A Super Steelers Journey: The 23-Year Quest to Honor Pittsburgh’s Dynasty Legends

by Merrill Shaffer

Starting with Jack Ham in the summer of 1994 and finally ending with Loren Toews in June of 2017, this book is the story of the 23-year search to find the 22 players, and head coach Chuck Noll, who were members of all four of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl Championship teams in the 1970s, and honor their amazing accomplishments by having each of them sign a Pittsburgh Steelers football helmet. This book also includes biographies of each of the players’ athletic careers in high school, college, and the NFL.

94 pages, Paperback

Published September 8, 2018

About the author

MERRILL SHAFFER is an avid football fan with a passion for the history of the game. He is a diehard supporter of the Southern Columbia Tigers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. His previous books, Roaring Tigers: The History Of Southern Columbia Football chronicled the history of the program, and A Super Steelers Journey: The 23-Year Quest To Honor Pittsburgh's Dynasty Legends documented the team's Super Bowl Championship players from the 1970s. He was also a contributing author to After The Pandemic: Visions Of Life Post COVID-19. Merrill has been featured in the WVIA documentary film ROAR: The Story Of Southern Columbia Football Tigers, High School Football America Podcast, Talk Of The Town on WLBR, Press Enterprise, Sunbury Press Book Show, PA Live, Good Day PA, WTAE (Pittsburgh), Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, WGAL (Lancaster), The Sentinel, Duncannon Record, A Piece Of The Game, and Sports Collectors Daily. Merrill earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Pennsylvania State University and an A.A. in Business Management from Harrisburg Area Community College. He retired after a 22-year career in law enforcement and lives with his wife and daughter in Central Pennsylvania. He regularly attends high school, college, and professional football games each fall and studies sports history.

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of very short essays (3 to 6 pages) addressing various aspects of the pandemic on life from personal reflections on being a single parent to public examinations of conducting elections, from speculative musings on gratitude to concrete issues such as health insurance. The essays had a time-bound feel. Many were written in the first weeks of the U.S. lock down and felt slightly dated by the time I read them 10 months later. Like any hastily compiled collection, the essays were uneven in their quality.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a unique and creative book. Shaffer laid out biographies of the 22 Steelers who played on all four of the Chuck Noll Super Bowl championship teams. The narrative was clever and down to earth. He tells about meeting each and every one of those players. He discusses the personalities of each player, several of whom are in the NFL Hall of Fame. 5 Stars.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat outdated already, a lot of the pieces in the beginning feel as if they come from a place of privilege.