Longtime Steelers player, coach Hoak dies at 86
It was a Tuesday morning in January 2007, and Steelers history was about to be made.
Dick Hoak was going to announce his retirement after 45 seasons with the franchise, first as a halfback who rushed for 3,965 yards (still 8th on the team’s all-time list) and then as a running backs coach who won 5 Super Bowls and helped Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis get elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He freely admitted that as a player he wasn’t as good as the guys he coached, and as a coach he never rose above the rank of assistant.
That can describe Dick Hoak’s NFL career, but so does this:
Both as a player and an assistant coach, Dick Hoak was an egoless part of the team, a man who did his job quietly but still at 100 miles per hour. He was loyal to the point of forsaking his own advancement to honor a commitment he believed he had made; he was more interested in winning than he was in being right; and he was way more interested in winning than he was in getting the credit.
Dick Hoak died Wednesday. He was 86.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dick Hoak, a legendary member of the Pittsburgh Steelers family,” said team president Art Rooney II. “Dick was part of the foundation of this organization and played an instrumental role in shaping the Steelers as both a player and coach during his 45 years with the team.
“Dick represented everything the Steelers stand for with his toughness, loyalty, dedication and an unwavering commitment to the team. First as a player, then as a coach, Dick’s contributions to this organization spanned generations.
“He was respected and admired by everyone who had the privilege of knowing and working with him. His legacy includes coaching some of the all-time great Steelers, including Franco Harris, Rocky Bleier, Jerome Bettis, and Willie Parker.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Hoak family during this difficult time. He will always be remembered as a valued member of the Steelers family.”
The playing career Hoak carved out for himself ended with 5,417 yards from scrimmage, 33 touchdowns scored and 4 touchdown passes thrown. That’s impressive, but it pales when compared to his time as an NFL assistant. As he often said, in the fraternity of NFL coaches there is an understanding that you’re hired to be fired. Dick Hoak was hired by Chuck Noll in 1972 but never fired.
Hoak stayed on as a coach after Noll’s retirement, working under new head coach Bill Cowher.
“He was the only coach I retained from Chuck Noll’s staff,” said Cowher. “He was a conduit for me. He was a guy that I leaned on, that I used to discuss openly what a championship team looked like in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform. He lived it. He did it. His wisdom, his experience was something that was vital to me coming in there as a 34-year-old first-time head coach.”
As a part of Cowher’s staff, Hoak worked with Barry Foster and Leroy Thompson and Bam Morris and Erric Pegram, and then during the 1996 NFL Draft the Steelers made a trade with the St. Louis Rams to bring Jerome Bettis to Pittsburgh.
When Art Rooney II created the Hall of Honor in 2017 to recognize those who had made significant contributions to the Steelers franchise, the decision was made that the Inaugural Class would contain all of their Hall of Famers to that point, plus 4 more significant figures. They were: L.C. Greenwood, Andy Russell, Donnie Shell, and Dick Hoak.