The Pittsburgh Steelers report to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe on July 26. Here is one of our final series to bridge the gap between the end of offseason practices and the start of training camp. This is the first of five parts.
One of my greatest honors remains writing a book with the late, great Tunch Ilkin. His recall was tremendous, his stories even better. Heck, his training camp tales could have filled a book on their own.
None were better than one starring (unwittingly) Jack Lambert and a seemingly harmless box. This one is so good that I can still see Tunch — man, is he missed — telling it during one of our interview sessions.
He set it up by talking about how Lambert and defensive lineman Tom Beasley, who won two Super Bowl rings while playing for the Steelers from 1978-83, were really good friends. They also loved pranks one another at training camp.
One day Beasley had a friend visit with a rattlesnake he brought in a box. He showed it to the players, including Lambert. Before leaving the players’ dormitory, Beasley’s friend surreptitiously put the snake in a different box. He left the box that all the players thought had the snake in it with Beasley.
That night, after Lambert had gone out for a few beverages, Beasley snuck into his dorm room. He left the box Lambert had seen earlier that day in the room.
Without the top on it.
“Jack came back at around 10:45,” Tunch wrote in In The Locker Room, “and all of the sudden we heard, ‘ATTEMPTED MURDERER! ATTEMPTED MURDERER! BEASLEY, YOU’RE GOING TO JAIL!’ He was screaming at the top of his lungs.”
Players rushed Lambert’s room. So did Chuck Noll. Believe it or not, he had been in kicker Matt Bahr’s room playing the ukelele.
“As Jack was going off,” Tunch wrote, “Tom walked down the hall in his sleeping shorts and cowboy boots. Tom said, ‘Jack just put on some cowboy boots. They can’t strike any higher than your calf.’ Jack went nuts again.”
Noll tried to get to the bottom of Lambert screaming about Beasley trying to murder him. He asked the player who was so universally feared — during a game that season Lambert had rookie quarterback John Elway wondering why he had not pursued a career in accounting — why he thought there was a rattlesnake in his room. Lambert said the empty box in his room had been occupied by rattlesnake earlier that day.
“Chuck then backed up,” Tunch wrote.
Beasley – man, he did he have cojones – finally owned up to that gag that was the best one Tunch ever saw during training camp.
The story did not end there.
Mike Webster had also snuck into Lambert’s room while he was out. Before leaving, he put a rubber black snake underneath Lambert’s pillow.
After Noll and Beasley had calmed everything down and everyone had returned to their rooms, Lambert got into bed.
Surprise!
“He started screaming,” Tunch wrote, “and everyone else started laughing.”
