(This is the second of a five-part series on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Bill Nunn Jr. from the upcoming book “Portrait of Eternity; The Life and Journey of Bill Nunn Jr.,” by Aubrey Bruce.)
It has become the general consensus that the 1974 draft of the Pittsburgh Steelers was the most lucrative athlete selection process in NFL history. The team selected four players that were eventually inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth, and Mike Webster).
In all fairness there should be 5 hall of famers with bust’s resting comfortably in Canton, Ohio at the HOF as a result of that historic Steelers draft class. The fifth member of the Steelers “class of 74” has still not received the honor that is due him. He is the former strong safety for the Steelers from 1974-1987 Donnie Shell. He retired as the NFL strong safety career leader in interceptions with 51. Shell was a five time Pro Bowler between 1978 and 1982. He was the Steelers team MVP in 1980. He started 11 straight years for the Steelers and was selected to the Steelers All-Time Team, the College Football Hall of Fame, and to the NFL Silver Anniversary Super Bowl Team.
Shell played college football for Willie Jeffries at South Carolina State University where he earned All-American and All Conference honors. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998. He was signed undrafted by the Steelers in 1974. How could that be? How did the majority of NFL scouts, (except Bill Nunn Jr.) overlook Donnie Shell a player that would eventually be elected to the NFL’s Silver Anniversary Super Bowl team?
Donnie Shell not only fell through the cracks of the so called expert NFL talent evaluators for all intents and purposes thrust him into an abyss. However, there was one man who cast a net that spanned the pit of mediocrity and broke his fall before he reached the bottom. That man was Bill Nunn Jr. History has proven without much doubt if any, that the talent snare of Nunn Jr. the greatest scout in the history of the NFL reached far and wide during the 1970s and especially when it came to the traditionally African-American colleges and universities located deep down in the “Jim Crow” south.
Shortly after Bill Nunn Jr. passed away I spoke with Donny Shell regarding his initial experiences regarding the iconic NFL scout. “I heard about him through coach Willie Jeffries [my coach at South Carolina State University] but I didn’t meet him until I didn’t get drafted after my senior year. He came down to sign me as an undrafted free agent in 1974. That was the first time that I really met him.”
As Shell reflected on his “Bill Nunn Jr.” experience he remembered prior encounters with Mr. Nunn. “Let me correct what I said before. He used to come down and work out other guys and I would see him in passing but I didn’t meet him personally until 1974. He called me on the phone the day after the draft. He asked me, “are you aware that you weren’t drafted?” Shell chuckled and said that he responded, “yeah I’m aware of that. Especially after 17 rounds and not being picked.”
“Well we are offering you an opportunity to come with the Steelers,” Nunn told him. Shell then asked him to allow him to “run it past coach Jeffries.” Then the next day the Houston Oilers and the Denver Broncos called and that gave me an option to go with either one of those teams but I talked again with coach Jeffries, he said it would be better if I go with Pittsburgh.”
No one realized it then but the greatness and the keen eye of Bill Nunn Jr. would change the entire landscape of college and professional football. The success of Nunn Jr. would become a two edged sword because the success of the Black schools in the divided south would become eerily reminiscent of demise of the Negro Baseball Leagues once Major League Baseball recognized the unique athleticism of Black athletes the economic windfall that waited in the wings.
The power structure that controlled and maintained the economics and ownership hierarchy of Major League Baseball unabashedly began to deplete the talent pool of African-American athletes that filled the rosters of Negro League franchises and the league lost any social or economic relevancy; just as the end of segregationist policies at White NCAA Division 1 colleges and institutions’ during the 1970s became the bellwether of the end of the great Black college football programs that not only survived but thrived in the 1930s through the 1960s.
(Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412-583-6741.)
