And it was Nunn, then a fledgling sports writer with the Pittsburgh Courier, who had a bird’s-eye view and, to a large degree, offered valuable assistance in this evolutionary process that resulted in revolutionary changes to the landscape of pro football.
“There really weren’t a lot of Blacks playing football even as far as White schools were concerned,” Nunn said about the period of time that produced Younger, “so they really weren’t looking for Black ball players. So when Tank made the Courier team there weren’t many pro team looking for Black players, either.”
Nunn began selecting the Courier’s All-America team in 1949, after then- sports editor, the legendary and inimitable Wendell Smith left for the Chicago Herald-American the previous year. As a result of the exposure he received, Younger, a 6-3,225-pound running back/linebacker who had scored 60 touchdowns during his collegiate days—25 coming during his freshman campaign—induced the Los Angeles Rams to provide him with an opportunity, as a free agent, mind you, not as a draftee. As historian Michael Hurd, in his definitive work One Hundred Years of History, Education and Pride, proclaimed, “The future of Black College players rested on his sturdy shoulders, steadied by his very capable hands.”
To be sure, Hurd points out, several other products of Historically Black Colleges and Universities had had NFL opportunities, but Younger was the first to cash in. Other teams were soon to follow the precedent set by Younger and the Rams, most notably the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League, who went on to capture Super Bowl IV over the Minnesota Vikings with a roster populated by Black College luminaries such as Otis Taylor (Prairie View), Willie Lanier (Morgan State), Junious ( Buck) Buchanan (Grambling), Gloster Richardson (Jackson State) and numerous other HBCU products.
But it was the overwhelming success of Younger, the Black College Player of the Year, who opened the floodgates to the motherlode that was Black College football. Nunn recalled a conversation he had with the Grambling great that shed light on the paucity of Black athletes, especially those from minority institutions at that time.
“Tank said when he was first signed [in 1949] he might have been the only Black professional athlete in all of Los Angeles,” Nunn marveled.
But the shrewd eye of Nunn, who by 1967 was a scout with the emerging Pittsburgh Steelers, was responsible for arguably the greatest harvest of Black College talent ever for one team. A franchise that for the most part had wandered aimlessly in the pro football wilderness for the better part of four decades began a transition that would have it discussed in Aliesque terms, you know, among “the greatest of all times.”
“When I got with the Steelers they had already had players from Black colleges,” said Nunn, who officially retired in 1987, but continues in the team’s scouting department as an evaluator of college personnel. He mentioned Ben McGee, John Baker, Jim (Cannonball) Butler, all products of HBCUs. And even before them and Nunn there was Bethune Cookman’s Jack (Goose) McClairen, prolific pass receiver whose lankiness and productivity predated the Randy Mosses, Terrell Owenses and Plaxico Burresses by nearly six decades.
“To a large degree I resented a lot of ball clubs,” Nunn said, noting that even though he was picking an All-America team for the Courier, he wasn’t in the business of trying to convince teams to take players from the HBCUs
“But by the time I got with the Steelers [in 1967] I became more involved. I thought they were missing a lot of ball players. And with the banquet at that time being held in Pittsburgh, I thought it was an opportunity for them to see the talent first hand.”
They obviously liked what they saw. Thanks in no small part to Nunn’s keen eye for talent—and what would one expect of a basketball prodigy but a solid vision—the Steelers began to mine the minority college gems. And it wasn’t long before their fortunes began to change dramatically. Along came L.C. (Hollywood Bags) Greenwood (Arkansas AM&N) and Ernie (Fats) Holmes (Texas Southern), charter members of the legendary “Steel Curtain.” Holmes, who played beside the more publicized “Mean” Joe Greene, considered the foundation of the Steelers dynasty, died in a one-car accident in Lumberton, Texas, at the age of 59. It was once said, “Greene got the ink and deservedly so, but Fats put the fear of God in the people who played across the line of scrimmage from him.”
Then there was Mel (Supe) Blount (Southern), the man most responsible for the NFL revamping its rules on cornerback-wide receiver relationships, Glen (Pine) Edwards (FAMU), Donnie (Torpedo) Shell, rib-bending strong safety; and glue-fingered Hall of Fame receiver John Stallworth (Alabama A&M). And when you add the name of unheralded guard Sam Davis (Allen University) to the list of luminaries who lifted the erstwhile “lovable losers,” as the Men of Rooney were once known, a consistent theme emerges:
The unprecedented success of the Pittsburgh Steelers is inextricably tied to the DNA of superscout Bill Nunn and, by extension, to the offspring of the Livingstone-Biddle rivalry, legends and heroes all!
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