Q: One of the highlights of your high school football career at Butler occurred against Cathedral Prep in 1964. What do you remember from Butler’s 28-25 win before 7,000 fans at Veterans Stadium?
A: I was a senior and Mike McCoy was on Prep, and pretty much the launching pad of my career was here. You play so many games and you can only remember a few, but that’s one, for some reason, that always sticks in my mind.

Q: In 1966, when you helped lead Notre Dame to the national championship, you were on the covers of Time magazine and Sports Illustrated one week apart. What was that like?
A: That was a neat thing because at the time, somebody told me I was the only person to ever be on both magazine covers.
Q: As a former Steeler who played on two of the organization’s Super Bowl championship teams, what were you experiencing seeing that sixth Super Bowl championship being hoisted in Tampa?
A: I think good guys finish first. The Rooney family was such wonderful people to work with. I feel blessed I played with the Steelers. They’re a real family-oriented organization. It’s nice to see we have six and nobody else does.

Q: Was there a certain point in the season where you felt the Steelers were showcasing all the elements of a team that looked like a Super Bowl champion?
A: Not really. Pro football is so even, you really have to keep that razor’s edge every week. Coming into the season, when I looked at that schedule they had, I figured if they went 8-8, that would be a pretty good year for them. Every game they played was like a playoff game. I think Mike Tomlin did a great job getting these guys, week-in an week-out, playing top dog after top dog.

Q: Who would you label the most valuable player of the current Steelers?
A: (Safety) Troy Polamalu. You can go back to Dick Butkus and Mean Joe Greene, Lawrence Taylor -- guys who really dominated. Those guys dominated the run, the pass, but Troy just dominates everything. He is so everywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid who has that great of instincts and speed. He’s not that big a guy, and the way he hits people, you wonder down the road if it’s not going to be more detrimental to him than the people he hits, because that body is taking a pounding.

Q: Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes spent part of Super Bowl week discussing his troubled past and how he dealt with drugs earlier in his life. He goes out and makes the winning catch and earns the Super Bowl MVP award. What did you think of his performance and his future in the game?
A: I thought he dropped an easier one the play before his touchdown catch, and it was almost like he was building up for the big credenza. You like to see anyone overcome some of the problems like what he has encountered. Now he might have to experience a different thing, because now you’re going to have everybody looking at you and wanting to be around you, and hopefully, he can stay on the straight and narrow.

Q: Where does the latest Steelers Super Bowl team rank with the first two you played on?
A: I think there are very few teams that can say we had players back then who could still play today. Once you start jumping a couple decades, it’s difficult to compare teams because the athletes today are so different, so much bigger, faster and stronger. There are at least a handful of the guys back from the seventies who, in their prime, could still play today, and that says a lot about those teams.

Q: What made playing for the Steelers special?
A: I think the stability in the ownership, coaching ranks and front office. We had a really great group of guys who really liked each other. We used to socialize a lot together. There was no free agency back then, so you were pretty much stuck with the team you were drafted by, which, for me, was very good.

Q: Hypothetical time. Game on the line, you need a drive in the last two minutes. Who do you want in the huddle- Ben Roethlisberger or Terry Bradshaw?
A: I think Ben still has to prove it a few times. I’d still take Terry right now because of more experience. We probably had more go-to guys back then then they do now, but Ben’s escapability is phenomenal. Terry didn’t have the vision that Ben does downfield. When Terry broke the pocket early in his career, he wanted to look to run the ball. Ben does that as a reason to get the big play downfield.

Q: After spending the 1976 season with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you retired from pro football and spent the next 30 years as a Wall Street stock broker before retiring two years ago. How do you spend your free time now?
A: Pretty much coaching my son, Conor, in football, basketball and baseball and my daughter, who’s 11, in softball.

Q: Your son, a 6-4, 295-pound offensive lineman, played on a state championship team this past season. What kind of attention is he attracting from college recruiters?
A: He has a chance to be something special. He’s a much better offensive lineman as a sophomore in high school than I was as a quarterback as a sophomore in high school. He’s that good.

Q: Who’s showing interest in him?
A: So far, he’s gotten letters from Notre Dame, Wisconsin, UCLA, Boston College and Maryland.
Q: Do Notre Dame football alumni and fans have reason to feel optimistic about the program’s future?
A: I think it’s on the upswing. We went through several years of not having the greatest talent in the country. I think of all the problems Charlie Weis has had winning and with alumni, I think he’s done a great job in recruiting. The next couple years will tell his fate. He’s got to start winning soon. Next season, he has to put up eight or nine wins.

Q: Why has the program struggled so much over the pas 15 years?
A: Back in my day, every kid wanted to go to Notre Dame, so recruiting wasn’t all that difficult. Now, these kids see every school in the country on national TV, so you’re not that obscure school anymore. Plus, with a cutback in scholarships, you can’t make many mistakes anymore. Then, there’s leadership. There’s been so much more turmoil at Notre Dame the last couple years. Once Weis can put together some winning seasons, everyone will calm down and sort of regroup.

Q: Was Charlie Weis the right hire and was the Notre Dame administration wise in giving him that 10-year contract extension?
A: No one in this country, me included, would ever say they thought that was a bad hire at the time. I thought it was a great hire. He did a phenomenal job with the Patriots. The only problem I could foresee in the future is he’s never had to coach an 18-year-old kid before, which is much different than getting a Tom Brady in the NFL and saying this is what we’re going to do. Whether he can coach an 18-year-old kid to mature to 22 has yet to be seen.

Q: Some people have said Notre Dame needs to soften its academic standards in order to attract more blue-chip recruits. Agree?
A: They said that when I was being recruited. When someone says that, it’s the biggest insult to every other university in this country. That is an excuse. There are a lot of great players out there, but now it’s a real scramble to get these kids, but you have to go work to get them.