By Bob Labriola
Steelers.com

One of the most important figures in Steelers history died yesterday. Bud Carson was 75 when he died on Dec. 7 of complications from emphysema at his home in Sarasota, Florida.

The question of why Carson deserves to be remembered as one of the greats in the history of a franchise that is in the process of completing its 73rd NFL season can be answered simply:

He was the coordinator who put the four defensive linemen together who went on to become The Steel Curtain.

Without Bud Carson, the quartet of L.C. Greenwood, Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes and Dwight White might never have been.

Carson’s coaching career began in 1957 at his alma mater, North Carolina, and then in 1965 he moved on to the staff at South Carolina. In 1966, he moved on to Georgia Tech, and he succeeded the legendary Bobby Dodd as head coach the following year.

It was from there that Chuck Noll brought Carson to the Steelers following the 1971 NFL season. The Steelers had improved from 1-13 in 1969 when Noll was a rookie coach to 5-9 in 1970 and then 6-8 in 1971, and during those years the team had been accumulating some impressive talent.

Greene had been Noll’s first No. 1 pick in 1969, and Greenwood was a No. 10 selection from Arkansas AM&N the same year. Then in 1971, the draft brought White in the fourth round and Holmes in the eighth. The next offseason, Noll hired Carson to be his defensive coordinator and George Perles to be the defensive line coach.

That’s when the debates began in earnest.

“As far as the Steel Curtain, Bud got Ernie, L.C., Joe and Dwight, and he put them together,” said Bill Nunn, who found a bunch of those guys for those Steelers teams as one of its top scouts. “Bud Carson really understood that you played with athletes, and not necessarily head-butters, which is the way George Perles believed in playing. Bud liked quick guys with intelligence, and Chuck Noll was a defensive guy himself who believed in a lot of the same things.”

Dan Rooney agrees with Nunn’s version of that bit of Steelers history.

“He was a strategist. He looked at the players, and he knew what kind of players we wanted,” said Rooney. “At that time, talk was starting about getting the big guys who could just jam things up. Bud always wanted the fast players, the athletic players who could get up the field and really rush the passer. It takes a combination, and he was able to take the players and talk to Chuck Noll and some of the others on the staff about what we should do, how we should do it and what players we should use.”

In addition to putting together those four players, Carson also is credited with introducing the cover-2 defense to the NFL, and the cover-2 is still widely used throughout the league with one of its major proponents being Tony Dungy, who learned the basics of the defense from Carson during the 1977 season when both were with the Steelers.

“Bud was a no-nonsense guy. He was well-organized,” said Dick Hoak, who was hired as an offensive assistant coach by Noll the same offseason that Carson and Perles were hired as defensive assistants. “I believe this and Tony Dungy believes this: Bud was the guy who brought cover-2 into professional football. Before Bud came into professional football, I don’t ever remember cover-2, and he was the guy who came up with the cover-2 scheme for us, and at the time that was groundbreaking in the NFL.”

Carson also was the guy who benched Mel Blount in the 1974 AFC Championship Game in Oakland because he wasn’t happy with the way the future Hall of Fame cornerback was covering Cliff Branch.

“That’s the way Bud was,” said Hoak. “He wanted you to do things his way. A lot of times, he thought his way was the right way to do it. He didn’t put up with anything from anybody.”

Carson was the defensive coordinator here through the 1977 season, and so he was calling the shots for the 1976 Steelers defense, a unit that allowed just 28 points during a nine-game winning streak that propelled the team from a 1-4 start into the playoffs.

“He was a great coach here,” said Rooney. “I might say he coached the greatest defense that ever played in the National Football League. I told him that one time after he had left. They were a phenomenal team. He’ll be missed. He was a good fella, but he was an outstanding coach, especially here. He went on to be the head coach at Cleveland, and coached in a number of places after that.”

The ambition to be a head coach in the NFL is what took Carson from the Steelers. Smart enough to realize the Steelers were set for years with Noll, Carson initially left to become the defensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams, and he was on the staff there in 1979 when they faced the Steelers in Super Bowl XIV.

Carson eventually was hired by the Browns in 1989, and he compiled an 11-13-1 record as an NFL head coach. He took Cleveland to the 1989 AFC Championship Game, where they were defeated by the Denver Broncos.