How the Steelers Dynasty Saved Lives (A Dorktown Story)

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Anthony DiCerbo. Follow him on Twitter @SnarfVenom

Sports give us many stories to tell. Tales of winners that should have lost and losers that should’ve won, stories of underdogs and upsets, ecstasy and heartbreak. Once you get past those you are left with the weird and peculiar stories that more often than not are forgotten and left to the past. 

There may not be a better duo in telling these stories than Alex Rubenstein and Jon Bois, the creators of the documentary series Dorktown.

Their latest creation, titled “Section 1: A short film from “Dorktown” details how the Steelers inadvertently saved lives in December of 1976.

I highly recommend sports fans watch the roughly 40-minute video, but it should be a must-watch for Steelers fans. It can be found on Secret Base’s youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alcVZZuj_WE). All credit for telling this story goes to Alex and Jon, they did a fantastic job as always and go into more detail than I do in this simple retelling. I highly recommend this video and all of the other Dorktown videos. 

The Steelers at this time were in the midst of what is debatably the best dynasty football has ever seen. They were already back-to-back Super Bowl champions, and despite not winning it this season, they would go on to win it two more times. 

They come into this playoff matchup against the Baltimore Colts with a 10-4 regular season record. After dropping to 1-4 the Steelers won 9 straight games, with the Steel Curtain pitching 5 shutouts in that time. 

They have to travel to Baltimore to face the 11-3 Colts, who due to a recent rule change, got to host the playoff game because they had the better record. 

As Jon Bois details in the opening, “At precisely 4:59 pm, this game will end. Six minutes later, at 5:05 pm, an airplane will accidentally crash into the upper deck of Memorial Stadium.”

This seemingly normal playoff game, without any of the fans or players knowing it, became a game of life or death. 

“One realistic outcome remains: the nature of this game’s outcome. If the Colts win the fans are likely to remain in the stands for some time to celebrate after the final whistle. If the Colts lose a close game, or a game in which there’s a speck of hope toward the end, it seems likely that most fans will remain until the end, and will need quite some time to file out. This has to be a rout.” Bois says in the intro. 

So, to the dismay of the unknowing Colts fans, the 1976 Steelers, a team with 8 future hall of fame players coached by a future hall of famer, must play the hero. They must blow out the 11-3 Baltimore Colts on the road in order to save lives.

The antagonist of sorts in this story is Donald Kroner. He was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the stadium, and while it was an accident, it really wasn’t. Like Bois and Rubenstein demonstrate throughout the video, the man was begging to be caught. 

Previously he had been kicked out of a restaurant owned by former player Bill Pellington, and he reportedly threatened to firebomb the restaurant. While that threat never came to fruition what he did do was fly extremely low and close to the restaurant, throwing a bottle and rolls of toilet paper as he passed. 

He was actually arrested for this issue, just a handful of days before the Steelers were scheduled to take on the Colts in Baltimore, he was released on bail, and was legally able to rent a plane for his planned stunt at the stadium.

Originally he had planned to fly low through the open end of the stadium, close to the field, then climb back up and out of the stadium. He actually planned to fly his plane through the stadium just minutes after an NFL playoff game had ended. 

Despite the incoming madness, there is a game to be played. 

The game starts out rough enough for the Steelers, who fumble and then recover the opening kick-off. Then, just a few plays into the first drive of the game Rocky Bleier suffers an injury. Still though, the Steelers get on the board thanks to a 76-yard touchdown catch by Frank Lewis from Terry Bradshaw. 

Steelers kicker Roy Gerela shanks the PAT but later gets to add a field goal, making it a 9-0 Steelers lead. 

The Colts, led by NFL MVP quarterback Bert Jones answer back on a 17-yard touchdown pass. 9-7 game. 

An excellent kickoff return gives the Steelers great field position, and a few plays later, Reggie Harrison runs it in from one yard out. Steelers lead 16-7. 

The Steelers D gets the job done and forces a punt, but the promising drive ends without a score as the Steelers lose the ball on a fumble. 

Once again the Steel Curtain does their thing, with the Colts getting zero yards after the turnover, once again punting back to the Steelers. This time the offense hits its mark, with Terry Bradshaw finding a wide-open Lynn Swann for the touchdown. Steelers lead 23-7. 

Before the half would close the Steelers would get to add another Roy Gerela field goal to make the score 26-7 at the half. With half the game still to play the game isn’t exactly close, but it hasn’t hit the level of blowout to make the home fans consider leaving just yet. 

In the early moments of their first second-half drive, the Steelers are met with another challenge. After losing Rocky Bleier early, the offense has relied on Franco Harris to carry the load, but now he goes down with a rib injury making the task at hand even more difficult for the unknowing Steelers. 

Once again the Steelers defense handled NFL MVP, Bert Jones and didn’t allow the Colts to score. 

Even without their two leading rushers, the Steelers offense moved down the field once again, ending the drive with the second Bradshaw to Swann touchdown connection of the day. 

The Colts manage to answer back with a one-yard touchdown rush to, at the very least, keep their fans engaged and the smallest hope of victory alive. 

Alex Rubenstein says of the situation in the fourth quarter, “While holding a three-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, we might expect Pittsburgh’s top priority here be to simply run the ball and drain clock rather than increasing their lead, even despite losing both of their thousand-yard backs.”

Frenchy Fuqua gets loose on a screen, and all of a sudden the Steelers once again find themselves in scoring position where Reggie Harrison scores from 10 yards out. Steelers lead 40-14. That score would hold and end up being the final.

For the rest of the game, the Colts didn’t seem to have much life left in them. The Steelers would once again get the ball back. This time Steelers backup quarterback Mike Kruczek would take the field for Terry Bradshaw.

The Steelers would get close to scoring again, but they let the clock run out and took the win. 

Six minutes later Kroner’s plane crashed into the upper deck of the stadium. There were no fatalities. 

Jon Bois concludes by saying, “Can you be a hero purely and entirely by accident? If you can be, these Pittsburgh Steelers are. Although they’ll miss out on the Super Bowl this year, they’ll become legendary. Not only on account of the two Super Bowls they’ve won already, but because of the two more they’ll go on to win in the coming years. Not because of today. Nobody remembers today.”

The full video by Alex Rubenstein and Jon Bois can be found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alcVZZuj_WE).