Pro Football Hall of Fame Steelers News
Steelers Scouting Executive Named Hall of Fame Semifinalist
Pittsburgh Steelers vice president and personnel director Art Rooney Jr. is a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a third time.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers personnel director Art Rooney Jr. is among the nine contributor semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025, the organization announced on Wednesday.
Rooney has been named a semifinalist for the third straight year, but has not advanced to the finalist stage. The nine semifinalists will be narrowed down to one finalist by the contributor committee in November. That finalist will be voted upon by the entire Hall of Fame voting panel.
Rooney, 88, has been officially employed with the Steelers since 1961, but has been involved with the team his entire life, starting as a ball boy. The son of team founder Art Rooney Sr., Rooney Jr. worked in the ticket office and public relations before finding his calling in the Steelers scouting department, beginning in 1964.
From 1965 until 1986 Rooney worked in the Steelers’ scouting department as personnel director. Rooney is the architect of the Steelers’ four Super Bowl championship teams in the 1970s. He changed the team’s strategy to one that would build through the NFL Draft, something that has continued to the present day.
Under Rooney’s watch, the Steelers drafted nine Hall of Famers and signed a tenth as an undrafted free agent. The number could increase to 11 if former Steelers defensive end L.C. Greenwood makes the Hall of Fame.
Rooney could become the third member of the family to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His dad, Art Rooney Sr. and brother, Dan, are already in Canton. Art and Dan Rooney, Tim and Wellington Mara and Ed and Steve Sabol are the only father-son duos to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In addition to adding another Steelers personnel member into the PFHOF (legendary scout Bill Nunn made it as a contributor in 2021), some believe that voters are hesitant to elect another Rooney. His resume is certainly hard to ignore, however.
“Art put together the greatest draft class in NFL history – that’s why he should be in the Hall of Fame like Bill Nunn,” former Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert said. “Art didn’t have a big staff when he put those 70’s teams together. He’d hire high school coaches as part-time scouts to fill in scouting duties – to grade film and things like that. The guys that did a good job, he’d recommend to Jack Butler who was with BLESTO at the time. My high school coach was Ron Hughes and he was the one that got me hooked up with BLESTO.”
Rooney was fired as personnel director in 1986 by his brother, Steelers president Dan Rooney, but he remained with the team in other roles, working in the club’s real estate division and serving as an area scout in the Carolinas, where he first found undrafted running back Willie Parker, among others.
In addition to Rooney, the eight other semifinalists are Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams, Canton Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay, longtime scout and New England Patriots general manager Bucko Kilroy, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell, Elias Sports Bureau owner and president Seymour Siwoff, former Washington Redskins quarterback and executive Doug Williams and Dallas Cowboys scout John Wooten.
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