Svc@50

Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp: 5 0 Y E A R S A T S A I N T V I N C E N T

Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell signs items for fans after practice.

The year 2015 marks the 50th summer that we have welcomed the Pittsburgh Steelers and thousands of their fans to Saint Vincent. A lot of memories and images come to mind when you think about those 50 years: great players, great plays, six Super Bowl victories, seeing old friends,

making new friends. My favorite image of training camp is that of the fans surrounding the practice fields on all sides. Families have even arranged vacations to coincide with Steelers training camps. It’s fun to see the excitement of kids trying to get autographs of their favorite super-heroes whom they have seen on TV. All of those images evoke a sense of satisfaction and gratitude. I hope the spirit of hospitality will always be a hallmark of Saint Vincent. That welcoming spirit is rooted in a central teaching of Saint Benedict in his Rule written for monks in the sixth century. By that time, the security provided by the Roman Empire had disintegrated. Thus, hospitality offered to travelers by Benedictine monasteries had often become a matter of life and death. There is no doubt about the importance Saint Benedict attaches to hospitality:

“Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly, Christ is received. Our very awe of the rich guarantees them special respect” (Rule, 53:15).

Saint Benedict’s goal was to capture, in a practical way, the essential teachings of the entire Bible. For example, he applied the most radical parable of Jesus about the last judgment (Matthew 25:31-46), not only to the mandate of hospitality, but also to all aspects of life with others in a community. In this parable, Jesus reveals his mystical identity with every human being, particularly the least of these human beings . . . the hungry, the thirsty, strangers, the naked, the ill, those in prison. Then his astonishing statement that what we have done for one of these least brothers or sisters, we have done for him. May the Lord be with us and guide us in the way of his care and concern for others in all aspects of our lives.

Douglas † Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B.

WELCOME A M E S S AG E F R O M T H E ARCHABBOT OF SAINT VINCENT

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Head coach Bill Austin (left) with Mike Clark and a staff member in 1967.

It took the Pittsburgh Steelers 40 years to win a division title in the National Football League. They were lovable laughingstocks as losing season after losing season piled up. Since then, as the franchise improved the quality of

its teams and solidified its relationship with Saint Vincent College as its annual training camp home, the Steelers have become one of the premier organizations in the game. The annual pilgrimage to Unity Township for the Steelers and their thousands of fans hits an historic mark this year when training camp is held here for the 50th time. Only the Green Bay Packers have held training camp at the same location longer. The Packers have been going to St. Norbert College, in DePere, Wisconsin, since 1958, a span of 58 years.

1966 – 1968 THE BEGINNING

THE BILL AUSTIN ERA

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Placekicker Mike Clark receives a divine hold from a local nun.

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The Steelers and Minnesota Vikings, who train at Minnesota

State University, Mankato, have the second-longest streak

at 50.

It took some convincing from Art Rooney Jr., the son of the

team’s legendary founder and owner, Art Rooney Sr., to get

the Steelers to Westmoreland County. Rooney Jr. graduated

from Saint Vincent in 1957 and thought the college would

be a perfect site.

And as the years went by, it has turned out to be a

perfect site.

After bouncing around from Moore Field in Pittsburgh to

Hershey, Waukesha, Wisconsin, to St. Bonaventure College

to Slippery Rock and the University of Rhode Island, the

Steelers first came to Saint Vincent on their way back to

Pittsburgh in 1966.

They worked out for a couple weeks before opening

the season.

Latrobe Bulletin sports editor Steve Kittey made the first

public mention of the Steelers’ arrival on July 5 that year.

“It seems summer has just reached us, but already all the

National Football League teams are about set to open their

training camps. For our pride and joy in the NFL, Pittsburgh,

the moment of truth is fast approaching for it and new

coach Bill Austin,” Kittey said.

“This Friday, Austin will hold an early week of workouts

for 51 players, most of whom are rookies. Next week, the

entire squad will gather under the auspices of Austin’s

watchful eye. Site of the training camp is the University of

Rhode Island in Kingston, R.I. The final two weeks of the

Steelers’ training camp will be held on the campus of Saint

Vincent College.” 5

FROM TOP: Running back and Jeannette, Pennsylvania, native Dick Hoak signs autographs; A view of the Chestnut Ridge from the hill overlooking the practice field; Benedictine nuns prepare and serve dinner to a hungry group of campers.

