anyone up to that time was a 0.4 to Simpson a year earlier.

Dallas player personnel director Gil Brandt (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jan. 21, 1970): "Terry Bradshaw and Mike Phipps are first-round cinches. Then there are Mike McCoy and Phil Olsen of Utah State. Olsen can play tight end, defensive end or guard. He's fast and big like Bob Lilly. He could go offense or defense. McCoy is strictly defense. Somebody may go for Kenny Burrough, a flanker at Texas Southern. What there is isn't the top caliber guy like O.J. Simpson, Leroy Keyes, George Kunz or Joe Greene – not that many, I mean."

Thomas on McCoy and Penn State's undersized DT Mike Reid (Miami News, Jan. 16, 1970): "They're two very different types of football players. … Reid has all that quickness, and you could play him at several positions: defensive end, defensive tackle and maybe middle linebacker. McCoy is a stronger physical specimen. He should really play defensive tackle. I think he's the finest defensive tackle since Merlin Olsen (in 1962)."

It also was in the Steelers' DNA from their dismal past to be tempted by any trade offer that included a proven veteran quarterback, all-pro level or not. And, again, they listened.

Dan Rooney, then the Steelers' vice president, told Pat Livingston of the Pittsburgh Press that they weighed three or four "very firm" offers the night before the draft and were open to more the next morning, but also had been leaning toward taking Bradshaw for at least several weeks.

Dan Rooney (Pittsburgh Press, Jan. 27, 1970): "We more or less considered Bradshaw our first pick after what Chuck had seen of him (at the North-South Shrine Game in Miami and Senior Bowl) after we won the coin flip."

Art Rooney Jr. (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "As far as I was concerned, there was no question that we were going to take (Bradshaw). My dad was very active then, and I told him you might have to wait 20 years to get a shot at a guy like this again. Bradshaw had criticisms – that he wasn't the most astute player, just a great athlete and that kind of stuff. We had tests on him, and he had a normal IQ. We evaluated that and it didn't bother us. And I think that's been borne out. The guy calls his own plays, and we won Super Bowls. … I'll never forget my dad, though, he said maybe you should trade."

Dan Rooney on not making a final decision until the night before the draft (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan. 28, 1970): "We had numerous trade offers for the No. 1 pick but most of them were for a lot of junk. But three or four were legitimate and we considered them carefully."

The selection of Bradshaw was proof that a new day had dawned in Pittsburgh. Although Bradshaw wasn't an instant success, he put them on the path to a 5-9 record in 1970, their first-ever playoff victory in 1972 and four Super Bowl titles before the decade was over.

The draft was the stimulus for it all.

In 1971, the Steelers added seven players who would start for four to 12 seasons, including future Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Ham in the second round. In 1972, their first-round choice was future Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris. Their 1974 draft might be unmatched in NFL history. It included four future Hall of Famers in the first five rounds: wide receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, linebacker Jack Lambert and center Mike Webster.

Will Walls, longtime former Steelers and BLESTO scout (Christl interview, Feb. 12, 1979): "I put the Pittsburgh Steeler team together, but they don't seem to appreciate it, the b-------. I got them Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris – all of them except Lynn Swann and Lambert. Me and Art Rooney Jr. I used to argue with Noll. I'd tell him about Bradshaw, and he said, 'No, I want Mike Phipps.' I'd tell him, 'The hell with Phipps.'"

Steelers scout Bill Nunn Jr. ("Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL"): "Bradshaw – great talent, no question about it. Great arm, marginal touch on his flair passes that you had to have, particularly in the beginning. Great hands to catch. Would have had a lot of balls intercepted early, but the ball was coming so fast that even the defensive players couldn't catch it. Great athlete. Physically had a lot of things. … Early on, Bradshaw had the reputation of being an idiot. That wasn't true. Maybe he wasn't the smartest quarterback, but he did call his own plays. So, questioning his intelligence did not hold up."

Art Rooney Jr. (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "Phipps was the guy they were comparing to Bradshaw. They were running neck-and-neck and then it was like Secretariat, (Bradshaw) just pulled out in front."

