Teresa Varley

Leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft, Steelers.com is sharing memories of what the draft was like for several key players in team history.

Those sharing their story were members of the Super Bowl X team or the Super Bowl XL team, both which are celebrating milestones this year. It will be the 50th Anniversary of Super Bowl X and the 20th Anniversary of Super Bowl XL, two very special memories in Steelers history.

In this installment, Hall of Famer and a member of the Super Bowl X team John Stallworth shares his take of being a part of the historic Steelers 1974 Draft Class.

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When John Stallworth was taken in the NFL Draft, things were much different than they are today.

There was no NFL Network, no ESPN coverage. The draft was barely a blip on the radar as far as media attention went.

"It's a whole lot different now," said Stallworth. "You didn't have all the hoopla then that goes along with it. There was no flying to a city to visit teams. There was nothing like there is today.

"I talked to Bill Nunn, who was the scout with the Steelers back then. I talked to Bill maybe three or four times. I never got a chance to talk to anybody on the coaching staff. I didn't know where I was going, how I was going."

There weren't cell phones at that time either, something that has become the life blood for today's draft prospects. Instead, Stallworth had to depend on a shared phone in a dorm hallway at Alabama A&M to learn that he would be selected by the Steelers in the fourth round of the 1974 NFL Draft.

And delivering the news that he was drafted, well, let's just say it's nothing like it is today.

"I got a phone call from Myron Cope to tell me I had been drafted by the Steelers," said Stallworth. "Myron asked me a few questions and that was it. I hung up the phone and called my mom and told her I had been drafted. It wasn't like it is today."

Stallworth said looking back it was different that Cope, the late Steelers radio broadcaster and creator of the Terrible Towel, was the one who delivered the news as now it's either the team owner, head coach or general manager who deliver the news in a made for video moment.

"It was unique. But everything was unique back then," said Stallworth. "Looking back, it was kind of comical it would be Myron Cope that gave me a call."

Stallworth was a part of a legendary draft class that included receiver Lynn Swann, center Mike Webster and linebacker Jack Lambert, all who are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with Stallworth, along with safety Donnie Shell who was an undrafted rookie free agent.

"No question it's the best draft class," said Stallworth. "And I'm not just saying that just for the heck of it. If you look at the draft class, and then Donnie as a free agent, I don't think there's any other class closer than that. I think that entire NFL draft class, there may have been two other guys that made the Hall of Fame that were not in Pittsburgh.

"If you look at our numbers, in the same place at the same time, that has to be pretty amazing."

But for Stallworth, being drafted with Swann made him a little nervous at first.

"(Myron) told me the Steelers drafted a receiver in an earlier round," said Stallworth. "That caused a little pause for me. I wondered what that meant. It turned out okay."

There is no doubt about that.