Before there was a Phil Jackson, there was Chuck Noll, who combined football intelligence and attention to detail on the basics, with a philosophy of life as well as playing. He told his players that life and the pursuit of excellence are processes without end, that the real measure of how good they are is how well they raise their children.
When he retired as head coach in 1991 he didn't join the broadcast booth or become a celebrity. He stayed in Pittsburgh, living quietly. He always told his players to think about their lives after football, and he had.
I met him in 1980, on the practice field at St. Vincent College that now bears his name. When the season started I attended a post-game press conference and asked him a few questions afterwards for a story I was writing on the relationship of Pittsburgh to its sports teams, especially in the troubled years of the 70s. When I asked him about the fans, his face lit up in a broad smile--something I hadn't seen before. He credited Pittsburgh's fans not only with inspiring the team but in creating new ways to be a fan that had since spread throughout the league. "They started it." He praised their creativity.
One of his examples was the tank that fans built and brought onto the field at halftime, as representatives of Franco's Italian Army. Running back Franco Harris had embraced a biracial identity, and so Italians as well as African Americans embraced him as their own.
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has many articles on Noll including statements by those who knew him and worked with him, starting here. Noll was held in as high esteem as royalty, yet he became a normal person who mostly left his public role behind. Pittsburghers not only respected that--they liked it.
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