Jim Gonsoulin of Loreauville looks at a game program from his days with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1977. Gonsoulin, who went through training camp with Pittsburgh that year after finishing his college career at McNeese, will root for the Steelers in Sunday’s Super Bowl. - Chris Landry / The Daily Iberian

Like many football fans around the country, Jim Gonsoulin will be pulling for the Pittsburgh Steelers when they take on the Green Bay Packers Sunday night in a quest for the team’s seventh Super Bowl championship.

Gonsoulin, 56, a Loreauville High graduate who lives next door to the home where he grew up, has closer ties to the team than even many of the Steelers’ most ardent fans, however. He was there, however briefly, during Pittsburgh’s 1970s glory years of the Steel Curtain, Bradshaw and Swann, and Harris and Bleier.

“To be there in the glory years, between the second and third Super Bowls of the ’70s,” was special, said Gonsoulin, who signed as a free agent with the Steelers in 1977 after finishing his playing career at McNeese State University. “At the time, about 4 percent of college athletes even ended up getting the chance to make it (to an NFL training camp) and only about 3 percent made the final cut, so I feel very privileged to have been part of that.”

Gonsoulin’s teammate at McNeese, offensive lineman Jim Files of Franklin, was drafted by the Steelers in 1976 and had told the Loreauville native he might have a chance to make the team in 1977. Pittsburgh had won Super Bowl IX in January of 1975 and Super Bowl X in 1976, and would add back-to-back titles with Super Bowls XIII and XIV. The team has since won Super Bowls following the 2005 and 2008 seasons.

An All-Southland Conference tight end at McNeese and second-team All-Louisiana as a senior, Gonsoulin spent the first three years of college as a slotback. He injured his wrist with five weeks remaining in his senior year and was supposed to miss the rest of the season but had the cast removed in time to face rival USL. The Cowboys beat the Ragin’ Cajuns 20-19 and earned a birth in the inaugural Independence Bowl on Dec. 13, 1976. It was the first SLC championship in school history.

McNeese beat Tulsa 20-16 in the bowl game, but Gonsoulin and nine of his senior teammates, eight of them starters, were not allowed to play because the NCAA had a rule then prohibiting fifth-year seniors from playing in postseason games.

Gonsoulin didn’t know if he’d have a chance to play pro football because of the injury, but he did hear from a number of NFL teams after the season.

“There were seven teams I heard from, and four offered free agent contracts,” said Gonsoulin.

In hindsight, Gonsoulin said he might have been better served to accept an offer from the then-woeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs went winless the previous season in their first year in the NFL, and would go 2-12 in 1977. Gonsoulin said that Tampa Bay lost three tight ends to injury the year he was in training camp with the Steelers, and ended up playing a linebacker on offense. Gonsoulin tried out with the Buccaneers in 1978, but by then the team had loaded up on tight ends through a trade, the draft and free agency in order to avoid the same situation they faced the year before.

“Looking back on it, there’s always things you could’ve done different,” said Gonsoulin, adding that he is grateful not to have any longterm injury or health problems as so many former pro players do. “But I’m thankful I’m healthy. It’s a contact sport. There’s always a risk (of injury).”

Training camp

The Steelers spent training camp then — and still do — at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pa. It was a surprisingly familiar environment for Gonsoulin.

“It was hot and humid,” said Gonsoulin. “I thought, ‘I’m from here (south Louisiana), I’m in good shape. It shouldn’t be a problem.’

“It was in the valley of the Allegheny Mountains, and it was every bit as hot and humid as here.”

The caliber of athletes was also an eye-opener, with 260-pound defensive linemen running as fast as Gonsoulin could, covering 40 yards in 4.6 seconds.

“The step up from high school to college, and I played at a small college, was significant,” said Gonsoulin. “Professionals were five notches above that. From the first day of training camp it was evident. You think training camp they spend a few weeks getting in shape. But everybody showed up ready.”