The Laurel Mountains loom in the distance as the Steelers practice in the summer of 1967.66

Austin’s tenure as Steelers’ coach was short-lived as his

teams struggled to an 11-28 record before he was fired after

the 1968 campaign. But while his teams didn’t benefit from

their stay at Saint Vincent in terms of wins and losses, team

officials and school administrators quickly agreed that training

camp would become a regular happening on campus.

The parties also agreed on something

from the start of their relationship that

remains in effect today: There has never

been a charge for admission or parking

and most likely never will be.

And even that first year, practices were

a big draw, as chronicled by Bulletin

assistant sports editor Bob Osborne on

Aug. 30, 1966.

“The Pittsburgh Steelers officially

opened drills at Saint Vincent College

yesterday by hosting a press day which

was fully attended by members of the

press, radio and television of the Pittsburgh

district,” Osbourne said. “The ‘new look’

Steelers went through a light exercise drill

which consisted of running plays against

a mock defense for the benefit of the

hundreds of spectators who lined the hills

surrounding the practice field . . .”

Austin came to the Steelers from

the coaching staff of the Green Bay

Packers and brought with him the tough,

oftentimes brutal, coaching philosophy of the legendary

Packers’ coach, Vince Lombardi.

“I liked Bill,” said former Steelers’ running back Dick Hoak,

who played for Austin in 1968 after playing at Penn State. “He

put in the I-formation and I ran out of that. I made the Pro

Bowl and gained almost 900 yards and didn’t play the first

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The Steelers scrimmage the Cleveland Browns for the benefit of the hundreds of spectators who lined the hills surrounding the practice field.

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Gerard Hall dormitory provides the backdrop in 1967 as quarterback Richard Badar steadies a tackling dummy while an amused George Izo and John Foruria watch.

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three games or so. When it came time to practice,

you couldn’t. You were too tired. Like all the guys

who came from Lombardi’s staff, they weren’t

themselves. They tried to be like Lombardi. None

really did that well.”

Nobody knew it at the time, but in those early

years when the building blocks were being laid

for one of the top training camps in the National

Football League, the team itself was on the verge

of becoming one of the most dominant franchises in

history.

TOP: Quarterback Ron Meyer calls a play in the practice huddle during the 1966 camp.

LEFT: Rookie linebacker Ray May attacks the blocking sled in 1967.

Head coach Chuck Noll (left), and running backs coach Dick Hoak survey the team in 1987.

THE CHUCK NOLL ERA

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1969 – 1991 THE GLORY YEARS

The Chuck Noll era will forever be known as the glory years of Pittsburgh Steelers football. When he came to the Steelers in 1969 from his assistant coach position with the Baltimore Colts, he took over a rag-tag team

that posted losing seasons 38 years in a row. That number reached 39 in Noll’s first year as the team struggled to a 1-13 record. That record was achieved with a win in the opener and 13 consecutive losses. And then the Steelers lost the first three games of the next season; Noll held the dubious mark of the worst start by a coach in the history of the team. Improvement took place with records of 5-9 and 6-8 the next two years.

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Quarterback Terry Bradshaw jogs to the practice field past a group of fans.

As the team’s record improved, so did the interest in the Steelers when

they arrived on campus at Saint Vincent College for training camp.

The Steelers went 11-3 in 1972 and made the playoffs.

After that, the nice crowds that attended camp sessions turned into

huge throngs that clogged Route 30 in both directions. The hillsides

around the practice fields were jammed with people. Those sunny,

humid, suffocating July afternoons became even more so with 10,000

people getting riled up about a practice of what was the beginnings of

an NFL dynasty.

“I remember the crowds,” said longtime Pittsburgh radio and

television personality Stan Savran. “The first day was always a big event

for fans and players. They always had the “Oklahoma drills” on opening

day and the crowds went wild watching the players go wild in that

drill. Coaches would go at each other. It was one of the most intense

practice drills every year. The first day of two practices a day was also

popular.”

