Former Steelers player, now in Rock Hill, to root for his club in Super Bowl

Rock Hill's Dave Liddick spends his retirement like plenty of other guys in their 70s. He meets friends for coffee, exercises at the YMCA and dotes on his 14-year-old granddaughter, Brittany, every chance he gets.

It's what Liddick did a half-century ago that sets him apart. For two seasons, he was a defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, helping to establish a franchise that would become one of the NFL's best.

Look through the Steelers' all-time roster, and you'll find familiar names such as Terry Bradshaw, Mean Joe Greene and Franco Harris. But get to the letter L, and there it says "Dave Liddick."

The Steelers cut Liddick after his second season in 1958, ending his playing career before he had a chance to get rich or become famous. But he has some pretty cool stories to tell when he gets together with friends.

The Detroit Lions made Liddick the No. 59 pick in the NFL draft. Before he ever played a down, the Lions traded him to Pittsburgh along with a young, unproven quarterback named Jack Kemp.

Kemp went on to become a star player and, decades later, a congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate.

For two years, Kemp was also Dave Liddick's roommate. The two shared an apartment in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood, near the University of Pittsburgh campus.

That first season, Liddick got a paycheck for $7,000. The next year, his salary rose to $7,500.

It's a fraction of what today's NFL players make, but it was serious money to a kid who grew up in central Pennsylvania and played college ball at George Washington University, where the football program has since been disbanded.

One night, some Steelers players were hanging out with some Pitt players at a pizza joint near campus. Someone introduced Liddick to a nursing student named Jo-Ann. The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year.

The Steelers played in those days at Forbes Field, also the home of the Pirates baseball team. The Pirates would win three World Series while playing at Forbes, but the Steelers often struggled. The team finished 6-6 in Liddick's first season and 6-8 in the second.

"The reputation around the league was that if we didn't win the game, we wanted to fight," Liddick said. "Even back then, Pittsburgh was known as a rough team."

The game program listed Liddick at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds.

"But I played at about 260," he said. "Back then, that was big."

The Steeler who now plays his position, nose tackle Casey Hampton, checks in at 6-foot-1, 325 pounds.

After the 1958 season, the Steelers made changes and Liddick no longer fit into their plans. Instead of trying to catch on with another team, he took a job coaching high school football in Lancaster County, Pa.

But he quickly discovered that coaching didn't pay very well. So after one year, he took a job with the Kroger grocery store chain, and wound up staying with the company for 28 years.

Liddick worked in various cities around the U.S., but his final transfer was to the Charlotte market in the late 1980s. The family has lived in Rock Hill since 1987.

Since his retirement, Liddick has returned to Pittsburgh several times to visit his wife's family. He has never attended another Steelers game. But tonight, he'll watch the Super Bowl on TV, hoping it ends in a victory for the team he played for so many years ago.

Matt Garfield • 803-329-4063

This story was originally published February 1, 2009 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Former Steelers player, now in Rock Hill, to root for his club in Super Bowl."