‘Burgh’s Best to Wear It, No. 59: Jack Ham one of the NFL’s all-time best outside linebackers

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best 100 players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 59: Jack Ham

A Johnstown native, Jack Ham was a Pennsylvania star, through and through: from Bishop McCort High School to Penn State to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And although he wore No. 66 for the Crushers and No. 33 for the Nittany Lions, it is while donning the 59 professionally for the black and gold for which he is best known.

And that is a number the Tribune-Review sports staff has judged was worn better by Ham than anyone else in Pittsburgh history. Ham was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection, six-time first-team All-Pro honoree (twice he was second-team All-Pro) and 1975 NFL Defensive Player of the Year while playing for those Super Steelers of the 70s.

A second-round draft pick in 1971, Ham’s 12-year NFL career included four Super Bowl rings and earned him spots on the NFL’s all-1970s team and its 75th and 100th anniversary teams. Ham also was named to the Steelers’ all-time team and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.

Though tackles and sacks weren’t tabulated accurately as a statistic in the 1970s, Ham had 32 interceptions and 21 fumble recoveries in his career with another five interceptions and three fumble recoveries over 16 playoff games.

Ham is said by some to be the greatest outside linebacker of all-time. Though the lines are blurred about precise positions (particularly through eras), of the 12 linebackers named to the NFL’s 100th anniversary team, Ham is one of four considered to have been outside linebackers.

Better watch out if Jack Ham is by ? #TBT pic.twitter.com/jNkbBTx6Is

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) May 29, 2020

Ham’s résumé will be difficult for any future Pittsburgh athlete to usurp. For now, the second-best to wear No. 59 in the city is 25-year-old Jake Guentzel.

Outside of players taken among the top two picks of a draft, Guentzel (third round, 2013) might be off to one of the best 250-game starts to an NHL career for the Penguins. Through 243 games, he has 98 goals and 200 points — plus another 24 goals (and his name on the Stanley Cup) after 41 playoff games.

Rob Mackowiak (2001-04) is, to date, the player to wear No. 59 the longest for the Pirates. But Joe Musgrove is perhaps their best healthy starting pitcher for the truncated 2020 season, his third with the club.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.

Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.