The pitiful Pittsburgh Pirates, established in 1933 by the inimitable “Chief,” Art Rooney Sr defied both belief and the odds by becoming the six-time Super Bowl champions that the Pittsburgh Steelers are today. They began as lovable losers, the Pirates, degenerating into the Same Old Steelers, the Steagles, and the Car-Pitts, but wound up one of professional sports’ most iconic franchises.

In The Steelers Encyclopedia, veteran sportswriter Chuck Finder nimbly chronicles this remarkable team from conception to Immaculate Reception to today. From turnovers to the Terrible Towel, Finder interviews nearly 100 ex-Steelers, coaches, front-office personnel, and fans, and includes more than 150 photographs—many of them never published before.

In The Steelers Encyclopedia, fans will—

Read about wild behind-the-scenes tales such as:

• Jack Lambert, the gap-toothed linebacker considered the game’s scariest player, screaming down a hallway clad in his undies, boots, and cowboy hat because he was afraid of a teammate’s prank snake

• One Super Bowl team making an unscheduled pit stop because they, um, imbibed too many celebratory refreshments after leaving the stadium

• Driving with the club’s legendary founding father, Art Rooney Sr., to his day job—the horse track

Get a look at the stars, the games, and the franchise:

• New details about the Rooneys, the sale of their team, the difficult times and decisions they faced in surviving, then thriving

• Characters ranging from bonus-baby Byron “Whizzer” White, a future U.S. Supreme Court Justice, to league MVPs Bill Dudley, Terry Bradshaw, and Johnny Unitas

• The parade of Hall of Fame ex-Steelers that continues in 2012 with Dermontti Dawson and Jack Butler . . . and includes one Canton honoree who was almost moved to a different position and another whose career took off upon ditching his glasses for contacts

• The nasal voice that provided the team’s historic soundtrack and belonged to the inventor of the Terrible Towel, Myron Cope

Learn the Steelers by the numbers:

• A year-by-year history of the team from 1933 to the present, with stats from each season and each Super Bowl

• Chapters about each Super Bowl and the scouting staff responsible for building champions

• Individual profiles of every Steelers head coach and more than100 Steelers players—from Jerome Bettis to Rod Woodson

• Revealing the man who wrote the Steelers polka, the kid who named the Steel Curtain, and the first weightlifting coach of the Super Steelers

• The cheerleaders—both female and male

For everyone who lives in Steeler Nation, this is the most comprehensive history of football’s most beloved franchise, the Black and Gold.