After Green Bay chose McCoy with the second overall pick obtained from the Bears, the Browns took Phipps third. A day earlier, they traded 27-year-old, three-time Pro Bowl receiver Paul Warfield to Miami for the third pick in the draft.

The Browns admitted they had ranked Bradshaw as the No. 1 quarterback, but still believed Phipps was worth the cost of one of their best and most popular players. As it turned out, Phipps played 12 seasons, seven with the Browns and five with the Bears. But he made only 51 starts for the Browns and their record in those games was 24-25-2.

Bill Nunn Jr.: From sports editor to Hall of Fame scout

Over the first 33 NFL Drafts, the Steelers selected only five players who have wound up in Canton. Two of the inductees made it solely on what they accomplished with other teams – John Unitas and Len Dawson – and two others – Bill Dudley and John Henry Johnson – made it in part on what they accomplished elsewhere.

Only defensive tackle Ernie Stautner, a second-round pick in 1950, played exclusively with the Steelers. Defensive back Jack Butler, who played nine years with the Steelers and was inducted in 2012, signed as a rookie free agent out of St. Bonaventure University in 1951.

Thus, when Bill Nunn Jr. played a part in the drafting of a second future Hall of Famer in 1970 – cornerback Mel Blount in the third round – it was an uncommon development.

The Steelers' under-the-radar hiring of Nunn was reported in the Pittsburgh Courier on March 19, 1966. The paper revealed that Nunn, who was the Courier's sports editor at the time, would remain in that capacity while serving as a part-time scout for the Steelers and reporting directly to Art Rooney Jr.

On March 19, 1970, the Steelers announced that Nunn would become assistant personnel director, a full-time position, effective June 1. At the same time, he resigned from his newspaper post but continued to select the Courier's Black College All-America football team.

Less than three months earlier, Nunn had named Blount, a 6-3, 205-pound cornerback from Southern University, to the Courier's 45th annual team. Five weeks later, the Steelers drafted him in the third round at Nunn's urging. Blount played 14 years for the Steelers, started on four Super Bowl champions, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989 along with Bradshaw.

With Nunn working for them and retaining his connections to the Historical Black Colleges, the Steelers would mine those schools like no other NFL team in building their 1970s dynasty.

In addition to Blount, the most prominent contributors were Greenwood of what was then Arkansas AM&N, wide receiver Frank Lewis of Grambling, defensive tackle Ernie Holmes of Texas Southern, safety Glenn Edwards of Florida A&M and Stallworth of Alabama A&M.

Art Rooney Jr. (Christl interview, circa early 1980s): "We had a bad reputation with Blacks. We had a few Black players on the team, but they had to be real top players. Big Daddy (Lipscomb), John Henry Johnson. Since Noll came in, of course, that has changed. But even before Noll, my dad came to me and we talked about how Bill Nunn Jr. had all these phenomenal contacts at these Black schools, and he started working parttime for us."

Bill Nunn ("Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL"): "Chuck and I disagreed on (Blount). We both felt he could play, but I thought Mel would have trouble as a cornerback because he was almost 6-foot-4. I thought he should have been a safety. Chuck felt Mel could play cornerback. We went back and looked at the film. Chuck was right because of one doggone thing that I hadn't taken into consideration. With the bump-and-run, Mel could jam the receiver at the line of scrimmage so he couldn't get off and get into running his route."

The wait begins

A decade before the draft was first televised and it became customary for selected prospects to attend the event in person, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle invited Owens, the Heisman Trophy winner, to the 1970 draft.

Owens was expecting to be taken among the top five but lasted until Detroit chose him with the 19th overall pick. His wait prompted Norm Miller of the New York Daily News to write: "Steve Owens felt embarrassed, like the gal who had come all dolled up to the dance and wound up a wallflower." At one point, one observer cracked during Owens' long wait in a small room adjacent to the draft hall, "At this rate, Steve Owens will be signed as a free agent."

The Lions were glad to have him. "A ruby," then head coach Joe Schmidt shouted in their draft room as he lit a cigar. The Lions were hoping one of 11 players on their priority list would still be available. Owens and Vanderbilt tackle Bob Asher were the last to go of the 11.

Owens rushed for 1,035 yards and made the Pro Bowl in his second season but retired after playing only five during which he missed 17 games with injuries.