The Pittsburgh Steelers have a rich history full of interesting ups and downs!

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Northern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC), in the National Football League (NFL). The Steelers are the oldest and most championed franchise in the AFC. The team has appeared in six Super Bowls and, along with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, is one of three teams to have won the Super Bowl five times. They have appeared in thirteen Conference Championship Games and have hosted more conference championship games than any other NFL franchise. They are the only team in NFL playoff history to win a Super Bowl after being seeded sixth in the playoffs, winning three consecutive games on the road followed by a Super Bowl XL victory in Detroit on February 5, 2006 against the Seattle Seahawks.

Originally named the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team joined the NFL in 1933  when owner Art Rooney, Sr. paid a US$2,500 franchise fee to the league. Prior to 1933, strict state blue laws had prevented sporting events from taking place on Sundays, when most NFL games were scheduled.

The team was renamed the Steelers in 1940, after the city's prominent steel industry. A fan suggested the name in a contest held by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the team.

    The following is a selected list of memorable Steelers games.

November 22, 1959 at Cleveland Browns

    Behind 14-20 with a minute and a half left and at their own 28 yard line, the Steelers Bobby Layne drove 60 yards behind the blocking of injured Tom Barnett who refused to leave the field. Layne threw a 12 yard pass with seconds left for the go-ahead score. Of Barnett's superhuman effort in protecting the Steelers runners and pass plays in the face of unbearable pain Layne said "He's all man, you can take that from me, that was a show, what he did to [the Browns Defense]". To add insult to a shocked Cleveland crowd, when the Browns took over after the Steelers score, dependable Lou Groza missed a chip shot field goal as the clock ran out.

December 15, 1963, at New York Giants

    For the second year in a row, Coach Buddy Parker led the once-hapless Steelers to a winning season only to fall short of the playoffs. The quest for a divisional title came down to the final game against the Giants at Yankee Stadium. Although Pittsburgh fielded six Pro-Bowlers and a future hall of famer they fell short of the championship when the Giants won 33-17.

October 10, 1964, Cleveland Browns, Municipal Stadium

    On the way towards a 5-9 season, the Steelers traveled to Cleveland while the Browns were on the road to their 1964 Championship Game appearance. John Henry Johnson racked up a jaw-dropping 200 yards on the ground and three touchdowns against the league's 5th best defense. The Steelers would go on to a 23-7 victory over the eventual NFL Champions while holding NFL legend Jim Brown to just a scoreless 59 total yards.

October 3, 1970, Cleveland Browns, Municipal Stadium

    Last of the "Saturday Night Games" during the Steelers-Browns rivalry, a tradition which brought mystique and urban legends to the contest—even more so from what happened in the stands than was happening on in the field. In true Browns/Steelers tradition the game was a defensive battle of smashmouth football with a 15-7 loss being handed to the upstart Steelers.

November 19, 1972, at Cleveland Browns

    A game that was as dramatic as it was decisive. The Browns' Don Cockroft missed a 26 yard fieldgoal with only minutes left only to have the same exact field position with :08 left on the game clock a half dozen plays later. His FG gave Cleveland the narrow win and tied the two teams atop the division with four games to go, but the Steelers would pummel their rivals in Pittsburgh two weeks later to take the Division crown as Cleveland made the playoffs as the lone wild-card.

