When the Steelers’ future was in the hands of an undertaker
As the 1950s unfolded and other teams were investing more money and time on the draft, Pittsburgh remained one of the laggards.
The Steelers’ bottom line was the proof. Over the first 20 drafts from 1936-55, they traded their first-round pick twice; eight of their No. 1s never played for them; and five others played two seasons or less.
Prior to hiring Jock Sutherland as their head coach in 1946, the Steelers’ previous coaches would meet with owner Art Rooney the day before they departed for the draft, according to a 1947 Pittsburgh Press story, and compile a list of up to 30 college players they remembered reading about during the past season.
That was basically the extent of Pittsburgh’s draft preparation.
Sutherland, who had registered a 111-20-12 record as coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1924-38, was hired too late to do much of any preparation for the 1946 draft.
But in the summer before Sutherland’s second and final season – he died of a malignant brain tumor in April 1948 at age 59 – he assigned the task of gathering information on a list of draft prospects to Pat Livingston, the team’s public relations director.
Their teamwork lasted one draft. Livingston quit over a disagreement between the two, four months before Sutherland’s death. Soon thereafter, Livingston began a 35-year career as a sportswriter with the Pittsburgh Press.
Livingston (Pittsburgh Press, April 23, 1989): “The Steelers had absolutely no players and no idea what players looked like. Jock Sutherland came in, the first real coach they ever had, and he was so totally fed up with the players in camp, he said, ‘Pat, how would you like to be a scout?’ I said, ‘I never coached or played. I can’t be a scout.’ He said, ‘You’ve seen a lot of football. If they look like players, make a report. I’m not going through another year like this.'”
Sutherland on the day before his second draft (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 14, 1946): “The other teams in our league are so far advanced in their draft and farm systems, that it’s going to take some time for us to catch up with them. We’ve had to build from the ground up, and our prospects of drawing anyone worthwhile from the draft this year are not even as good as last when we selected (Doc) Blanchard (who never played pro ball).”
In short, following Livingston’s departure and a little more than two months before his death, Sutherland hired Ray Byrne for the same job. In breaking the news to his readers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports columnist Al Abrams wrote: “Ray Byrne … is an undertaker when he isn’t digging up grid records more than a hundred years old.”
From 1949-55, Byrne, who stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 120 pounds, gathered the information on prospects that the Steelers coaches used to make their picks. At the same time, he was making his living as a mortician at his family’s Byrne Funeral Home in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Highland Park.
Kiely on Byrne (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): “He was a statistician and historian, who this was kind of an avocation to. He was an undertaker by vocation. But he was good. He collected all the information and got it to the coaches.”
Byrne on how he gathered his information on players without scouting games (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Jan. 18, 1979): “I found in those days, your best check was not so much coaches for recommendations – opposing coaches, yes; but not coaches of their own players – but rather the bars and local newsstands because people in town knew who the good players were. I’d go in buy a drink, introduce myself: ‘I’m Ray Byrne from the Steelers and I’d like to ask a few questions about ballplayers.’ Just start gabbing. They’d say, ‘nothing here’ (pointing to the heart), ‘forget it.’ As I would say, ‘You get more information on the sawdust circuit than you’ll ever get in the plaza.'”
In 1955, the Steelers drafted tackle Frank Varrichione (6-1, 234) of Notre Dame with the sixth overall pick, and he made the Pro Bowl four times in his six seasons with them and once with the Rams in his final five seasons.
But the plum of their draft was a quarterback taken in the ninth round who like so many other Steelers selections back then never played a down for them. His name: Johnny Unitas (6-1, 195) of Louisville.
Byrne claimed he was the one who learned of Unitas through a tip and pushed Steelers coach Walt Kiesling to draft him. Dan Rooney, who would later replace his dad as team president, wrote that he and Byrne were managing the draft together and both agreed to place Unitas’ name on the team’s priority list.
Dan Rooney (Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL, as told to Andrew Masich & David Halaas, 2007): “By the ninth round, Johnny still hadn’t been selected, so I told Ray Byrne, ‘We gotta get this guy now ’cause we don’t want him playing against us.’ Kiesling thought we were nuts.”
Byrne (Jan. 18, 1979 interview): “I drafted Unitas. He comes into training camp and Kiesling comes to me and says, ‘Cut Unitas.’ ‘Kies, please, please, do me a favor, you’ve got the greatest throwing arm that ever came into a Steeler camp.’ He said, ‘He’s dumb.'”
One of four quarterbacks at the start of camp, including veterans Jim Finks and Ted Marchibroda, Unitas was cut by the Steelers after the fourth of six exhibition games.
Whereas Unitas didn’t see action in any of the four games, including a 60-14 drubbing at the hands of San Francisco, fellow rookie quarterback Vic Eaton played in three of them. Drafted in the 11th round, after Unitas, Eaton made a favorable appearance in the opener but then was 2-of-7 with three interceptions against the 49ers and 0-for-1 with another interception against Green Bay.
After being released, Unitas played that year for the semipro Bloomfield Rams. In February 1956, he signed with the Baltimore Colts as a free agent and replaced an injured George Shaw as the starter in the sixth game. Shaw, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1955 draft, never got his job back as Unitas led the Colts to back-to-back NFL championships in 1958 and ’59.
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