Lynn Swann was one of the key cogs to the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty in the 1970s and a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Inevitably, though, one of the things that always comes up when talking about Swann is his background in studying ballet, which he did from the age of four until his senior year of high school. However, it was something that he apparently didn’t want to be known among his classmates until he confessed to Peter Barsocchini, his teammate on the Junipero Serra high school basketball team.
Barsochini later went on to have success in Hollywood, with his biggest hit coming in the form of a 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical, which centered on high schooler Troy Bolton trying to balance his love of basketball with a newfound love of musical theater. According to Barsocchini in Ashley Spencer’s new book Disney High, the inspiration for Bolton was Swann.
“I always wanted to dance ballet,” Swann said according to Barsocchini. “But if you ever tell anyone, I’ll kill you.”
“That anecdote became the perfect sports-driven tension to add to their Disney Channel musical idea,” Spencer wrote.
While they changed ballet to musical theater as they felt that their male target audience wouldn’t take as well to ballet, it’s pretty crazy to know that Swann had a hand in one of the biggest movies of a generation. If you were in elementary school at the peak of High School Musical’s success (and I know most of you weren’t), you would know the cultural impact that the movie had on kids and teenagers worldwide.
In second grade, I went as Troy Polamalu for Halloween. In third grade, it was Troy Bolton. So now, I guess I can say I had back-to-back Steelers-related costumes, knowing that Swann and his love for ballet mixed with his love of sports was the inspiration for Bolton. Swann’s comment to Barsocchini launched a movie franchise that included three films, with the third being a theatrical release, a spin-off movie and a spin-off television series, a book series, video games, and a live tour while launching the careers of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.
While Swann didn’t end up dancing ballet professionally, he did get his head in the game on the football field. He became a four-time Super Bowl Champion, a Super Bowl MVP, and a Walter Payton Man of the Year award winner for his work off the field in 1981. Eventually, he felt comfortable enough to open up about his ballet studies, and it’s one of the first things you’ll read about Swann in his Hall of Fame inductee bio. Maybe next, they can add “the real-life Troy Bolton.”
