Dick Hoak was an inaugural member of the Steelers Hall of Honor as a member of the Class of 2017.

Hoak retired in 2006 after serving the Steelers for 45 seasons as a player and an assistant coach. As a player, he wasn't as good as some of the guys he coached, and as a coach he never ascended above the rank of position coach.

That's one way to paint Hoak's career, but here's another: As a player and an assistant coach, Dick Hoak was an egoless part of the team, a man who did his job quietly but with intensity. He was loyal to the point of forsaking his own advancement to honor a commitment he believed he had made; he was more interested in winning than he was in being right; and he was way more interested in winning than he was in getting the credit.

Still seventh on the franchise's all-time rushing list with 3,965 yards, Hoak accumulated that total on teams that posted a combined 46-88-6 record. Hoak also coached Hall of Fame running backs Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis, and he turned down the head coaching job of the USFL's Pittsburgh Maulers because he believed that accepting it would be disloyal to the Rooneys.

"I just couldn't see myself going across the street to a rival football league in Pittsburgh. There was no way I could have done that."