Pittsburgh Steelers Milestones

Order these Pittsburgh Steelers franchise moments by the year they happened. You place all 30 cards on one timeline, one at a time. Three wrong guesses ends the run.

Pittsburgh Steelers Milestones
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Order these Pittsburgh Steelers franchise moments by the year they happened. Drag or tap it onto the line
Pittsburgh Steelers
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Pittsburgh Steelers
30
Cards
3
Lives per run
release years and dates
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Card reveal

How to play the Pittsburgh Steelers history timeline

Steelers milestones are the cards in this deck, each one with a brief description, and you arrange them by the year they happened. One card starts on the line with its year visible. For every new card, pick a gap among those already placed. The right one reveals the year; the wrong one sends the card to its true spot and uses one of your three lives.

The deck reaches all the way back to the franchise's early days, when it went by another name and struggled for a long time before turning into one of the league's model organizations. The Super Bowl cards arrive in clusters, so the descriptions and opponents matter. Head coach hires make good anchors, since this franchise has famously had very few of them. Draft cards are the ones that tend to sneak up on you.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 30 cards you might be dealt, with 2 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

  • Franchise founded as the Pittsburgh Pirates Art Rooney paid a $2,500 fee to bring an NFL team to Pittsburgh during the Depression
  • Signed Byron 'Whizzer' White to a record contract The future Supreme Court justice's $15,800 deal was pro football's richest to date
  • Renamed the team the Steelers The Pirates name was dropped in favor of one honoring the city's steel industry
  • Merged with the Eagles as the 'Steagles' A World War II player shortage forced Pennsylvania's two NFL teams to combine for one season
  • Played their first postseason game After tying the Eagles atop the Eastern Division, they lost a divisional tiebreaker playoff 21-0
  • Cut rookie quarterback Johnny Unitas The hometown Louisville product was released in training camp and later became a Colts legend
  • Retired Ernie Stautner's No. 70 The bruising defensive tackle's jersey came off the board shortly after his final season
  • Hired head coach Chuck Noll The new coach used his very first draft pick on defensive tackle Joe Greene
  • Drafted Terry Bradshaw first overall A coin-flip win over the Bears delivered the Louisiana Tech quarterback the same year Three Rivers Stadium opened
  • The Immaculate Reception Franco Harris' shoetop catch off a deflection beat the Raiders for the franchise's first playoff win
  • Drafted four Hall of Famers in one draft Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth, and Mike Webster all arrived in the same class
  • Won Super Bowl IX The Steel Curtain smothered the Vikings for the franchise's first championship, with Franco Harris as MVP
  • Won Super Bowl X Lynn Swann's acrobatic catches earned him MVP in a 21-17 win over the Cowboys
  • Won Super Bowl XIII Terry Bradshaw threw four touchdowns in a 35-31 rematch victory over Dallas
  • Hired head coach Bill Cowher The jut-jawed Crafton native succeeded Chuck Noll after his 23-year run
  • Lost Super Bowl XXX Neil O'Donnell's interceptions to Larry Brown doomed the Steelers against Dallas in Arizona
  • Opened Heinz Field The team left Three Rivers Stadium for a new home on the North Shore
  • Drafted Troy Polamalu The team traded up to grab the USC safety in the first round
  • Drafted Ben Roethlisberger The Miami of Ohio quarterback fell to No. 11, then went unbeaten as a rookie starter in a 15-1 season
  • Won Super Bowl XL Jerome Bettis' homecoming in Detroit ended with 'one for the thumb' against Seattle
  • Hired head coach Mike Tomlin The 34-year-old Vikings defensive coordinator became the franchise's third coach since 1969
  • Won Super Bowl XLIII Santonio Holmes' toe-tap catch and James Harrison's 100-yard pick-six delivered a record sixth title
  • Lost Super Bowl XLV A comeback against Aaron Rodgers' Packers fell short in Dallas, 31-25
  • Retired Joe Greene's No. 75 Mean Joe's jersey became just the second officially retired in team history, a half century after the first
  • Le'Veon Bell sat out the entire season The star running back refused to sign his franchise tender and never reported
  • Traded for Minkah Fitzpatrick A first-round pick went to Miami for the safety after an 0-2 start without Ben Roethlisberger
  • Started a season 11-0 The best start in franchise history came during the pandemic season
  • Ben Roethlisberger retired Months after his farewell, the team drafted Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett in the first round

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