Former Pittsburgh Steeler Willie McClung, a big man on the football field and in the community, died Sunday following complications from surgery.
William A. McClung Sr., 72, a native of Arkansas who was raised in Philadelphia and played his college ball at Florida A & M, played more than 70 games in the NFL for the Steelers, the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions.
He majored in industrial arts in college and earned his living as an automobile mechanic when he retired from football.
He later formed his own company, McClung Transportation on Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville, which had a fleet of more than 60 school buses and provided transportation for Pittsburgh Public Schools students in the late 1980s and early '90s, family members said.
Mr. McClung was considered a "sleeper" when he joined the Steelers in 1955. The 6-foot-2, 250-pound McClung soon developed into a first-string player on the defensive line. He, like many other players of that era, also played on the offensive line. He was known as one of the strongest men on the team.
His met his future wife, the former Joan Bolden of the Hill District, soon after he arrived in Pittsburgh.
"It was always a joke in the family that when he came to Pittsburgh, I had a car and I basically was his chauffeur," his widow recalled with a laugh. "My brother-in-law knew him and when he came to Pittsburgh, he introduced us so I could introduce him around town."
The couple dated for six or eight months before getting married. They celebrated their 46th anniversary on June 23.
"I always accused him of making me sell my car. He didn't like my convertible. That was the big joke between us," she said.
If no one knew Mr. McClung when he walked into the room, said his daughter, Darlynn Benjamin of Minneapolis, Minn., everybody knew him by the time he left.
"He had a magnetic kind of personality," she said. "He was a very humorous person. He loved telling jokes. He liked kidding around."
Her father also had a compassionate side.
"He tried to give back to the community. He was a founder of the Lincoln-Larimer Athletic Association where children between 8 and 13 could play ball," Benjamin said.
He also served on Pittsburgh's Planning Commission, she said.
Mr. McClung played for the Steelers in 1955, '56 and '57 before being traded to the Cleveland Browns where he played in 1958 and 1959. He was traded to the Detroit Lions where he played in 1960 and 1961. He ended his career with Hamilton of the Canadian Football League.
His widow said he underwent hip replacement surgery about a year ago but developed complications. He had been hospitalized since January, she said.
Mr. McClung also is survived by a daughter, Andrea Davison of Coraopolis; two sons, William A. McClung Jr., who is Wilkinsburg High School football coach, and Kevin McClung, both of McKeesport; and three sisters, Thelma Custis of Philadelphia and Lois Upchurch and Helen Jones, both of Chicago.
Arrangements will be under the direction of the Spriggs-Watson Funeral Home, 720 N. Lang Ave., Homewood.
