Long before the NFL had its Rooney Rule, which mandates that a team interview at least one minority candidate before it hires a head coach, the man for whom it was named had to convince the managing editor of Pittsburgh’s African-American newspaper that he was welcome in the Steelers’ press box.
Bill Nunn was developing a reputation in NFL circles as a font of information on players from historically black colleges in the late ’60s, but he was one of the only sportswriters in town who never set foot in the Steelers’ offices. Rooney sent word that he wanted to know why.
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Pittsburgh in 2007 hired Mike Tomlin, who won a Super Bowl in his second season.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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“I said, ‘Tell Dan Rooney that as long as the Steelers had the kind of operation that I thought they had, he didn’t have to worry about me coming around,’” Nunn said during a break in the Steelers’ draft prep meetings last month. “I felt that, being at a black newspaper, where we were struggling to get into press boxes and things like that, I didn’t like what I saw in the Steelers.
“Now, once we began talking, I saw some things in Dan that I wasn’t aware of. Dan Rooney wasn’t who I thought he was. That’s something I’m glad I found out.”
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Senior writer Bill King and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour talk about Dan Rooney's many passions and what he has meant to the game of football.
Nunn not only began a regular exchange of information with Rooney, he left the newspaper to work in scouting and player personnel for the Steelers in 1969, playing key roles in identifying foundational players such as John Stallworth, L.C. Greenwood and Mel Blount.
Nunn, who retired 27 years ago but continued evaluating players for the Steelers part-time, was in meetings at the team’s offices late last month when he suffered a stroke. He died of complications from it on May 6. Nunn was 89.
During an interview for this story in early April, Nunn spoke warmly of Rooney as a man whose willingness to look beyond race changed the tenor of coaching hires in the NFL. Before the Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003, NFL teams had hired only six minority coaches in the previous 83 years. Since then, 18 of the 32 NFL teams have hired a coach or general manager who was African-American or Latino, including the Steelers. Mike Tomlin, whom the Rooneys hired in 2007, went on to become the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl.
“It’s not just the [Rooney] rule, it’s that Dan spoke out about the issue,” Nunn said. “He got involved, and that led to change. If you aren’t given an opportunity, how are you going to be successful? It takes somebody like a Dan Rooney to ask that question to get the others to pay attention. And they did.”
