Sport(s) Football Name Dan Radakovich 1972-1973 Colorado (DC/LB) | 1970 Cincinnati (asst) 1957-1969 Penn State (asst) Role American football player | |
1971 Pittsburgh Steelers (DL) 1974-1977 Pittsburgh Steelers (LB) Education Pennsylvania State University | ||
Dan Radakovich (born 1935) is a former NFL football player and later an offensive line coach who helped coach the Pittsburgh Steelers to multiple Super Bowl wins in the 1970s. He spent 48 years in collegiate and professional coaching before his retirement in 2008.
Radakovich graduated from Penn State in 1957, and immediately began working on the coaching staff of the Nittany Lions, which he continued until 1969. He went Cincinnati in 1970, but joined the Steelers in 1971.
Described as "lean, and blond, a center in his playing days", Radakovich was "a Western Pennsylvania guy who had been on Noll's staff in 1971 but resigned to take a coaching job in college football". Radakovich subsequently returned to working with professional football, where he helped persuade Chuck Noll to draft Franco Harris out of Penn State.
After a stint in Colorado, he coached the Steelers linebackers from 1974-1977. In 1978, Radakovich left Pittsburgh to work on the coaching staff of the San Francisco 49ers, then switched to the Los Angeles Rams in 1979. His last position was as an assistant with Robert Morris University.