When I heard the news yesterday that Dick Hoak had died at age 86, I had this thought: Did anyone not named Rooney ever serve the Steelers longer than Dick Hoak? That question was answered in the opening paragraph of Gerry Dulac's article in this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette when he referred to him as "longest tenured non-owner in Steelers history".
Think about it. Hoak came to the Steelers as a rookie from Penn State and Jeanette (PA) High School in 1961. He retired as a player after the 1970 season, spent one year coaching high school football in Wheeling, WV and returned to the Steelers as running backs coach on Chuck Noll's staff in 1972, and there he stayed until he retired after the 2005 season.
As a player, he played under head coaches Buddy Parker, Mike Nixon, Bill Austin and Chuck Noll. He was an assistant coach under both Noll and Bill Cowher. He coached Hall of Fame RB's Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis. He turned down head coaching jobs in the USFL and coordinator jobs in the NFL to stay with the Steelers. He has five Super Bowl rings, and in 2017 he was in the inaugural class of the Steelers Hall of Honor. No one not named Rooney bridged the gap between the sad sack "Same Old Steelers" of yesteryear and the model franchise that the Steelers have become more than Dick Hoak.
RIP Dick Hoak.
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