Pictures can capture a moment in time, a moment many of us remember and some many never have seen.
So, we decided to share some of those moments in time through 'Picture Perfect' where we will bring to life historical Steelers photos.
Throughout the remainder of the offseason, Steelers.com will be featuring photos that tell the story of the Steelers through the years.
In today's feature, and rightfully the first one of the series, late Steelers founder Arthur J. Rooney is featured sitting in his office at Three Rivers Stadium.
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Art Rooney Sr., who lived just blocks from the stadium, felt at home at Three Rivers Stadium, a place where he saw his team grow by leaps and bounds as they found the ultimate success winning four Super Bowl titles in six years.
The office didn't have a computer back in those days, a phone behind his desk and in-person conversations were his way of communicating.
His door was always open for players to walk in and talk with him, and it could be about anything. Football was always a favorite topic, but nothing would be off limits. Including horses.
On his desk sat a statue with a one-dollar bill stuck in it. Looking at it, one would wonder what it was.
The answer wasn't what many expected.
"I would go in and visit with him all of the time," Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw shared on one of his rare visits back to Pittsburgh. "We talked horses. I lost a bet to him on a horse race, and I owed him a dollar and I put it in the fingers of a statue in his office. Somebody told me that same dollar bill was still there years later. You had to have a relationship, a close relationship, to have something like that happen.
"I was fortunate to have been a player under his ownership and to see how a man who was so humble, who had no idea how much he was upheld in the NFL circles."
Sitting front and center on the desk in this photo is a steel football. It was presented to Rooney in 1982 to celebrate the Steelers 50th season and presented to him by the United States Steel Corporation.
The football had such meaning, the Steelers replicated it in a bronze fashion to present to the team's Hall of Honor members beginning in 2017.
"We wanted to do something to replicate the football that was given to my grandfather during that celebration," said team President Art Rooney II at the time it was introduced. "We feel that this will be something special to give to those we induct into the Hall of Honor and carry on the Steelers tradition. We think it's something that everyone will be happy with."
Among the other many meaningful items is a key to the City of Pittsburgh, presented by then Mayor Pete Flaherty in 1975. The key reads: 1975 Super Bowl Champions, Arthur J. Rooney, Prez.
The office was also full of photos, some which can be seen behind him in this photo that included family directly behind his desk, and others that adorned his walls of players and moments throughout the history of the team that had meaning to him. On the wall directly behind him is a photo of David L. Lawrence, the former four-term Mayor of Pittsburgh and Governor of Pennsylvania. Rooney and Lawrence had a close relationship, so close that Lawrence was Rooney's presenter when he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In his Hall of Fame introduction speech, Lawrence shared the following about Rooney.
"Art Rooney came into football back in 1933. He has given more to sports and asked for less than any man in the game. He is the all-time, all-around sportsman, participant, promoter, fan, and benefactor. He was a good minor league outfielder, won amateur boxing titles, and scrimmaged on rocky semi-pro gridirons. When it was possible and maybe when it wasn't, he financed financially shaky baseball clubs, backed big boxing shows, sponsored amateur athletes, and fed many a hungry fighter.
"But what did he ever do for pro football…kept it breathing in its very cradle, Pittsburgh, when no one else would. Kept it from floundering in World War II by fielding a team when others shied away. Kept it rise from raggedy days with top price magic names such as Whizzer White, Jock Sutherland, Bill Dudley. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to place the name of Arthur Rooney, a man without an enemy, in Football's Hall of Fame."
