How many black quarterbacks played for the pittsburgh steelers
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Joe Gilliam
American football player (1950–2000)
For his father, the American football player and coach, see Joe Gilliam Sr.
American football player
| Position: | Quarterback |
|---|---|
| Born: | (1950-12-29)December 29, 1950 Charleston, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Died: | December 25, 2000(2000-12-25) (aged 49) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Weight: | 187 lb (85 kg) |
| High school: | Pearl (Nashville, TN) |
| College: | Tennessee State |
| NFL draft: | 1972 / round: 11 / pick: 273 |
| * Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |
Joseph Wiley Gilliam Jr. (December 29, 1950 – December 25, 2000) was an American professional football player, a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons. Primarily a backup, he started the first six games of the 1974 season.
Early life
Gilliam was born in Charleston, West Virginia, the third of four children of Ruth and Joe Gilliam Sr. He grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and spent many h
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Gilliam Sr., Joe
Born in Steubenville, Ohio in 1929, Joe Gilliam demonstrated outstanding leadership at an early age by earning All-American honors as quarterback for West Virginia State. He went on to serve as head football and basketball coach at Oliver High School in Winchester, Kentucky, where his football team captured the state championship in 1954.
Gilliam then worked under Coach John Merritt at Jackson State University from 1955-58 before accepting his first collegiate head-coaching job at Kentucky State University; he later returned to Jackson State. The coaching trio of John Merritt, Alvin Coleman and Joe Gilliam was lured to Nashville by Tennessee State University President Dr. Walter Davis to rebuild TSU’s sagging football program. They would become one of the greatest coaching staffs to remain intact over the next twenty years.
From 1963-1983, Gilliam served as assistant coach, defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, acting head coach and head coach of the TSU football program. During this time, Gilliam, Merritt and Coleman’s TSU Tigers compiled a
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Gilliam, Joe Jr. 1950–2000
Former professional footbal player
Began Taking Drugs
Pawned Super Bowl Rings for Drugs
Turned His Life Around
Sources
Joe Gilliam, Jr. was the first African-American quarterback to start a regular-season National Football League (NFL) game. Although he was a highly talented player, his career was cut short when he became involved in drugs. But Gilliam persevered and got his life back in order before his untimely demise.
Gilliam’s father, Joe Gilliam Sr., coached football for more than forty years, most of them at Tennessee State University. He passed on his talent and love for the game to Gilliam, who grew up on the campus, helping his father. When Gilliam was eight years old, he began going into the opposing teams’ locker rooms at halftime, posing as a team helper. He cleaned the other team’s shoes, listened to the enemy coach’s halftime talk, and then went back to tell his father and the other coaches what he had learned. He continued this until he was in eleventh grade, when a player recognized him and ended his
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