The telephone call came on Friday morning.
"My son Mike called to tell me I had been nominated for the Hall of Fame," Art Rooney Jr. said. "I was like, 'Get the heck out of here.' I'm in a state of shock."
Rooney Jr., who ran the Steelers scouting department from 1965-86, is one of 29 semifinalists in the coach/contributor category. The list will be cut to 12 on July 27 and to one on Aug. 23.
"Just to be nominated is a tremendous honor," Rooney Jr. said. "It's like a last hurrah to have your name mentioned."
Rooney Jr. is 86, still in good health, mentally and physically.
"I go to the doctor's all the time. I think that's because I have good insurance money," he said. "I'm still a fat guy, but I don't drink and I don't smoke anymore. I work out five days a week with my trainer. It's an old man's workout, but it keeps my blood circulating."
This seems like a good time to repeat what I've been saying for years:
Rooney Jr. belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Dan Rooney and Chuck Noll are in, as they should be. They deserve much of the credit for building the Steelers into an NFL dynasty in the 1970s.
Bill Nunn also is in, as he should be. He was a Steelers scout — one of Rooney Jr.'s scouts — who discovered such Hall of Famers as Mel Blount, John Stallworth and Donnie Shell from small Black colleges.
Now, it is time for Rooney Jr.
Start with the Steelers' 1974 rookie class as proof. It is the greatest rookie class in NFL history, probably in sports history. The team drafted Hall of Famers Stallworth, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert and Mike Webster, and signed Shell as a free agent.
It's no wonder the Steelers won four Super Bowls in six years in the 1970s when you consider that draft and the ones before it. Joe Greene came in 1969, Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount in 1970, Jack Ham in 1971 and Franco Harris in 1972.
"I heard them bragging about Dallas having eight players in the Hall of Fame off one team," Rooney Jr. told me in 2020 after Shell was elected. "Try 10."
Of the five Rooney brothers — four now that Dan passed in April 2017 — Rooney Jr. is most like his father, Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr. He is personable and humorous, humble to the point that he often is self-deprecating.
Just one example:
"The only reason I got a job with the Steelers is because my mother insisted that my dad give me one. It was nepotism, pure and simple."
But Rooney Jr. made the most of his amazing life in football. He details all of it in his fascinating book "Ruanaidh" — that's Rooney in Gaelic — which was written with legendary Pittsburgh sportswriter Roy McHugh and released in 2008.
"My job was a passion for me," Rooney Jr. wrote. "Back then, the Rooneys always were looked at as being dumb and cheap. I guess I was dumb enough to think I could do something about that."
Sadly for Rooney Jr., his career with the Steelers didn't end well. The drafts of the 1980s were not good. The team took a big hit when defensive tackle Gabe Rivera — its No. 1 pick in 1983 — was paralyzed in an automobile accident in October of his rookie year. He was drafted ahead of Pitt quarterback Dan Marino, who went on to some success and fame with the Miami Dolphins.
"He's a marvelous talent," Rooney Jr. quoted Noll in "Ruanaidh" about Marino. "But look, we're overloaded with quarterbacks. We have Bradshaw. We have [Mark] Malone. We have [Cliff] Stoudt. Let's go the way we started [by drafting Greene No. 1 in 1969]. Let's take Rivera."
The Steelers went 7-9 in 1985, their first losing season in 14 years. Rooney Jr. was fired by his brother, Dan, the next October with the team headed to a 6-10 finish.
"To a considerable extent, I felt responsible," Rooney Jr. wrote in his book. "I had been the one, after all, who promised to get so many good players into black and gold uniforms that coaches would not be able to mess things up. Our scouting department had not given our coaches the players I had said we'd provide."
That didn't make the firing any easier for Rooney Jr. to take.
"It was devastating for me and my family," he told me in 2008, saying he was "exiled" to oversee the family's real estate interests. "It was the end of a way of life for us. All of my friends were in football. Suddenly, I was out."
Rooney Sr., who died at 87 in August 1988, approved the firing, saying, "There can be only one boss."
That quote can be interpreted two ways:
One, Dan Rooney, as the oldest son in the family, had to be in charge.
And two, Noll had to have the unquestioned final say in personnel matters.
There were reports Noll and Rooney Jr. weren't working well together at the end, that Dan Rooney saw irreconcilable differences between the two.
"Chuck was the guy," Rooney Jr. acknowledged. "My dad gave me orders. 'This guy is the head coach. You do what he says.'"
Rooney Jr. has many stories about working with Noll, but there are two that stand out.
"I remember one time we went to Philadelphia for a BLESTO meeting in his airplane," Rooney Jr. said. "Coming back, he missed the approach. He started to scream and swear. I'm there saying the Catholic Act of Contrition. We ended up having a good landing and he says to me, 'Any landing where you can walk out of the plane is a good landing.' I just said, 'Yes, coach, that's exactly right.'"
The other story involves Harris and George Young, who had worked with Noll as an assistant coach with the Baltimore Colts in 1968. According to Rooney Jr., Young turned down a chance to be on Noll's first staff with the Steelers in 1969. That was a wise decision by Young, who went on to a successful career as general manager of the New York Giants.
"Chuck really liked George," Rooney Jr. said. "Anyway, George calls me one day and tells me I sounded a little strained. 'Are you having it out with Chuck again?' I tell him, 'We really like Franco in the draft, but he thinks Bobby Newhouse is better.' George just laughed and mentioned Plato or Socrates or one of those guys. 'You tell Chuck that I said a good big man is better than a good little man any day.'"
The Steelers drafted Harris and became a dynasty.
Harris, Noll and Young made the Hall of Fame.
Rooney Jr. should be in there.
