We’re almost to the finish line of the 2023 offseason. To get us over the hump, I’m taking a look at some Pittsburgh Steelers history and a list of franchise “firsts,” from the standard to the quirky. The pioneers who were the first to reach milestones no Steeler had hit before.
THE FIRST 300-yard Passer: Jim Finks (1952)
Throwing 300 yards in 2023 hardly raises an eyebrow. Half the quarterbacks who do it just rack up garbage-time numbers when cornerbacks are giving a 30-yard cushion and looking to chew clock. But there was a time when it was a rarity. In 1952, only four quarterbacks did it all season. In 2022, it happened 93 times.
Back in ’52, Pittsburgh’s Jim Finks was one of those four quarterbacks. He threw for 306 yards on November 16th, a valiant effort in a 29-28 heartbreaking loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Finks wasn’t just a yardage guy that day. He also tossed four touchdowns, also a first in team history though a feat he’d match two weeks later.
In that milestone game, Cleveland built a 15-0 halftime lead. They pushed it to 22-0 in the third quarter. That’s when Pittsburgh began one of its best-attempted comebacks of all-time. Finks’ first touchdown toss came later in the quarter, hitting Ray Mathews from 33 yards out. Hall of Famer Jack Butler caught Finks’ second scoring pass before the quarter was done, turning it into a competitive 22-14 game.
Otto Graham nudged the lead with a two-yard run in the fourth quarter. But Finks wasn’t done. He again found Mathews for a 38-yard strike before connecting with Elbie Nickel on a nine-yard score. With the extra point, the Browns’ lead was just one, 29-28. If you’re wondering why the Steelers didn’t go for two, the two-point conversion wasn’t created until 1994.
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette would note the following day, the two teams combined for an NFL-record 89 passes, breaking the record previously set in 1950. Pittsburgh would finish the day with 18 first downs, 16 of them coming through the air and only one on the ground (the other one came via penalty).
Finks would again throw for 300-plus yards in 1954 and 1955, his high watermark of 337 yards. Fellow Hall of Famer Bobby Layne would break that mark in 1958 with a 352-yard outing. He also became the team’s first 400-yard passer later that same year, a feat that wouldn’t be matched until Tommy Maddox in 2002. Unbelievable, right?
But before Layne, there was Finks. A forgotten quarterback in history. Everyone knows Ben Roethlisberger and Terry Bradshaw. Layne gets a little bit of love but Finks? An afterthought. He shouldn’t be. He was Pittsburgh’s first true QB and its first 300-yard passer.