Gonsoulin started out training camp as a linebacker but the Steel Curtain’s Jack Lambert, Jack Ham and Andy Russell all were All-Pro the year before. Russell retired before the season but the Steelers chose four linebackers in the 11-round 1977 draft — Robin Cole of New Mexico in the first round, Dennis Winston of Arkansas in the fifth round, Paul Harris of Alabama in the seventh round and Dave LaCrosse of Wake Forest in the 10th round.

“They had a slew of talent at linebacker,” said Gonsoulin, who finished up training camp at tight end.

Gonsoulin’s parents, Vernon and Lillian, and his sister Claudette and her husband Phillip were able to watch Gonsoulin play in his final preseason game with the Steelers before he was cut.

“My sister and her husband spent the week up there at training camp and were there every day,” said Gonsoulin. “That was great.”

Impressions

As might be expected on a team with nine future Hall of Fame players and a future Hall of Fame coach, a number of players made lasting impressions on Gonsoulin, starting with Vietnam War veteran Rocky Bleier, a fullback.

Bleier was injured in the war, and many thought he might not survive intact, much less ever play football again.

“To see him work through that was something,” said Gonsoulin. “He and (tailback) Franco (Harris) were quite a tandem.”

Defensive lineman “Mean” Joe Greene also was impressive.

“He was very aggressive (on the field),” said Gonsoulin. “I didn’t speak to him much, but I got the impression he was a nice guy (off the field).”

He was surprised that many of the larger-than-life figures were, in real life, not so large.

“(Wide receiver) Lynn Swann wasn’t a hair over 5-9, and if he weighed 170 (pounds), he had wet clothes on,” said Gonsoulin.

“He was just a great athlete.”

Fellow receiver John Stallworth also was impressive. A quiet man, Stallworth was fast and a smooth runner, said Gonsoulin.

“(Quarterback Terry) Bradshaw could throw a 30-yard out route, and wait for till the receiver cut, and still get it there,” said Gonsoulin. “He was about 6-3, 230. He had the same type build as (current Steelers QB Ben) Roethlisberger. When a defender hit him, he wasn’t automatically going to go down.”

Tony Dungy, a future Super Bowl winning coach with the Indianapolis Colts, was also a free agent signee of the Steelers the same year as Gonsoulin and spent four years in the league as a player with three teams before embarking on his coaching career.

“He’s probably the smartest player I can remember being around,” said Gonsoulin. “And he’s very modest about it.”

Gonsoulin’s son James, who grew up in Tulsa, Okla., played football at Wofford College and met Dungy at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event. Gonsoulin told his son that Dungy probably wouldn’t remember him, but to mention his name and say hello for him.

“He said he remembered me, but who knows?” said Gonsoulin of his son’s report of the meeting. “But that’s just the great type of guy (Dungy) is to spend time with someone like that.”

The Turk

It was a tough day for Gonsoulin when he was cut by the Steelers one Monday morning after a Saturday night preseason game.

Gonsoulin’s roommate, defensive lineman Randy Frisch, had died in a car accident on the way back from the game.

Then Monday, he got a knock on his door. It was The Turk, the NFL’s nickname for the person who cuts players from the squad.

“They said the coaches wanted to see me,” said Gonsoulin, who knew what that meant.

Looking back, he said he realizes how little he knew of the business side of pro football then.

“Probably I could have pursued it a little more aggressively,” said Gonsoulin. “The process of being let go was disappointing, but looking back, I’m grateful I have all my body parts working (and didn’t suffer a serious injury).”

Still a fan

Gonsoulin, who has two stepchildren with wife Sandra, will root for the Steelers Sunday.

“I’ve always had, whether it’s McNeese or my high school or Pittsburgh, there’s a loyalty to the organization I was with,” said Gonsoulin. “Even though it’s 30 years ago, there’s loyalty to the organization that gave me the opportunity.

“I’ve always respected the way the Steelers were run. It’s the same family that owns it. There’s a loyalty to that franchise that’s hard to match.”