I write today’s article as a nod to the MLB Draft, where the Pittsburgh Pirates hold the #1 overall pick in tonight’s draft. We still don’t know what direction they’re going, if they’ll select OF Dylan Crews, SP Paul Skenes, or surprise everyone with what’s behind Door #3, but they’re setting the entire class.
The Pittsburgh Steelers picking 1st overall has been far less common and hasn’t taken place for more than 50 years. But it has happened three times throughout their history. Let’s offer a brief history lesson on all three players and how their careers panned out.
TB Bill Dudley – 1942
The first, first overall pick. The undersized Dudley became the first overall pick of the 1942 draft by the Steelers. Hailing from Virginia, he made up for a lack of stature and became an immediate impact player. As a rookie, he led the NFL with 696 yards rushing with five scores on the ground. He also tossed a pair of touchdown passes and was named a Pro Bowler and All-Pro out of the gate. At the time, he was just the third player in NFL history to achieve those feats as a rookie (granted, the NFL was still pretty young). To date, only 58 players have ever accomplished it and the only Steeler to ever do it.
After spending two years in the military during World War II, he returned to the NFL and the Steelers in 1945. As we wrote about earlier this offseason, the following 1946 season was one of the best single-season performances in team history. That year, he again led the league in rushing while also leading in punt return average, all-purpose yards, and even interceptions. Dudley did it all for the team from running the ball, catching it, throwing it, and even kicked two field goals and a dozen extra points.
Ultimately, Dudley would play only three seasons in Pittsburgh and spent nine years total in the NFL. A very good pick for the times when it was easy to choose a player who did nothing for your team, if he even showed up. Dudley would go on to become a Hall of Famer.
DB Gary Glick – 1956
One of my favorite Steelers’ stories in franchise history, Glick still holds the distinct honor of being the only defensive back to ever be selected #1 overall. It came by way of a “bonus pick” through a draft lottery, picking names out of a hat, and as the story goes, the Steelers accidentally saw which slip would get them the #1 selection, correctly picking it when the hat was passed to them.
But they settled on Glick, a player they knew almost nothing about. Playing at Colorado State with zero film on a player from out west, and head coach Walt Kiesling selecting him solely on the basis of a letter of recommendation from Glick’s college coach, he became the first overall selection of the 1956 draft. When Pittsburgh finally got Glick’s college tape mailed to them weeks later, they were disappointed by what they saw.
Truthfully, Glick was a decent player who spent four years with the team and picked off four passes. But Pittsburgh passed on QB Earl Morrall for him and missed on the chance to draft names like RB Lenny Moore or OT Forrest Gregg (in fairness, they had other picks in the draft and still passed on some of those players).
QB Terry Bradshaw – 1970
And then there’s Bradshaw, who most Steelers’ fans know as the first overall pick of the draft. His story doesn’t need to be told in-depth. The Blonde Bomber from Louisiana Tech, Bradshaw’s NFL career got off to a difficult start as the Steelers were still assembling their roster. He had an icy relationship with head coach Chuck Noll, who coached him hard, and benched him multiple times.
But by 1972, Bradshaw began to find traction, cut down on his mistakes, and the Steelers began to win. It took until 1975 for him to have a season in which he threw for more touchdowns than interceptions but he played a key role in the team’s latter two Super Bowls, throwing for 318 yards and four touchdowns to beat Dallas in 1978 and 309 yards and two scores the following year to knock off the Rams. A two-time Super Bowl MVP, Bradshaw would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
