1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - The College All-Stars vs. The Pittsburgh Steelers: July 7th, 11:25am

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

The College All-Stars vs. The Pittsburgh SteelersAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to one-on-one with DP. Brought you by Canopy Street Market on 937 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Paint your face. Use all the aqua that you can find in your hair. You need young Bach hair to blow up and spray back to get full warrior mane. That's right. You need young Bach, me, hair me, right? and then pump up your biceps

tie strings around the biceps sprint so you should just everybody we should have with Ultimate Warrior Day where everybody paints their face has the little tassels on their arms and their legs and they run into their office and you just run around your office

but you have to have the warrior music on your phone and you just run run. You just run around your office and just, and don't tell anybody why you're doing. Don't tell anybody what you're doing. Just tell them, hey, man, just show up and then talk like the warrior. Like, I, Bach, I would love a day where everybody talked like the warrior. If you're running around in your office right there, you might get a visit for me, you know, HR. No, it needs to be the HR director. That would, if you have any complaints.

Go see HR director, Ultimate Warrior. That would be so good. Oh, you have a, oh, you're feeling some kind of way today. Well, HR director, Ultimate Warrior is waiting for you. And you need Chief of Security, Road Warrior Hawk. It's like a pretty good episode. Listen, we were, Harrison and Haas and I, we were talking and trying to come up with the ultimate finisher in sports. So they talk about in e-sports how each finishing move has its own power level that exhaust the opponent, right?

And there are those that like when it hits it, it's finished. Like you're finished. but ranking all-time finishing moves and we were having that discussion. So Bach start to wrap your hand. Hour number two, we will talk about the ultimate finishers. And then we also need the ultimate villains.

Who are the greatest villains in sports? But we'll get to that in hour or two. Because I found it all fast, like the greatest villain. Like greatest rivalries aren't always tied to the greatest villains. We think they are. but if you're telling me the greatest rivalries, where the greatest rivalries

that Nebraska's ever had is... Nebraska, Oklahoma. And then who would be the biggest villain if it came from the greatest rivalry? But I'm not sure Oklahoma has a villain greater than a list of 10 other names Nebraska fans can need. So we'll talk about that in our two.

I did find, and a friend sent me this article, they were listening and their Steelers fans. So it didn't take them long to get into their feelings about this. But in 1975, 1975, August 1st. So right before training camp or actually in training camp, the Pittsburgh Steelers had won the previous year's Super Bowl. So they represented the NFL and the college all-stars.

They played a game, August 1st, 1975 in Chicago. And of course the Steelers coached by Chuck Noel. Of course, they had the steel curtain defense. Franco Harris was the MVP from the previous Super Bowl. Terry Bradshaw had regained the starting job from Joe Gillum the previous years. Joe Gillum started the first six games of 74 and then Bradshaw took the job back. The All-Stars, the college All-Stars included 22.

22 first round picks. Bach, there's zero chance you put together an awesome game where 22 of the 30 plus first round pick compete in a game. And there's no amount of money to get them to do it. The pay is now too much. The risk is too much. Or at least perceived as too much.

And I'm trying to think of the, so the timing. of this too because they had the draft in January so if you get it in August were these players already drafted. They were already drafted. They knew who they were going to play for under contract. And several things, there's several things amazing

about this. Fifty-four thousand fans packed that stadium to watch this football game. So there was a movement behind, there was an energy behind this. Right? This particular All-Star team was led by Atlanta Falcons number one pick, Steve Bartkowski. Also in the backfield from Jackson State, Walter Payton.

All world tied in from Oregon, and then I heard forgotten that he was from Oregon, Russ Francis. All world. There was a pocket of the NFL where Russ Francis was the Apex tight in in football. Weird guy, interesting guy. a bit of a unicorn, but absolutely was all world. On the college team, the defense was led by the Dallas Cowboys number one pick, Randy White from Maryland.

Robert Brazil for the Houston Oilers, Ohio State's Neil Colsey, and John McKay of USC was leading the charge. And they say, 54,000 plus on a Friday night at Soldier Field. Again, another year, the previous year had been, delayed because of the previous storm. But a rainstorm, of course, doused the game, right? And it rained throughout the whole game. All-Star scored first.

Bartkowski hit Pat McAnall. Who ended up being not only the Bengals starting tight-in, but an all-pro punter. War two helmets. Yes, sir. Pat McAnally. Harvard grad, gets a touchdown. Also, names from the past, Steve Mickemeier. The Mickmire name resonates

because there were a bunch of soccer-style kickers who came to America and got in a system. Steve McMeyer went to Maryland, but they were Mickhamer, there were Mickemeier brothers all over the league, all over the league. On the touchdown, Pat McAnally broke his leg. Uh-oh.

Broke his leg. They defended, well, Bradshaw to Randy Grossman ties it at 7-7. Ron Shanklin, Rocky Blyer played well in the drive. Of course, their new tight-in, Larry Brown, who was the number

one pick who could not play for the All-Stars because he was playing for the Steelers. And then sidebar, key play of the drive, 11-yard play, a 9-yard play, passed from Terry Bradshaw to full-back, Reggie Harrison. And Reggie Harrison is important

to me because he was my high school running back coach. Right. To think from going, winning a Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 74, 75 to coaching DP and Barry Thompson in 1979, 78, 79. All true. Wonderful deal. Noel kept the starters in for the first half, put replacements in, but kept Bradshaw in the game.