No one knew it at the time, but those fans who kept coming to Saint

Vincent during the Noll era were watching players who would go on to

have Hall of Fame careers.

Fans knew players like Jack Ham, Joe Greene, Mel Blount, Terry

Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Jack Lambert, Mike Webster, Lynn Swann and

John Stallworth stood out on the practice field, but probably didn’t

anticipate eight of them standing on the steps of the Hall of Fame in

Canton.

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FROM TOP: Steelers Ray May and Jerry Hillebrand arrive to camp in style and in full uniform; Ernie “Fats” Holmes bulldozes through two blockers; Wide receiver John Stallworth is timed in the 40-yard dash by Tom Donohue.

The campus has grown in size and quality of facilities as a direct result of the Steelers presence.

Defensive coordinator George Perles (standing, far right) poses for a unit photo framed by Alfred and Aurelius Halls.

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Noll’s teams compiled a record of 193-148-1 during his 23-

year career. His teams in the 1970s won back-to-back Super

Bowls twice in a span of six years, becoming the first team to

win four Super Bowl titles.

Longtime Steelers’ radio commentator, Myron Cope,

dubbed Noll “The Emperor” and there was never any question

about who was in charge.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writer Ed Bouchette

remembered a time near the end of Noll’s career

when the shotgun formation was coming into the

game. Noll wanted nothing to do with that.

“One year there was a problem with some skunks

and they had to call someone to come out and

shoot them and take them away, which they did,”

Bouchette said. “Jim Kriek, who was covering the

team for the Connellsville Courier, said they had

to shoot them with a .22 because Chuck wouldn’t

allow a shotgun at training camp.”

That dynasty had its infancy in the dirt and

grass of the practice fields at Saint Vincent; things

began to change at the college as well. As the

team grew to greatness, the college grew as well.

Bill Asbury was a running back for the Steelers

from 1966-68, a time when they won 11 games

total. On a visit back to Saint Vincent several years

later, it didn’t take Asbury long to notice how things

had changed.

“The campus has grown in size and facilities-quality as a

direct result of the Steelers presence,” he said. “Weight room,

physicians’ space, quality of the grass and air conditioning

in the dorms (there was none during my time there) are

improved by an order of magnitude 10.”

In the early years of the Steelers’ long run of encampments

at Saint Vincent, amenities were scarce, but a Spartan-

like existence was deemed perfect for players to learn the

Steelers way.

One Steelers great put it perfectly.

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Merril Hoge signs autographs for fans during the annual media day in 1991.

Linebacker Jack Lambert and defensive tackle Joe Greene, whose acquisition was seen as key in taking the Steelers from a perennial loser to a championship franchise, make the run from dorm to practice field.

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“I look at training camp a lot different from other

guys,” said the late, great L.C. Greenwood in author Jim

O’Brien’s book, “Doing it Right.” “I don’t come here to

have a good time or to be out with the boys. If I have

to leave home to go to Saint Vincent, I’m coming here

to work on football. I really get into football here. I put

everything else out of my mind. Saint Vincent is a great

place to get ready. You can go through hell for five weeks

and then come back to the big city.”

During most of the Noll years, the dorm rooms the

players called home for a few weeks were not air-

conditioned, creating a spectacle on the day the players

reported.

Here were Lambert, Greene, Ham, Harris and all of the

other great players of that time hauling portable fans and

little televisions to make their time at Camp Noll a little

more pleasurable.

The Chuck Noll era was the zenith in the history of the

team. A collection of the greatest players to ever put on

a uniform started each season at Saint Vincent.

But Noll was more than a Hall of Fame football

coach. He was called a renaissance man for how he

brought the Steelers back from the depths to a historic

winner. He flew airplanes, loved to be on a sailboat, was

a classical music devotee, loved to scuba dive among

coral reefs, knew a great deal about wine and enjoyed

growing rose bushes. Noll even directed the Pittsburgh

Symphony Orchestra’s playing of “Stars and Stripes

Forever” during an outdoor concert in 1989 at Saint

Vincent.

