Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Buddy Parker and current team vice president and board of directors member Art Rooney Jr. survived the latest round of cuts and are semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Coach/Contributor category. They were two of the 12 people in that category who made it to the next round of selections from the original list of 29. Former Pittsburgh quarterbacks coach Ken Anderson made it on the player’s side for his time with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Parker was Pittsburgh’s head coach from 1957-1964, leading the team to its first winning season, a 7-4-1 mark in 1958. They finished 9-5 in 1962, which was his best record with Pittsburgh. He had more success as the head coach of the Detroit Lions, where he won two championships with Bobby Layne at quarterback. He traded for Layne as Pittsburgh’s head coach, but both are better known for their work in Detroit.
Rooney served in the team’s scouting department from 1964-1986 and has been with the Steelers since 1961. He’s a member of the team’s Hall of Honor, being inducted in 2018.
Anderson is nominated for his time as an MVP-winning quarterback with the Cincinnati Bengals, where he threw for 32,838 yards between 1971-1986. However, Steelers fans will remember him more fondly as the team’s quarterbacks coach from 2007-2009, when he won a ring with the team in 2008.
Other notable semifinalists in the coach/contributor category include former Super Bowl-winning head coach Tom Coughlin, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who employed Bill Cowher before Pittsburgh hired Cowher as its head coach in 1992.
On August 15, the Hall of Fame committee will select one coach or contributor as a finalist for the Class of 2024. Both Parker and Rooney also reached this stage last season but did not advance to the finalist stage as Don Coryell was selected. Maybe one of them will have better luck this year.
