Two long-time members of the Steelers scouting department, who were among the engineers of building the teams of the 1970s, are among the inductees in Art Rooney Jr. and the late Bill Nunn.

Under the leadership of Art Rooney Jr., the team's personnel director from 1965-86, and Chuck Noll, the Steelers drafted nine future Hall of Famers, and helped build a dynasty that won four Super Bowls in six years.

"A friend of mine who was an editor at Sports Illustrated took a scouting trip with me at one time and said, Art, you are on a quest," said Rooney Jr. "I didn't know what a quest was. I did find out. A quest is an honor and a privilege. It was just that. My dad gave me a job in the organization that I thought was the most important job, just like everybody should think their job is. You can lose if you have good football players. But you will never win if you don't have great football players. I spent a lot of effort, but it was a labor of love with my dad, and my brother Dan.

"I saw a team picture one time at Heinz Field. My dad was in the middle, Walt Keisling was next to him, Dan was next to him. The other side of dad was Johnny Blood McNally, and I was next to him. I looked at it and said, dad, Walt, Dan and Blood are in the Hall of Fame. Now that I am in the Hall of Honor, I belong with those guys. It's a tremendous honor for me."

Rooney Jr., who said he learned so much about scouting from Noll, took great pride in the fact that so many of the players on those Super Bowl teams of the 70s were all home grown, something that is almost impossible in this day of free agency.

"Chuck Noll was a great teacher for me," said Rooney Jr. "I was one of his main students. You had to have the great athletes. They had to have the intangibles too. They had to have smarts. They had to have team values. Those were things that I learned from him and they got through to all of us in the scouting department. To know we won with home grown talent, that was something I was so proud of.

"But it was never I, it was we. That is what made it special, doing it with that group of guys. We all had the same desire to get the job done."

Nunn, who in addition to scouting the traditional schools, also broke into scouting the Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU), opening the doors for thousands of athletes through the years.

"I always admired his work from a distance," said General Manager Kevin Colbert. "I got to know him as I got in the business. He was a veteran scout, I was a young scout. Any time you ran into him on the road, you always wanted to be able to plug in and ask him questions, just try to learn from him because he had done so much in the business already.

"What Bill was able to do with the HBCU's was well documented. He opened a lot of doors that were tough to get open. He was able to find players others weren't able to. He was a scout at all levels."

Even after his retirement from the team's scouting department, Nunn stayed with the Steelers as a part-time scout, his contributions more valuable than ever.

"After Bill retired he kept working," said Colbert. "He was with us working after he retired longer than he worked for the team. He still worked part time up until his passing. He loved the business, but he also loved the Pittsburgh Steelers. He gave us so much time, even to the year he passed. He was so involved with our draft preparation. To have him here in our meetings was a great enhancement of our efforts."

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