Local NFL pro Ron Saul dies at 73
Ron Saul, the last surviving member of a trio of brothers who combined for 37 seasons in the NFL, died early Tuesday morning at age 73.
Saul and his twin brother, Rich, were 1966 Butler graduates and three-year starters for Golden Tornado teams that posted a combined record of 26-3 and included two WPIAL championship games.
“That was truly the golden era of Butler football,” said Jim Lokhaiser, who broadcasted Butler football then. “Watching Butler play at Forbes Field, Pitt Stadium ... those were incredible times.”
Butler resident Ed Codi was a teammate of the Saul twins on the 1963 squad that went undefeated during the regular season.
“Butler had 29 players go on to Division I football from those three (1963-65) teams,” Codi said. “That's the only time that's happened in Butler history.”
Bill Saul was the oldest of the football-playing brothers. He was a Pittsburgh Steeler middle linebacker and was the first NFL player to ever wear a microphone during a game.Ron Saul was an offensive guard who joined Rich in playing college football at Michigan State University. They became the first set of brothers to earn Academic All-American honors.“The Saul boys never got enough credit for their intelligence,” Codi said. “They were physical, tough football players, to be sure, but they were also extremely smart football players.“They were great, great teammates.”Rich Saul went on to play 12 seasons as a linebacker with the Los Angeles Rams and played in a Super Bowl against the Steelers. Ron spent 13 years in the NFL as a guard with the Houston Oilers and Washington Redskins.Ron was on injured reserve, but was a member of the Redskins' Super Bowl championship team in 1983. He played in 142 NFL games, starting 91 of them.The Saul twins were high school teammates of former Steelers quarterback Terry Hanratty at Butler. They were also his teammates in Butler Area Midget Football League play for Institute Hill.“I tell people that three of the four members of our starting backfield on our midget team went on to play in the NFL, and people look at me like I'm crazy,” Hanratty said, laughing. “The Saul family was different.“If you were in a fight, you wanted them on your side.”Lokhaiser joked that “the Saul boys took off their shoes the day school let out for the summer and didn't put them back on until the first day of school in the fall.“They ran all over Institute Hill. Growing up on Pearl Street, those kids were something.”Hanratty said he was attending a dinner in Washington, D.C., a few years ago, and was talking to former Butler teammate and U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, when he noticed some commotion.“There was Ron and he had (Speaker of the House) John Boehner in a headlock, telling him, 'You gotta fix Washington, Johnny, you gotta fix Washington' .... only a Saul would do something like that.“They were fun-loving. They were crazy at times. But they could play.”
“They were just natural athletes,” Kelly said. “There was nothing they couldn't do. And they were competitive with each other. Ron told Rich it was time for them to retire from the NFL one off-season. Rich retired and Ron played one more year, just to beat him.”Rich Saul suffered a serious knee injury in college, was told at one point he wouldn't play football again and still had a long NFL career.“If not for that knee injury, Rich Saul would have been the best middle linebacker who ever lived,” Hanratty said. “He was that good. And Ron was just a half-step behind him.”They were part of dominant Butler teams of nearly 50 years ago. Of their 26 wins from 1963-65, the Golden Tornado allowed seven points or fewer in 18 of them and posted 10 shutouts.Kelly recalled their freshmen football team having 130 kids try out. The varsity team in those years had more than 100 players suited up.“(Head coach) Art Bernardi put his top 10 players on defense,” Lokhaiser said. “If the other team couldn't score, they couldn't beat him.”Kelly said the players did everything together during high school and long afterward.“We went to each other's weddings, hunted together, went to reunions together ... Ron Saul and I double-dated at the prom,” Kelly said. “That was a magical time. We hated to lose more than we wanted to win. We didn't want to embarrass our families.“Our families, our coaches were great character-builders. We grew up in the right town at the right time. We were truly blessed. The Sauls were good people.“I saw Ron in the hospital Monday. He was semi-conscious. I whispered in his ear that I loved him, that it was OK to go home, that Rich was waiting for him,” Kelly added. “They were deeply religious people.”
Current Butler football coach Eric Christy is hopeful the school will forever honor the Sauls' legacy in some way.“The legacy they left should never go away,” Christy said. “A picture of them in their NFL uniforms hanging in the annex, at the stadium, somewhere, for example.“If it's not digital, kids today don't know about it half the time. It's Patrick Mahomes this, Tom Brady that ... The Saul brothers are legend. They were about prestige and pride in their community.“That should never be forgotten,” Christy added.
