Today would have been Chuck Noll’s 85th birthday. In June of 2014, Charles Henry Noll, passed away and Steelers Nation mourned. But his legacy and the standard of excellence he established in Pittsburgh will live on forever. For 36 years the Pittsburgh Steelers wandered the NFL desert of mediocrity and were downright awful. That all changed on January 27, 1969 the Steelers hired Coach Noll and the standard in Pittsburgh would be changed forever.
To say he was a “Great Coach” would be like saying Picasso was a great painter, a dramatic understatement, the record should speak for itself. He was a man of great humility and never believed in ‘hyping” himself. He believed in treating football as a business and the lessons that can be learned translate much further than the playing field.
He taught men to not only be better football players, he taught men to prepare themselves for their life’s work and most of all be better people.
I can write about a hundred of his best philosophies, but here are the five that I have always tried to live by:
- Be Yourself: Bill Austin was the coach prior to Noll. He came with a great pedigree, having learned at the right hand of NFL legend Vince Lombardi. He basically tried to emulate Lombardi in every way…the issue was, he wasn’t Lombardi. The Steelers remained terrible and eventually had to part ways with Austin to hire Noll. Coach Noll believed in being yourself, he amalgamated his coaching influences, which included football royalty, such as Paul Brown, Sid Gillman and Don Shula into his philosophies, but he never once tried to be anyone but who he was. He was a teacher at heart, never demonstrative and always well prepared.
When he finally left the Steelers after two plus decades of success, his advice to his successor Bill Cowher, “Be Yourself, do your best, and I am sure you are going to be fine.”
- Servant Leadership: Coach Noll believed his job was to prepare everyone for their “Life’s Work” and he lived that principal every day. He was very secure in who he was and what he could do for his team and players. At the heart of who he was, was a teacher. He believed in making the people around him better. It wasn’t with false bravado; it was with strong fundamental instruction. He didn’t feel it was his job to motivate people, he felt it was his job to take motivated people and make them better!
- Establish a standard and hold people accountable: The Steelers standard quite frankly was losing. Chuck Noll established a change in philosophy and believed in developing his own players. He didn’t want someone else’s headache. There was a process to success and that process while needing adjustment had a core to it, that had to be maintained. There was also a factor of accountability to maintain the standard and “do your job”. That is a philosophy and a strategy that the Steelers still employ to this day.
- Surround yourself with the right people: The story has been told many times and in varying degrees, I will borrow Rocky Bleier’s version of the story.:
“I’ve been your head coach for the past five months, and I’ve watched every film of every practice of every game that you’ve played in over the past three years, and I can tell you why you’ve been losing—you’re just not any good. You have no talent, you have no authority, and you can’t cover, and you have no discipline. By the time this training camp is over, most of you will not be here.”
By the way he did, the majority of the players on that team were gone by the Steelers first Super Bowl victory. He had a habit of being blunt, but he knew what type of players he wanted, he drafted them accordingly and built not only the Steelers Dynasty, but he left a foundation for Coach Cowher to lead the Steelers to an AFC Championship.
- The Thrill is in the Doing: For Chuck Noll, winning the Super Bowl a record four times should have been the penultimate moment of his professional life. But somehow it wasn’t. For Coach Noll it was always about the journey. His passion was taking a group of players and molding them into a team, that is what he thrived on. Victories were a byproduct of hard work, preparation and determination. He wanted to build a winner and toil in the football laboratory of his mind. “I think we’re going to enjoy it for just a short time, and then get on to next year,” said Noll. He was passionate about his job and when he realized he couldn’t do it anymore, he walked away, with his head held high!
Chuck Noll probably summed up his career better than anyone at his farewell press conference, quoting Emerson;
“Your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying,’ and I’d like to keep it that way.”
We could hear you Coach!
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19911227&slug=1325342
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/06/17/chuck-noll-pittsburgh-steelers-coach-the-teacher
MacCambridge, Michael. Chuck Noll: His Life’s Work. Pittsburgh, PA: U of Pittsburgh, 2016. Print.
Five “Business “Quotes by Chuck Noll:
- “Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else.”
- “Good things come to those who hustle”
- “Pressure is something you feel when you do not know what you are doing.”
- “If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does them day in and day out.”
- “The thrill isn’t in the winning, it’s in the doing.”
Quotes about Chuck Noll:
- “Coach (Chuck) Noll was tremendous in regards to talking about your life. Not just football. We had to accomplish things, but you had to get ready for life, you had to figure out what you were going to be all about as a person..’ – Hall of Fame Coach Tony Dungy
- “Chuck was just the ultimate leader. He had truth and belief in what he was saying, and over time all of those things he said were validated, the things about winning football games and being a solid citizen.” — Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe Greene.
- “He made me mentally strong, which I wasn’t. And he instilled in me a great work ethic.” — Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
- “Chuck Noll is building one hell of a football team up in Pittsburgh.” – NFL Legend Vince Lombardi
- “He was the greatest man I ever knew.” – BWG Hall of Famer Merrill Hoge
http://stillcurtain.com/2011/04/20/say-what-top-ten-steelers-quotes-of-all-time/