Noll was obviously a great molder of men and is

regarded as one of the great coaches in the history of

the game. But he made a different impression on his hosts

at Saint Vincent over the course of his career.

“He had a spirit of humility about him that really was

so characteristic of his behavior in the years he served

as coach,” Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B.,

Chancellor, said when Noll died June 13, 2014. “He was

able to experience defeat without being defeated. He

was able to experience victory without letting it go to his

head.”

Running back Franco Harris grabs the attention of young fans.

Head coach Bill Cowher

THE BILL COWHER ERA

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1992 – 2006 A RENEWED FIRE

On Jan. 21, 1992, the face of the Pittsburgh Steelers changed, literally. For the previous 23 years, the stoic Chuck Noll had patrolled the sidelines at Steelers’ games, occasionally

becoming animated. But for the most part his emotions came through in a serious glare and occasionally a tight smile. After Noll retired, he was replaced by a much more fiery, explosive character in Bill Cowher. The new coach was a native of Crafton, a Pittsburgh suburb, and he rarely left any doubt as to exactly what was on his mind. When he was hired, he was the youngest (34) head coach at the time.

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The 2005 Super Bowl Champions drew large crowds to the hillside surrounding the practice fields.

Unlike Noll, who had to build the dynasty that became

part of his legacy from scratch, Cowher’s cupboard was

not bare when he was named the head coach. Cowher’s

teams were able to put together a 149-90-1 record in his 15

years at the helm.

Just think about this: Cowher became the 15th coach in

Steelers’ history, but only the second head coach since the

NFL merger in 1970.

Eleven of Cowher’s teams finished with winning seasons;

they won a Super Bowl in 2005 as a sixth seed, an AFC

title in 1995 and eight division championships. Even more

impressive is that 10 of those 15 teams reached the playoffs,

played in six AFC Championship games and played in the

Super Bowl twice.

“History will look back on Bill Cowher as one of the great

coaches of all time,” Steelers chairman Dan Rooney said.

Teams in the Cowher era had their ups and downs and

their frustrations; among those were losing to the New

England Patriots twice in the AFC Championship.

And Cowher found no better place to deal with those

frustrations and get ready for the NFL season than at Saint

Vincent.

Even after the team opened its practice headquarters on

Pittsburgh’s South Side in 2000, Cowher said he hoped the

Steelers would never stop going to Saint Vincent for training

camp.

During one particularly wet and stormy summer that

forced schedule adjustments and moving practices to a

couple of high school fields around Westmoreland County,

the question was put to Cowher about perhaps it being

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FROM TOP: The Steelers Experience provides football-related activities for fans; Linebackers Jason Gildon and Joey Porter, and cornerback Chad Scott pause to rest; Former trainer Ariko Iso administers therapy in the campus facility.

Jerome “The Bus” Bettis looks for an opening during drills.

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more beneficial to working out at the South Side where fields

had artificial turf, and a state-of-the-art indoor facility existed.

“I’m an old-school guy. (Going away for camp) is a

necessity,” he said. “This (the inclement weather) does not

change my belief on where training camp should be held.

There are so many pluses in being away and eliminating as

many distractions as possible.”

Cowher’s training camps mirrored his high-tempo,

high-energy personality. His players got caught up in the

emotionally-charged atmosphere and made practices

entertaining as well as grueling for them.

Cowher had a brief playing career in the NFL, competing

in 45 games as a linebacker and special teams player.

One of the drills he was big on during training camp was

a blocking drill for running backs against linebackers. Joey

Porter, one of Cowher’s most physical linebackers, recalled

how important that drill was to Cowher at Saint Vincent.

“That was a fun drill because Bill Cowher ran it,” Porter said.

“We knew how important it was. He drilled you so much to

win that drill so when you got in a game, it was expected.

We would do that drill every day in training camp. The crowd

would get up for it. We would get up for it. We took it seriously

every day because we were working to get better.”

