One for the Thumb: The New Steelers Reader

Randy Roberts, David Welky

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006 - Sports & Recreation - 366 pages

On February 5, 2006, the Pittsburgh Steelers joined the ranks of the elite teams in National Football League history, celebrating their fifth Super Bowl victory. From an unspectacular 7-5 start, to completing the greatest playoff run ever, to the fairy tale ending of Jerome Bettis's Hall of Fame career and the vindication of Bill Cowher's coaching tenure, the 2005 season was not only one for the thumb, but "truly one for the ages."

One for the Thumb is a collection of the best writing about the fabled franchise by local and national sportswriters, and former players. It covers the team's history from Art Rooney Sr.'s purchase of the NFL franchise in 1933 for $2,500 to their Super Bowl XL victory. From their frustrating early days as the Pirates, Steagles, and Card-Pitts, through their four Super Bowl wins in the 1970s, to the fateful day in 2004 when they selected Ben Roethlisberger as the eleventh overall pick in the draft, One for the Thumb captures the essence of the team whose identity is forever linked with the spirit of the hardworking, blue-collar city it represents.

From immortals Bobby Layne, Ernie Stautner, and John Henry Johnson, to Chuck Noll, Terry Bradshaw, Mean Joe Greene, Rocky Bleier, and Neil O'Donnell, to current greats Troy Polamalu, Jerome Bettis, Ben Roethlisberger, and Bill Cowher, One for the Thumb is the definitive anthology of the Pittsburgh Steelers--a must-read for all fans of the team and the game of football.

Contents

• What Im Telling You Is That Weve Tried: 17
• Rooneys Ride: 30
• Pirates Rally to Defeat Cards 1413: 36

About the author

Randy Roberts, professor of history at Purdue University, is the author or editor of fourteen books, including Pittsburgh Sports: Stories from the Steel City. He is the recipient of the Ray and Pat Browne Award from the Popular Culture Association. David Welky was born and raised in St. Louis, the consummate Midwestern river town. He received a BA in history from Truman State University in Missouri and a MA and PhD, both in history, from Purdue University. He has written widely on American culture and society in the interwar era and is the author of Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression and The Moguls and the Dictators: Hollywood and the Coming of World War II. He is currently associate professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Bibliographic information

• Title: One for the Thumb: The New Steelers Reader; Library of Pittsburgh Sports H
• Editors: Randy Roberts, David Welky
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Oct 9, 2008
• ISBN: 0822959453, 9780822959458
• Length: 366 pages
• Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Football; Sports & Recreation / General