1967 Authentic Jersey
In the late 1960s, the Green Bay Packers were the National Football League’s dominant team. They had won championships in 1961, 1962, 1965 and 1966, and they had played for the title in 1960. In that respect, every NFL team wanted to be like the Packers.
Dan Rooney might have wanted the Steelers to win like the Packers, but he didn’t necessarily want them to look like the Green Bay Packers.
In early 1966, the Steelers players had an executive committee that would meet with ownership about issues that concerned them. At that time, one of the issues was the uniform. John Campbell, a linebacker going into his second season with the team, was on the executive committee and he was the one who asked Dan Rooney to do something about the uniform.
Mindful of how many teams were morphing into Packers look-a-likes, Dan Rooney decided to make an attempt at something distinctive. That also was the time when the City of Pittsburgh was trying to remake its image, trying to get away from the perception of a dirty, smoky city. One of the areas being refurbished was Downtown, called the Golden Triangle because that was the shape of the land created by the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers flowing into the Ohio River.
Dan Rooney decided to incorporate this unique bit of the city’s geography into the Steelers new uniforms, and that’s how the triangle design came to be a part of the jersey. The triangle was always gold, with the rest of the home jersey being black with white numbers and the road jersey being white with black numbers.
But if the intent of linking the team to its city was a nice idea, the practical execution of it didn’t always go smoothly.
For example, washing the uniforms. In 1966, the Steelers preseason finale was against the Cleveland Browns in Birmingham, Ala., and they were to wear the black jerseys with the gold triangles, because the Browns always preferred to wear their white jerseys. But in laundering the Steelers’ jerseys, the black bled into the gold triangles and created an aesthetic mess.
And then, not everyone was able to make the connection between the Steelers’ jerseys and Pittsburgh’s geography. Midway through the 1966 season, the Steelers were set to play a game against the Cowboys in Dallas on Oct. 30. Shortly before kickoff, Dan Rooney appeared on the Cowboys pregame radio show where he was asked, “Are your wearing those uniforms because tomorrow is Halloween?”
And so following the 1967 season, the Steelers “retired” their golden triangle jerseys for good, but they still remain an interesting part of the franchise’s rich history.
Originally Posted by Acero
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