Cowher’s career as a head coach got off to a flying start,

the Steelers winning the AFC Central in 1992 for the first time

since 1984 and then getting a wild-card spot the next year. It

was the first time the team made the playoffs in consecutive

years since 1983-84.

The strong run continued in 1994 when the Steelers went

12-4 and made it to the AFC Championship game for the first

time since 1979. They lost that game to San Diego, but all of

that was just a great lead-in to 1995. Local media coverage

increased as well as more of a national presence.

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Even after the team opened its practice headquarters on Pittsburgh’s South Side in 2000, Cowher said he hoped the Steelers would never stop going to Saint Vincent for training camp.

An attentive Heath Miller stops to engage with fans.

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Coach Cowher gathers the team for a talk amidst the bucolic campus setting.

The team’s longtime radio color commentator

for the team, the late Myron Cope, visited camp

as much as anyone. As he got older, he couldn’t

stand for the length of practice at Saint Vincent, so

he improvised by bringing a small folding chair and

sitting just beyond the corner of the end zone.

“It didn’t happen very often, but there was an

instance where a play ran long and players were

headed right toward Cope. He didn’t know what to

do, so he just toppled over,” his partner in the booth,

Bill Hillgrove, said. “We looked over there and all we

could see was his legs and chair in the air.”

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Steelers chairman Dan Rooney strolls the sideline during practice.

The late Br. Pat Lacey, O.S.B., Saint Vincent Archabbey and College fire chief for more than 35 years, was a lifelong friend of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He became the unofficial groundskeeper, accepting responsibility for upkeep of the football fields for the Steelers’ summer training camps. An avid football fan, he remained a lifelong friend of the Steelers and the Rooney family.

Secondary coach Tim Lewis diagrams plays for safety Carnell Lake in 1996.26

Cowher became the youngest head coach (38) to lead a

team to the Super Bowl that year. The Steelers, on the strength

of their “Blitzburgh” won their third AFC Central title in four

years, made the playoffs for the fourth straight year but were

beaten 27-17 by Dallas in Super Bowl XXX.

The Steelers produced winning seasons and playoff

appearances in Cowher’s first six years as head coach. He

joined legendary coach Paul Brown as the only two coaches

in the NFL to do that in their first six years.

How did they do that, considering the team had finished

7-9 in Chuck Noll’s final season?

There were good players – Rod Woodson, Jerome Bettis,

Hines Ward, Dermontti Dawson and Levon Kirkland to name

a few. Dawson, Bettis and Woodson went on to have Hall of

Fame careers.

Much more of the credit goes to Cowher, whose

competitiveness, his ability to get the best from his players

and his obvious motivational skills made him so successful.

While Cowher ran a tight camp, he liked to have some

occasional fun with his players. Post-Gazette sports writer

Gerry Dulac remembered Cowher saying he wouldn’t mind a

little rain at Saint Vincent after a week of practices in steamy

conditions.

A storm hit one morning and Cowher cancelled his 9 a.m.

practice, although not because of the storm. He had already

decided to cancel practice and take the players to the

movies.

As Dulac wrote: “Cowher, though, let the players believe

they were going to practice. He had them report to the

practice field at 8:45 a.m. for their normal walk-through. It

wasn’t until they gathered around him that he told the

players they were going to the movies.”

Curiously, 15 minutes later, a thunderstorm hit the campus.

“I knew something was going on because I could tell the

way the people in [the locker room] were taping,” said wide

receiver Troy Edwards. “They weren’t too concerned about

getting people taped.”

“It’s always nice because he’s always made it a point to

look out for us,” said linebacker Jason Gildon. “We wondered

if he was going to do it this year.”

Said Cowher, “I think I got them this time.”

The Steelers made it to the AFC Championship game six

times under Cowher and after near-miss after near-miss,

finally made it to the Super Bowl in 2005, where they beat the

Seattle Seahawks, 21-10.

Cowher retired Jan. 5, 2007, after 15 years as the Steelers’

coach.

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Br. Norman W. Hipps, O.S.B., president of Saint Vincent College, addresses the crowd during a media day event.

