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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> BLUE STEEL Penn State has been a big part of Pittsburgh's proud NFL history hen BWI editor Matt Herb asked me to write a column about Penn State's close ties with the Pittsburgh Steelers, I was pleased because I have been a lifelong Steelers fan dating back to my pre- teenage years in the late 1940s. My earliest Steeler memories are from the postwar years of 1946 and '47. I still remember the names of players like "Bullet" Bill Dudley, the star run- ning back in 1946, and Chuck Cherun- dolo, the team's longtime center and linebacker. What I didn't know back then was that Cherundolo was a Penn Stater. Fifty years later, while writing my book, The Penn State Football Encyclo- pedia, I discovered that Cherundolo was probably Penn State's best player during the misguided de-emphasis years of the mid-1930s. He was so good that Chet Smith of The Pittsburgh Press, who cov- ered Nittany Lion football for more than half a century, selected Cherundolo to his all-time Penn State teams in 1950 and 1967. In my research for this column, I learned that Cherundolo is one of 37 Penn State players on the team's official roster since the Steelers entered the NFL in 1933. Compare that to the 23 Penn State players who have played for the Steelers' cross-state rival, the Philadel- phia Eagles, who also joined the league in 1933. In fact, Cherundolo is one of only three Nittany Lions who have played for both teams, and his experi- ence was most unusual. Cherundolo originally signed with the Cleveland Rams in 1937, then coached by his former Penn State coach, Hugo Bezdek, who told Cleveland reporters, "He's one of the greatest players I've seen in several years." Bezdek was fired after the 1938 season, and Cherundolo left in early 1940 to join the Steelers. But in a bizarre franchise maneuver before the season, 12 Steelers, including Cherundolo, and seven Eagles switched sides. Then, before the 1941 season, Cherundolo and several players switched sides again. He wound up spending six years with the Steelers, playing for them in 1941 and '42 and from 1945 through '48. The gap was due to his military service. Wide receiver Gregg Garrity and kicker Matt Bahr are the other Penn Staters who played for both teams after being initially drafted by the Steelers. Garrity was picked in the fifth round by Pitts- burgh in 1983, spent part of the 1984 season with the Steelers and part with Philadelphia, then stayed with the Ea- gles through 1989. Bahr, who kicked for six different teams in a 17-year career, was the Steelers' sixth-round choice in 1979 and stayed one more year before moving on. In 1993, he spent the first 11 games with the Eagles and the last three with the Patriots, retiring after two more seasons in New England. Draft-worthy players What's intriguing about the Steelers- Penn State connection is the number of Nittany Lions who were selected by Pittsburgh in the NFL Draft. The 2018 Penn State Football Yearbook lists 26 players who were chosen by the Steelers. The Lions have also had 26 players taken by the New York Jets, with Washington next (22) and then Philadelphia (21). That doesn't mean all those players ac- tually played for those teams. Center-linebacker Leon Gajecki is rec- ognized by Penn State and the NFL as the first player drafted into the fledgling league after his junior season of 1939. Naturally, he was taken by the Steelers, going in the 16th of 22 rounds (142nd overall) in 1940. Strangely, Gajecki's name does not appear on NFL.com's of- ficial list of draftees. Michael Signora, the NFL's vice presi- dent of football communications and a Penn State graduate, confirmed Gajecki's pioneering status through the Elias Sport Bureau, adding that he's not certain why NFL.com ignores him. Gajecki, who became Penn State's sixth first-team All-American in his senior year, was also the first Nittany Lion draftee not to play in the NFL. In the early 1990s, I became acquainted with Gajecki through our mutual good friend Fran Fisher, Penn State's leg- endary sportscaster. Gajecki told me he didn't accept the Steelers' offer because he could earn more money in the fuel technology business. The Steelers did not draft another Penn State player until 1946. During that five-year drought, Philadelphia se- lected signal-caller/blocking back John Patrick in the 12th round (101st overall) in 1941 and passing wizard Bill Smaltz in the 16th round (143rd overall) the next year. Lo and behold, the Eagles traded Patrick to the Steelers. He started eight of 11 games for Pittsburgh in '41 and then went into the military. The records show that after the war, Patrick played in four games in 1945 and three games in '46, while Smaltz never played in the NFL About the time I became interested in the Steelers in 1946, the team drafted W

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