Didn't matter. Bart Caskey hits another touchdown pass. Glenn Edwards, a safety for the Steelers picked off Barkaski, returned for a touchdown. And then Virgil Wyvers from Western Kentucky, who ended up playing for the Chicago Bears, right? So it is soon to be home stadium returns upon 88 yards for a touchdown. College team led 14-7.

Half time. Franco Harris and Mel Blunt both had minor injuries in the game. They were removed from the game. And they talk about, you know, this is what was going on. Bradshaw was sacked five times by the college. Right.

Just imagine you're Terry freaking Bradshaw and you're getting sacked by these college players and it also gave. Not real happy. They scored, Jack Lambert recovered a Barkowski Fumble. Frinchie Fukuqua, again, think Immaculate Reception. He was the

intended receiver in the Immaculate Reception. Fritche Fuqua leads them. They tie it. And then Jefferson's seat drove Joe Gillum replaces Terry Bradshaw in the fourth quarter. Steelers then scored on the next

two drives led by Gillum, including a 45-yard pass to Frank Lewis. And I think early Steelers before Swan and Stallworth, there was Franklin and Shanklin, who were the starting receivers along the way, and then they then proceeded to draft the young guys who got in. Bradshaw finished 14 of 24 for 1.45, one touchdown, one interception.

Joe Gillum was 5 of 6, 50 yards, two touchdown. No interception. Rocky Blyer led them on the ground, 41 yards on 11. Perry's. Pretty amazing stuff. Bartkowski, welcome to the NFL, Steve Barkowski. Seven of 18. And Chuck Noel said this.

Actually, Walter Payton led the college team in rushing, but not much. Seven carries 16 yards. So welcome to the league as well. Chuck Noel was quoted saying, physically, we got the hell kicked out of us. He goes, I'm disappointed in team's effort, but that's what happens when you underestimate someone. The Steelers went on to win the NFL championship the following year in the Super Bowl going 12 and 2 in the regular season. It is, again, there's a way for this to come back and be done because it has value, Bach. It has, like, it has, like, I'm old enough to remember watching these games.

As a matter of fact, I think I don't remember Google when the Hall of Fame games started. Because I'm not sure that I remember the Hall of Fame games happening at the same time as the All-Star game. But I think a college All-Star game, draft picks, right? Because at this point, and you could do second-round picks. I don't know, you know, whatever you wanted to do. But the value system, the point we were making was that the value system has changed so much. And the money has taken over as such the priority. It is the priority.

Money is the priority. And when money becomes the priority of how this is done, the fans are going to lose. That's just the way it works. Bach does it say when the first Hall of Fame football game was? It looks like it started in 1962. Right. So right around that, right?

Oh, man, that would be so good. That would be, like, Bach, we need this. Well, and also just to kind of think about that game, too, is that the Steelers, well, one, they're the Pittsburgh freaking Steelers, but that at least they've played together. You know, this college all-star team that John McKay had, you know, I don't know how many practices they had going into this game to play the Steelers. Right. And they're still able to keep it close. Right. I mean, think about now, the coolness level of being a first round draft pick, because there's the honor of being a first round draft pick.

And it used to be spoken of as such the honor and privilege and and and bucket this. The responsibility of being a first round draft pick in the NFL. This is before slotted rookie scales and all this sort of stuff. That a lot of the people, even as number one draft picks, you still had to have another job. In the 70s, 60s and 70s, even top round draft picks still had to work other jobs in town. And so matter of fact, this is the weekend where NFL Network runs America's game, like the whole marathon of every Super Bowl championship team. It's an hour-long storytelling.

And you forget because it had even the Baltimore Colts with Johnny Uninitus and Bill Curry as the starting center on that team, Bubba Smith from Michigan State. And they talk about their connection with the city and that it will never happen again. Because those teams lived in the city. Those players work in the community. Like they would work at the car dealership. They'd work at the body shop. They worked in the city that they played in because they had to.

They weren't making a lot of money. And they talk about it this way, that the 83 Redskinned Super Bowl team, Joe Thaisman was telling the story of, like, it's a famous, clip of him saying you get a really cool ring and $70,000 and everybody went crazy. And then Rush Grimm follows that and says, well, yes, that $70,000 was more than I made that year. Head explode. Like my head, I was like, what?

Different world. What? Bach, it's not, this is why I'm a history. Haas and I go back all the time because you're too much for a historian because you need to know. Like you need to remember that, hey, man, them dudes for $70,000 winning the Super Bowl was more than 95% of the players on. And Russ Grimm was an all pro. He was all NFL.

And he made more for winning Super Bowl than he did the whole season. So there's a way. There's a way. I don't know what the way is, Bob. We need to get to the way. We'll go to break. We'll come back more one-on-one. Download our app by searching 93.7, the ticket in your app store.

You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.