President Art Rooney II with head coach Mike Tomlin

THE MIKE TOMLIN ERA

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2007 – present GROWING TOGETHER

Mike Tomlin doesn’t have the long, impressive National Football League coaching resumes of his predecessors, Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll. Of course, he’s only been the coach of

the Steelers since 2007. But it didn’t take him long to become enamored with the training camp atmosphere at Saint Vincent College. His first stint at SVC was a physically and mentally draining camp as he attempted to make his mark on his new team quickly. Tomlin toned things down the next year because his team faced a difficult regular-season schedule. The work his team did at Saint Vincent paved the way for a Super Bowl-winning season with the payoff coming in a 27-23, last-second win over the Arizona Cardinals.

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Perennial camp favorites quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) and safety Troy Polamalu (43) extend a warm hand to fans.

“Oftentimes we talk about being ready for camp. I think

ready is an emotional thing,” he said. “I’m ready for camp

as I sit here today because I love going to Saint Vincent for

camp. I love the process of team building.”

Tomlin became the youngest coach (age 36) in NFL history

to win a Super Bowl title and did so in just his second season.

His record of 82-46 is the best start by a coach in the history

of the team and he’s not had a losing season. The Steelers

have won four AFC North titles, two AFC Championships and

the one Super Bowl.

And while Noll, Cowher and Tomlin all have coached

teams to Super Bowl titles, the Steelers’ current coach has

done something the other two did not do, something that

will endear himself to Saint Vincent forever.

Three months after the Steelers won the Super Bowl, Tomlin

delivered the commencement address at Saint Vincent.

Tomlin’s speech was very popular with the graduates and

families and received a prestigious award.

National Public Radio did a study of commencement

speakers at colleges and universities across the country

going back to 1774 and Tomlin’s speech was one of “The

Best 300 Commencement Speeches, Ever.”

Among other speakers honored thusly were: Mother Teresa

(Niagara College), Kermit the Frog (Northampton), Ken Burns

(Georgetown), John. F. Kennedy (Yale), Bill Cosby (Temple),

Bill Gates (Harvard), Dalai Lama (Tulane) and Fred Rogers

(Dartmouth). Rogers, a local icon, delivered addresses twice

at Saint Vincent.

Tomlin scored a touchdown with the audience when he

talked about the graduates pursuing their dreams.

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FROM TOP: Players review practice photos from their seats in a Saint Vincent classroom; James Farrior (51) and Hines Ward (86) listen to scout Joe Greene (Benedict Hall stands above Chuck Noll Field); defensive end Brett Kiesel arrives at the 2012 camp in a tractor.

Players stretch on Chuck Noll Field, also home to the Saint Vincent Bearcats football team.

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“Dream and dream big. Don’t listen to the naysayers,

because they’ll outnumber support 100 to 1,” he said. “It’s

elevator music. Like I tell my football team, you hear it but you

don’t. Hold on to your dreams. Make the daily commitment

to make those dreams reality. Play the game to win. Play

the game the way it’s supposed to be played and you’ll live

successful, happy lives, lives that honor those who supported

you.”

The Saint Vincent experience has become revered over

the years by both the Steelers and the thousands of fans who

have made the journey to training camp over the years.

But the respect and admiration is also shared by those on

the national level who have visited SVC.

Five years ago Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King called

Saint Vincent, the perfect training-camp setting.

“If you’ve read my postcards in the past few years from here,

you know I love the place,” King wrote. “It’s the perfect

training-camp setting, looking out over the rolling hills of the

Laurel Highlands in west-central Pennsylvania, an hour east

of Pittsburgh. On a misty or foggy morning, standing atop

the hill at the college, you feel like you’re in Scotland. The

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport is across the state highway

from the school. Classic, wonderful slice of Americana. If

you can visit one training camp, this is the one to see. To me,

walking around this place is one of the great traditions of the

NFL camp tour.”

Bill Hillgrove, the longtime voice of the Steelers, called Saint

Vincent an idyllic setting.

John Clayton, a native Pittsburgher who covered the

team for the now-defunct Pittsburgh Press and is now a senior

writer for ESPN, has fond memories of the college and training

camp.

