Last Steelers coach before Mike Tomlin: Revisiting Pittsburgh’s Bill Cowher era from 1992-2006
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been part of the NFL since 1933, and in that time, the franchise has had only 16 head coaches.
Part of that is because the team’s three most recent coaches all had long tenures at the helm of the team. Pittsburgh has only had three head coaches since 1969, an unreal amount of consistency within the organization.
Chuck Noll was the head coach of the Steelers from 1969-1991, completing 32 seasons with the franchise. When he retired after the 1991 season, he left gigantic shoes to fill. Many were surprised when a legendary coach stepped down, and the Steelers hired Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Bill Cowher as his replacement.
It was Cowher’s first, and only, head coaching gig. The move paid off for Pittsburgh as he served as the head coach for 16 years before stepping down following the 2006 season.
Here is more on the Cowher era in Pittsburgh before Mike Tomlin took over in 2007.
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What happened to Bill Cowher?
Bill Cowher played linebacker at NC State University, but he went undrafted in the 1979 NFL Draft. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for the 1979 season and then played with the Cleveland Browns for three years. Cowher returned to the Eagles for two more seasons to end his playing career in 1984.
After retiring, he immediately transitioned to coaching. Cowher served as Cleveland’s special teams coach for two years beginning in 1985. He was then promoted to the defensive backs coach. After two years, Cowher took a job as the Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive coordinator. After three years in that role, Pittsburgh hired him to be its next head coach, and he took over for Chuck Noll.
Cowher was at the helm of the Steelers for 16 years. He started his tenure with six straight trips to the playoffs, but a win in the Super Bowl remained elusive. In 2005, after 14 years, Cowher finally won his first Super Bowl as the Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks. The head coach went 8-8 in 2006 and then resigned.
Almost immediately after retirement, he signed on with CBS as a studio analyst. He has served as a host there for the last 19 years. Cowher even found out that he was being inducted into the NFL’s Hall of Fame while on national television.
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Why did Bill Cowher resign?
Bill Cowher had been the head coach of the Steelers for 16 years. He had won a Super Bowl, but still decided to retire when he was just 49 years old. Cowher later said that the biggest reasoning behind his decision was his family. He said that he wanted to focus on being present at home and realized once he left that there was more to life than football.
It likely also helped his transition that he had a media deal with CBS come to fruition right after stepping down.
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Bill Cower record
The Hall of Fame coach only had one head coaching gig. He played from 1979 to 1984 and then got into coaching the next season. Cowher worked his way up the defensive side of the ball for six seasons before Pittsburgh felt like it had seen enough and hired him to be their next head coach in 1992.
After 16 years with the organization, he retired. Cowher finished his career with a combined 149-90-1 record and a 12-9 record in the playoffs.
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Steelers head coaches
The Steelers were founded in 1933. Over the franchise’s history, they have had 16 head coaches. For comparison, the Las Vegas Raiders have had 14 head coaches since 2000, and that is counting Jon Gruden as one head coach, despite that he had two different runs at the helm.
No.NameTermGames coachedRecordPlayoff Record1Forrest Douds1933113-6-2–2Luby DiMeolo1934122-10–3Joe Bach1935-19362410-14–4John McNally1937-1939256-19–5Walt Kiesling1939-1940193-13-3–6Bert Bell194120-2–7Aldo Donelli194150-5– Walt Kiesling1941-19443513-20-2–8Jim L:eonard1945102-8–9Jock Sutherland1946-19472313-9-10-110John Michelosen 1948-19514820-26-2– Joe Bach1952-19532411-13– Walt Kiesling1954-19563614-22–11Buddy Parker1957-196410451-47-6–12Mike Nixon1965142-12–13Bill Austin1966-19684211-28-3–14Chuck Noll1969-1991342193-148-116-815Bill Cowher1992-2006240149-90-112-916Mike Tomlin2007-present292183-107-28-11
