As we do each year at this time, SafetyXChange takes an unconventional look at the Super Bowl. Let’s start by profiling the Steelers.

In 1857, the English engineer Henry Bessemer invented a process for manufacturing steel cost-effectively. Thanks to the Bessemer converter, cast iron was cast aside and the steel industry was born.

By the end of the 19th century, the U.S. was the world’s largest steel producer. The focal point of American steel production was the City of Pittsburgh. In the 1880s, the Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie founded what would become the world’s biggest and most powerful steel company in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Steel pioneered the use of mass production to manufacture pig iron, coke and steel rails. In 1901, Carnegie sold the company, which was renamed United States Steel, to a group of investors that included J.P. Morgan and Charles Schwab.

U.S. Steel was the world’s largest non-railroad corporation. During World War I, its output alone exceeded the combined steel production of Central Powers Germany and Austria-Hungary. The company remained a monster for decades. In what may represent the ultimate compliment—and criticism—during the 1950s and 1960s, while they were winning World Series after World Series, the New York Yankees were often referred to as the “U.S. Steel of baseball.”

American steel making fell on hard times in the early 1970s, primarily as a result of competition from imported steel produced by foreign firms that relied on cheap, non-union labor. To stave off bankruptcy, the company was forced to diversify into oil and even changed its name to USX Corporation in 1986. After a series of corporate restructurings, U.S. Steel reemerged in 2002 with four steelmaking plants—3 in the U.S. and one in Slovakia. In 2007, the company acquired the Canadian steelmaker, Stelco, which it renamed U.S. Steel Canada.

In its hay day, U.S. Steel employed 168,000 workers. Today, the company has approximately 27,000 workers in North America.

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