December 23, 1972, vs. Oakland Raiders, AFC Divisional Playoff

    The "Immaculate Reception" took place in what would be the Steelers' first ever post-season victory. The Steelers were down by one as time was expiring and Terry Bradshaw, desperate to throw, finally finds Frenchy Fuqua, but the pass rebounded off of either Fuqua or the Raider defending him, Jack Tatum. The ball came to rest into the hands of Franco Harris, who had wandered out beyond the line of scrimmage after seeing no Raider to block. The fans at Three Rivers Stadium exploded as Harris ran the catch in for the game winning touchdown. The officials were as bewildered as the Raiders; not one blew a whistle on what Raider coach John Madden insists was a dead ball since rules at the time prevented two offensive players from touching a live ball.[24] The play is arguably the first official use of replay in the NFL as the officials call upstairs to use network feeds to see if the ball hit the ground or was batted by Fuqua to set up Harris' catch and touchdown.[25] No angle catches the turf at the moment of the catch, nor how the ball came to Harris. Perhaps the most ironic part of the "greatest play ever" and the moment of Pittsburgh's first postseason victory was who missed it. The game was blacked out in Pittsburgh, so no one in the metro area realized what had happened until hours after. The patriarch of the team, Art Rooney was on an elevator going down to comfort his Steelers after what he thought was a loss. Legendary announcer Myron Cope was also in an elevator on the way down for post-game interviews. Even on the field, Bradshaw was regaining his bearings after being drilled by Oakland defenders and was looking skyward with his back on the turf.

November 25, 1973, at Cleveland Browns

    Browns rookie Greg Pruitt kept Cleveland on the heels of the division-leading Steelers with a 42 yard pass early in the game, in which Pruitt eluded all eleven Steeler defenders, and a last minute 19 yard TD run that gave the Browns a 21-16 win. After getting swept up in the emotions of the dramatic comeback, the rookie Pruitt mistakenly bursts into the Steelers locker room. By the time Pruitt calmed down and remembered which door he needed to go through to get to his locker room, the Cleveland press had left.

December 3, 1973 at Miami Dolphins, Monday Night Football

    A blooper game if ever there was one. Joe Gilliam started at quaterback, filling in for the injured Bradshaw, and starts 0 for 7 with three interceptions (including one that went for a Miami touchdown). His errors forced coach Chuck Noll to pull Gilliam and put in the hobbling Bradshaw. Bradshaw continued the problematic play when his first pass is picked off by the Miami defense and is returned for yet another touchdown. With the score 27-0 Miami, the Steelers attempt to make a comeback. Miami gets burned on a fake punt for a Pittsburgh touchdown, a 21 yard run by Franco Harris for another Pittsburgh score, two Larry Csonka fumbles, one of which sets up a Bradshaw touchdown pass on the very next play, and finally, on fourth down from their own five yard line, coach Don Shula called for Bob Griese to take an intentional safety, even confusing the famed MNF announcers. With all the sloppy play on both sides Miami manages to hang on to a 30-26 win.

December 29, 1974 at Oakland Raiders, AFC Championship Game

    In a game that resulted in the Steelers first Super Bowl appearance, the Steelers defense holds Oakland to only 29 yards on the ground and Jack Ham makes two key interceptions to end long Raider drives. Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier run over the Raider defenders for more than 200 combined yards in a 24-13 Pittsburgh win.

January 12, 1975. Minnesota Vikings, Super Bowl IX

    Pittsburgh wins its first of its four Super Bowls in the 1970s and does it in record-setting fashion. The Steel Curtain defense holds the veteran Vikings to just 119 total offensive yards, still a Super Bowl record that stands 32 Championships later. The Steelers defense also robbed three interceptions and forced two Viking fumbles for a record five Super Bowl turnovers recovered. MVP Franco Harris set a Super Bowl rushing record that stood for almost a decade as Pittsburgh wins the world championship 16-6, missing the shutout on a blocked Steeler punt covered by Minnesota for a TD.

January 18, 1976, Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl X

    The Steelers repeated as as Super Bowl Champions and again set multiple Super Bowl records, including yards receiving by MVP Lynn Swann. Swann's four immortal grabs for 161 yards set a yardage record that would stand for twelve Super Bowls. Among the receptions was a 64 yard completion for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that would be voted the best passing play in all of football history by NFL Films. The Steel Curtain defense would pick off Roger Staubach for three interceptions as Pittsburgh won by a score of 21-17 to win back-to-back championships. This game was the start of heated rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys (in what would become the most numerous pairing in Super Bowl history).

September 12, 1976 at Oakland Raiders, Season Opener

    In what was becoming a heated rivalry for dominance of the AFC in the 1970s, this game brought tensions to a boiling point. Coming off of a freshly minted dynasty, the Steelers opened the quest for three championships in a row at the home of the eventual Super Bowl XI