<P> The franchise, along with the Rooney family have for generations been strong advocates for equality of opportunity for both minorities and women . Among these achievements of the Steelers was the first to hire an African - American Assistant Coach (September 29, 1957 with Lowell Perry), the first to start an African - American quarterback (December 3, 1973 with Joe Gilliam), the first team to boast of an African - American Super Bowl MVP (January 12, 1975 with Franco Harris), the first to hire an African - American Coordinator (September 2, 1984 with Tony Dungy), the first owner to push for passage of an "equal opportunity" mandating that at least one minority candidate is given an interview in all head coach hiring decisions throughout the league (the Rooney Rule in the early 2000s), and the first to hire a female as full - time athletic trainer (Ariko Iso on July 24, 2002). Note: Although Marlin Briscoe is sometimes erroneously cited as the first African - American starting quarterback in 1968, this was not for an NFL team and not in an NFL game, additionally the vast majority of Briscoe's career was not as quarterback . </P> <P> The Steelers have used black and gold as their colors since the club's inception, the lone exception being the 1943 season when they merged with the Philadelphia Eagles and formed the "Steagles"; the team's colors at that time were green and white as a result of wearing Eagles uniforms . Originally, the team wore solid gold - colored helmets and black jerseys . The Steelers' black and gold colors are now shared by all major professional teams in the city, including the Pittsburgh Pirates in baseball and the Pittsburgh Penguins in ice hockey, and also the Pittsburgh Power of the re-formed Arena Football League, and the Pittsburgh Passion of the Independent Women's Football League . The shade of gold differs slightly among teams: the Penguins have previously used "Vegas Gold", a color similar to metallic gold, and the Pirates' gold is a darker mustard yellow - gold, while the Steelers "gold" is more of a bright canary yellow . Black and gold are also the colors of the city's official flag . </P> <P> The Steelers logo was introduced in 1962 and is based on the "Steelmark", originally designed by Pittsburgh's U.S. Steel and now owned by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). In fact, it was Cleveland - based Republic Steel that suggested the Steelers adopt the industry logo . It consists of the word "Steelers" surrounded by three astroids (hypocycloids of four cusps). The original meanings behind the astroids were, "Steel lightens your work, brightens your leisure, and widens your world ." Later, the colors came to represent the ingredients used in the steel - making process: yellow for coal, red for iron ore, and blue for scrap steel . While the formal Steelmark logo contains only the word "Steel", the team was given permission to add "ers" in 1963 after a petition to AISI . </P> <P> The Steelers are the only NFL team that puts its logo on only one side of the helmet (the right side). Longtime field and equipment manager Jack Hart was instructed to do this by Art Rooney as a test to see how the logo appeared on the gold helmets; however, its popularity led the team to leave it that way permanently . A year after introducing the logo, they switched to black helmets to make it stand out more . </P>

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