As part of the recurring feature "10 Questions with…” here at Daddy’s Sugar Ball we will be interviewing sports figures and teams with connections to the local Central PA area.

This week we were honored and privileged to have a face-to-face interview with Penn State alum and Pittsburgh Steeler legend, Dick Hoak.  Hoak had a successful 10-year playing career before retiring and coaching on the Steelers’ staff for an unprecedented 35 years.  Hoak is deservedly beloved in Steelers lore for his loyalty and tenure.

                                                  

DSB: Many fans of the black & gold here in Central PA want to know how retirement is treating you.  How are you keeping busy?

Dick Hoak: It’s going great.  I got out of it 2 years ago after the 2006 season and I’m enjoying it.  I play golf, I fly fish, I travel, I have 7 grandkids and I spend a lot of time with them.

DSB: You played 10 seasons for the Steelers and at the time you retired you were the second leading rusher in Pittsburgh history.  What are your fondest memories from that time?

DH: I don’t know.  The ‘68 season for myself was a great year for me.  I almost had a thousand yards even though I didn’t start the first 4 games.  I played the last 10 I think and came close to a thousand yards.  I had a great year and I went to the Pro Bowl, so that was probably my best year.

DSB: What were the best teams you played on during that time?

DH: My second and third year we were pretty good, but after that we kind of went downhill.  I think my second year we played in what they called a runner-up bowl against Detroit and Detroit beat us by 7 points.   That was the two second place teams.  Then in my third year we had beat the Giants early in the year 31-0 and then we went up to their place to play them in the last game of the year and if we beat them, we would have qualified to play the Bears for the Championship.  But the Giants beat us and it seemed like after that year everything went downhill until Coach Noll came.

DSB: You ended your playing days in 1970 and then came back as Chuck Noll’s offensive backfield coach in 1972.  That meant you were coaching a number of guys (like Rocky Bleier) that you had played with.  Was it hard to make that transition from the trenches to the bench because of that?

DH: It wasn’t that hard.  I think if I were doing it today it would probably be harder.  Back then the players were a little different.  My first year coaching was Franco Harris’ first year so that made my job a little bit easier.  Rocky was a great person, so it really wasn’t a problem.  I never had any problem with the players.

DSB: Speaking of Bleier, I’ve heard you speak glowingly of his work ethic.  I know it’s like picking your favorite child, but who else did you enjoy coaching?

DH: I enjoyed working with most of them.  There weren’t too many bad ones.  My first year was working with Franco.  Franco was a tremendous football player but I don’t think he was given enough credit for what he could do.  Funny story – back in those days they played the college all-star games, so Franco was late coming to camp because he was with the college all-stars.  And I didn’t see Franco until the first week of training camp.   During the first week or two when we were just practicing ourselves, he did some things that made you go “Boy what did we do drafting him #1”.  But then we put him in the first exhibition game and you saw right away by about the fifth play that we got something special.  So Franco was a great one - real fun to coach.  Rocky would do anything you asked him.  Jerome was a good guy.  Merrill Hoge was an excellent player to coach.  And this last guy, Willie Parker, it was really fun coaching him because people didn’t know about him and he hadn’t done much in college and when he first came to us he just relied on running past everybody and then it was just teaching him how to run.  It was really fun coaching him.

DSB: You were offered many other jobs (most notably the head coaching position of the Pittsburgh Maulers of the upstart USFL).  Why didn’t you take any of the offers?

DH: I was actually offered the Maulers job twice.  I had met with the DeBartolos in Youngtown, Ohio and I had the job.  I came home and talked with my wife and I called Coach Noll and Dan Rooney and told them about it and in the end I said “I can’t do this” because I couldn’t go across town and coach the Maulers in a new league and do that to Mr. Rooney.  They’d always treated me very well as a player and a coach.  I just couldn’t see doing that.  I was also offered the Tampa Bay offensive coordinator position under Tony Dungy because I had helped break Tony into coaching.  Philadelphia actually called one time and asked permission to talk to me and the Rooneys said no which was fine with me.  You see, that’s where I lived.  I was raised 30 miles from Pittsburgh.  My family was all there and my wife’s family was there.  My kids all went through the same school system.  I have no regrets.

DSB: You are famously the only coach to work under both Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.  Can you elaborate on what made both of them successful?

DH: They are both great competitors.  They’re completely different people.  It just shows that there are different ways to get the job done.  Chuck was not as much a player’s coach as Bill was.  Bill was friends with the players but then he would also chew them out pretty good; where Chuck’s motivation was different.  He felt that you’re a man and you’re supposed to know how to do this.  You’re here, you’re a man and I shouldn’t have to kick you in the butt to get you going.  If you don’t think this is important enough to do the best you can, then leave.  I don’t want you around.  Whereas Bill would push you to get extra out of some guys.  Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t.  They were two different people.

DSB: Teams around the league are employing the running back by committee.  Do you see this as the immediate future of the NFL…especially if the league goes to the rumored 18-game schedule?

DH: Yeah it is.  We did it.  We did it with Jerome and Willie and we did it with Jerome and Duce Staley.  Actually that’s been going on for a while now.  It’s done a little different in that the way we tried to do it most of the time up until 4-5 years ago was we just took the starting back out on 3rd down and we always had a 3rd down back and that’s where we rested them.  But now they’re trying to rest them during the regular offense.  Now you got to have two backs that can do that well.  If you don’t have that, you’re not going to go to that.

DSB: For a guy who didn’t play much after his freshman year at North Carolina, Willie Parker has done pretty well in the NFL.  Is it easier to coach a guy like that because he’s a blank slate coming into camp and not as well-known and you can mold him more than someone who is more touted?

DH: Willie came in with a chip on his shoulder.  You get a guy that’s taken #1, sometimes they think they know everything already.  And that’s not the case with everybody – Franco was not that way, Jerome was not that way.  They listened and you could teach them and they would learn new things.  But there are some players that fought that.  But Willie came in with a chip on his shoulder.  He went to North Carolina and I don’t know why he never played down there.  I don’t understand that.  But he was young and he was a raw talent.  His whole thing, his idea was “I’ll run as fast as I can as soon as I get the ball”.  We had to teach him how to slow down and read holes, and teach him pass routes and he still doesn’t have great hands.  I know they’re working with him and we worked with him.  But that’s one thing he has to work on – catching the ball.  Like I said earlier, it was really fun coaching Willie to see him come from where he was to what he ended up being.

DSB: Compared to the old days, there is so much more film on guys and the combine is now even being broadcast.  Yet there continues to be high draft picks that don’t pan out.  Is there a reason some players are successful and others aren’t?

DH: The way I feel about it, they have all these things they measure - - they measure how fast you run, they measure how high you jump, they measure how far you jump, they measure how quick you change directions, how you catch the ball.  All of that stuff.  But the thing they can’t measure is this <Hoak points to his chest>, they can’t measure your heart.  The other thing they can’t measure is what you are going to do when you get that money.  If you are a high draft choice and you get a big bonus some of these guys say “well I got my money”, so that’s the difference I think.

We here at DSB were very thankful for the opportunity to sit down with a true legend.  We cannot express how grateful we were for Mr. Hoak’s time and candidness.

Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy's Sugar Ball...