The Pittsburgh Steelers experienced unprecedented success during the late 1970s as they won four Super Bowls across six years. Their vaunted defensive line was a crucial part of that success, earning an iconic moniker still widely known today.
What Is the Steel Curtain?
Pittsburgh’s storied stretch of Super Bowls began in the 1974 season, which it capped off by taking a 16-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl 9. The Steelers then won again the next year in Super Bowl 10, this time defeating the Cowboys 21-17 to tie the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins for the most championships at the time with two.
After two seasons of missing out on the game entirely, Pittsburgh returned to the big stage for Super Bowl 13 and fended off a late Dallas rally to take a 35-31 win. The Steelers repeated the feat a year later with a 31-19 victory over the Los Angeles Rams, becoming the NFL’s first franchise with four Super Bowl championships.
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Although players like Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and Lynn Swann featured for those teams offensively, it was Pittsburgh’s defense, particularly its defensive line, that earned the “Steel Curtain” nickname for its fearsome play.
The vaunted group was led by Pro Football Hall of Famer “Mean” Joe Greene, who led the team to all four of its Super Bowls as a 10-time Pro Bowler and NFL legend. Greene was joined along the defensive front for each of those Super Bowls by the legendary L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White, while Ernie Holmes was part of the team’s first two Super Bowls.
Although the Steel Curtain nickname has since been used to refer to all of Pittsburgh’s menacing defense, it originally referred solely to the stout defensive line led by Greene, Greenwood, White, and Holmes.
The moniker is a play on the “Iron Curtain,” a term used to describe the philosophical divide between the Soviet Union and the so-called Western nations during the Cold War. It also references Pittsburgh’s reputation for steel production and initially spawned from a contest sponsored by WTAE, a radio station in the city.
Then-ninth-grade student Gregory Kronz won the contest after he was one of 17 people to submit the nickname and won a drawing for the prize, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Thus, a legendary nickname was formed for a fearsome defensive group that has long lived in NFL lore.
Greene is the unit’s last surviving member after Holmes and White died in 2008 and Greenwood in 2013.
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