the owners' meetings held in Scottsdale, Arizona. This was the third time that the Super Bowl was played in New Orleans, after IV and VI. Super Bowl IX was originally planned to be held at the Louisiana Superdome, which was under construction at the time of the vote. However, construction delays at the Superdome (which pushed its opening to August 1975) forced the league to move the game to Tulane Stadium, where the city's previous two Super Bowls were held. This ended up being the last professional American football game played at Tulane Stadium. For the second time, the owners selected two consecutive Super Bowl host cities at the same meeting. Only three cities submitted bids for the two games. Representatives from New Orleans, Miami, and Los Angeles each made presentations; all three cities had already hosted the Super Bowl. New Orleans impressed owners with their Superdome plans, and won a unanimous vote to host the game, while Miami was given Super Bowl X. Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh advanced to their first Super Bowl and was playing for a league championship for the first time in team history. Their 73-year-old owner Art Rooney founded the Steelers as a 1933 NFL expansion team, but suffered through losing seasons for most of its 42-year history and had never made it to an NFL championship game or a Super Bowl. But in 1969, Rooney hired Chuck Noll to be the team's head coach and its fortunes started to turn following a disastrous 1–13 first year under the future Hall of Fame coach. Noll rebuilt the Steelers through the NFL draft, selecting defensive tackle Joe Greene and defensive end L. C. Greenwood in his first season as head coach. In 1970, Noll drafted quarterback Terry Bradshaw and cornerback Mel Blount. In 1971, linebacker Jack Ham, defensive tackle Ernie Holmes, defensive end Dwight White, and safety Mike Wagner were selected by the team. Fullback Franco Harris was drafted in 1972. And in 1974, the Steelers picked linebacker Jack Lambert, center Mike Webster and wide receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, and signed safety Donnie Shell as a free agent. Bradshaw, Webster, Swann, Stallworth, and Harris ended up being Hall of Fame players on offense, while the others formed the core nucleus of their "Steel Curtain" defense, including future Hall of Famers Greene, Ham, Blount, Lambert and Shell. But en route to Super Bowl IX, the Steelers