“I can remember 10,000 fans on the hills, surrounding

everything,” Clayton said. “I think it’s as good as any training

camp site in the league and better than most. It’s just the

perfect environment.”

Clayton was a regular at training camp from 1972 until

1995 when he joined ESPN.

Vic Ketchman covered the Steelers during the same period

of time for the now-defunct Irwin Standard-Observer. In those

days, the amenities for players and media and fans weren’t

what they are today, but Ketchman was fine with that.

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Sy Holzer and Steelers chairman Dan Rooney with Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B.

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Coach Tomlin addresses the squad surrounded by the natural beauty of the Saint Vincent campus.

“It was spartan, but that was OK,” he said. “Camp back

then had a real good feel to it and the setting had a lot to

do with that. It just had a good, old-time training camp feel

to it.”

Stan Savran, long-time observer of all things Steelers in

his role as sports anchor at WTAE-TV and then radio host at

ESPN 970, was always amazed, not only with how hot it was

for training camp, but the scenes he witnessed early in the

Steelers’ glory years at SVC.

“Here we were, watching some of the greatest players

in the history of the game, going into those little rooms and

those little beds, lugging their own fans up the stairs hoping

to stay a little cool,” Savran said. “And now when you go

up there, you see guys carrying air conditioners and 50-inch

TVs.”

Carnell Lake played 10 seasons for the Steelers and is

currently the defensive backs coach with the team. When

he returned to the Steelers after being away over a dozen

years he said, “It looks like Saint Vincent is all grown up.”

All grown up indeed and ready to celebrate the 50th

anniversary of spending time with the Steelers each summer.

I think it’s as good as any training camp site in the league and better than most. It’s just the perfect environment.

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Camp was always a pleasure for the ever-smiling wide receiver Hines Ward.

Fr. Paul R. Taylor, O.S.B., executive vice president of Saint Vincent College, and Pittsburgh Steelers offensive guard Ramon Foster share a laugh.

Thanks to the Pittsburgh Steelers for

their support and collaboration in the

production of this commemorative

publication. Text by Mike Dudurich;

photos courtesy of the Pittsburgh

Steelers and of Bill Amatucci (pages

10, 12, 13 (middle and bottom), 16,

17, 18, 20 and 25); design by George

Fetkovich. Produced by the Saint

Vincent College Office of Marketing

and Communcations. Thanks always

to the diehard Pittsburgh Steelers

fans, who support the team both at

training camp and throughout the

regular season.

Go Steelers!

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© 2015 Saint Vincent College

Saint Vincent College300 Fraser Purchase RoadLatrobe, PA 15650-2690

www.stvincent.edu

7568–2.5M–7/2015

• Dr. Herbert W. Boyer, C’58, D’81, is among Saint Vincent College’s most notable alumni, having received international recognition throughout his career for the pivotal role he played in creation of the biotechnology industry and the founding of the pharmaceutical firm Genentech that utilized his DNA splitting technology to pioneer numerous lifesaving drugs. • Nationally-recognized astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson gives Threshold Lecture, calling the Dupré Science Pavilion “a symbol of the school’s commitment to science education.”

• International cellist Yo-Yo Ma receives Fred Rogers Legacy Award and gives recital in historic Saint Vincent Basilica, May 23, 2014, declaring “this is perhaps the greatest honor I have ever received…”

• Head coach Mike Tomlin of six-time Super Bowl world champion Pittsburgh Steelers gave a commencement address at Saint Vincent College that was named by NPR as one of “The Best 300 Commencement Speeches, Ever.”

PREPARE FOR GREATNESS

QUALITY EDUCATION IN THE BENEDICTINE TRADITION | Latrobe, Pennsylvania | www.stvincent.edu | 800-782-5549

No matter the season, there is always a reason to visit Saint Vincent College where the campus is alive with concerts, lectures, theatre and special events throughout the year. Whether you want to

see the world’s greatest cellist, scientist, astronomer or professional football team, plan to visit Saint Vincent and learn more about a college whose graduates are also prepared for greatness.