If you were to list the greatest left tackle in Pittsburgh Steelers history, you would most likely say Jon Kolb. Kolb was drafted in 1969 and played for the Steelers until 1981. He was a stalwart on the 1970s offensive line as he protected QB Terry Bradshaw and helped power Pittsburgh’s run game.
Yet, Kolb never thought he was going to be drafted by Pittsburgh. Kolb was at Acrisure Stadium for the Steelers home opener and talked with former Steeler Arthur Moats about his draft story. In the interview, which you can watch on the Arthur Moats YouTube channel, he explained that the Steelers were the one team he thought wasn’t going to draft him.
“I never met a single Pittsburgh Steeler personnel [during the pre-draft process],” said Kolb. “And the day before the draft, I got a letter it said, ‘Dear player,’ from the Pittsburgh Steelers. And people would say, ‘Where do you think you’re going’ And I’d go, ‘All I know is I won’t be going to Pittsburgh.'”
The Steelers did draft him though with their third round pick. The draft takes a while, but Kolb didn’t know that so on draft night he remembered thinking he wasn’t drafted because he thought the draft took 15 minutes. But, as Kolb recalled, after 11:00 p.m. he got a phone call from Art Rooney.
“I said, ‘Yes sir, who is this?,’ remembered Kolb. “And he said, ‘It’s Art Rooney Sr.’ I didn’t know who that was. And I said, ‘Right.’ He said, ‘The Pittsburgh Steelers have just drafted you.’ And I went, ‘Right.’ And then he said to me, I will never forget, he said, ‘Are you excited to come to Pittsburgh?’ And I said, ‘No.’ I thought somebody’s grandpa was putting him up to this. And so that night I thought I didn’t get drafted ’cause nobody else called.”
Kolb only realized that he actually was drafted the next day when he saw his name in the paper saying he got drafted by the Steelers. Kolb, embarrassed at not believing Mr. Rooney, called him back and apologized, and in true Mr. Rooney fashion, was the first person to greet Kolb in Pittsburgh.
“I called Mr. Rooney up on Monday morning, I was in tears,” said Kolb. “I’m going, ‘Mr. Rooney, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’ And he thought it was funny. But here’s the thing, when they [the Steelers] picked me up at the airport, at the Pittsburgh airport, and took me to Saint Vincent College, you know who was waiting to shake my hand? Mr. Rooney. Mr. Rooney was the first person that said hi to me in Pittsburgh.”
Mr. Rooney was always known as caring deeply for his players and making sure to know about them on a personal level. It is what made him such a revered and loved owner. It could have been easy for Mr. Rooney to take Kolb’s disbelief and non-excitement to being drafted by Pittsburgh as disrespectful, but Mr. Rooney didn’t because by all accounts that wasn’t the type of person he was.
It is funny that the Steelers really didn’t put Kolb through a pre-draft process. I can’t give a definite reason for that but it could be for a couple of reasons. First, Pittsburgh was going through a coaching change that offseason. The Steelers fired head coach Bill Austin and replaced him with Chuck Noll. Noll was hired on January 27, 1969, and the 1969 NFL draft was on January 28 and January 29. It is possible that the Steelers had no plans to draft Kolb under Austin and had not paid him any attention until Noll was hired or at least being heavily considered to be Pittsburgh’s next head coach. That could track with why Kolb only got a letter of interest by the Steelers a day before the draft which was not very personable.
A second reason could just be that it was the 1960s and things were much more informal. In the interview Kolb mentioned the Dallas Cowboys doing a lot of pre-draft process activaties with Kolb, but it could be that they were an exception and other teams like Pittsburgh were not very involved in that.
Whatever the reason is for Pittsburgh not reaching out to Kolb pre-draft it doesn’t really matter. Kolb became a Steeler and played a big part in the Steelers dynasty of the 1970s, helping beat the Cowboys twice in the Super Bowl.
