1947 Steelers

Author Steve Massey wrote a book titled "The Starless Steelers", which tells the tale of the 1947 Pittsburgh Steelers team. That season should be forever endeared to Pittsburgh football fans as it was the first post season appearance of the franchise and the only one for the first almost forty years of their existence in the NFL.

Author Steve Massey joined us recently in the Pigpen to talk about one of my favorite subjects, Pittsburgh Steelers history! Steve wrote a book titled "The Starless Steelers", which tells the tale of the Pittsburgh franchise's only post season team for the first 4 decades of their existense, the 1947 squad.

Steve guides us through the fact that the Steelers during World War II man power shortage combined teams with the Philadelphia Eagles  to comprisse the Steagles in 1943 and with the Chicago Cardinals in 1944 to make the winless team known as the "CarPitts." These two seasons of the merged squads resulted in a combined record of 5-14-1. When the war was over the player levels resumd back to normal these three teams were the only ones in 1947 to make the postseason. The Eagles and Steelers were forced to have a "play-in" game when they tied for the Eastern Division title and the Chicgao Cardinals won the West outright. The Cardinals would go on to defeat the Philadelphia in the 1947 NFL Championsip Game.

The Steelers rise to success stemmed from the hiring of Head Coach Jock Sutherland when he returned from active miliatry duty in the U.S. Navy where he achieved the rank of Lieutenant commander. Previously Sutherland coached in the National Football League with the Brooklyn Dodgers for two seasons, 1940–41, before leaving the team to serve his country. He was formerly a player too with the Massillon Tigers in 1919 and coached at Lafayette College and at the University of Pittsburgh. He learned the single wing offensive formation from his mentor and the concept's innovator, Coach Pop Warner.

Sutherland did the unpopular transaction of trading away Pittsburgh's best Player, Bullet Bill Dudley, to the Detroit Lions early on in his tenure in Pittsburgh. Art Rooney Sr supported his coach eventhough Dudley, the rest of the team and even the fans reacted poorly to the deal. It ende up being a strok of genius as the Steelers were given multiple servicable players that helped build their 1947 success and fill many holes on the team.

The Steelers in 1947 ended the regular season with a record of 8-4 and then sufferd a 21-0 defeat to the Eagles. The game was the only post season appearance of the Pittsburgh franchise until the Immaculate Reception game on December 23, 1972.

The banner photo is of A basic (perhaps rough draft) illustration of an American football helmet. 2 different version of the face mask part, neither one I am happy with, but the idea was to have those elements selectable so users could change the color. Some elements traced from the PD image from Andrew C

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from Steve and his novel Steve Massey's great book titled "The Starless Steelers" as well as Pro-Football-Reference.com