POCATELLO — Vietnam war veteran and four-time Super Bowl champion Rocky Bleier spoke in Pocatello Friday for Farm Bureau’s 12th annual “Salute to Idaho Veterans” event.

A champion both on the gridiron and in the battlefield, Bleier sat down with the Idaho State Journal ahead of the speaking event, sharing what it was like to be on the field during the “Immaculate Reception,” comparing the mindsets of a U.S. Soldier and a professional football player and explaining how positive influencers in his life helped him along his journey.

Following his collegiate career at Notre Dame, during which he won a national championship with the Fighting Irish in 1966, Bleier was drafted to play professional football with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968.

Just one year later, Bleier would be drafted again, this time by the United States government. Following his rookie season, Bleier was drafted into the Army on Dec. 4, 1968 during the Vietnam War.

“At that time of the war there was a very vociferous movement across the United States against the war,” Bleier said. “It was not a popular war, and soldiers were not looked upon in favor. There were protests on college campuses and around the country, and the Vietnam veteran, you was tagged — ‘Baby Killers’ is what we were called. It wasn’t like today where we thank our veterans.”

Following basic training, Bleier volunteered for combat duty and was deployed to South Vietnam in May 1969. He was assigned to the Army’s 196th Infantry Brigade.

“All of a sudden I’m in Vietnam with my unit,” he said. “I was the first new guy to come into a unit in the last three or four months. I became the grenadier for our company, carrying around an M79 grenade launcher. At one time I was carrying 60 grenades through the fields.”

While on patrol in Hiep Duc on Aug. 20, 1969, Bleier enemy rifle rounds wounded his left thigh when his platoon was ambushed in a rice paddy. While he was down, an enemy grenade landed nearby after bouncing off a fellow soldier, sending shrapnel into his lower right leg. He was later awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

After several surgeries, Bleier was honorably discharged from the Army in July 1970.

“That year I came back in 1970 the Steelers were kind enough to put me on injured reserve,” Bleier said. “I went to a training camp, and my wound just hadn’t healed enough, and so it was taking a toll. I had another operation thereafter and I came back the following year., making the taxi squad. They really bought me two years to heal and get better.”

Bleier would ultimately play for the Steelers until 1980, winning four championships — Super Bowls IX, X, XIII and XIV — and finishing his career with 3,865 rushing yards, 1,294 receiving yards and 25 touchdowns.

He and Hall of Fame teammate Franco Harris became the second duo to each have 1,000 rushing yards on the same team in the same season in 1976 when Bleier ran for 1,036 yards and Harris ran for 1,128 yards. Bleier was also on the field on Dec. 23, 1972, when Harris made the “Immaculate Reception” in the AFC divisional playoff game against John Madden’s Oakland Raiders.

“I have now run into 213,658 people who saw the ‘Immaculate Reception,’ who were there in the stadium that only seats 58,000 people,” Bleier said. “And I tell them, ‘No, you didn’t see it.’ Even if you were in the stadium at that time, you didn’t see it. Imagine you’re on the highway and it’s a snowy, winter, sleet kind of day and you hit a sheet of black ice and you spin off the road and you’re heading for a telephone pole off the road, you don’t say with your eyes open, ‘Oh, I’m going to hit that pole,’ you put your arms over your face and shout.”

Bleier continued, “That’s the same reaction people had when the ball was deflected back. Let’s be honest, that’s what happened. You missed Franco Harris scooping it up and running 56 yards along the sideline. You might have been there, but you didn’t see it.”

Bleier said playing professional football and serving in the military are similar jobs, likening a head coach to the commander and winning the Super Bowl as winning the war.

“Ultimately, you’re a group of individuals coming together for a common purpose and a common goal,” he said “Whether it be in the military or on a playing field, whether it be football, basketball or baseball, you’re working together as a team. You got a coach that’s telling you how important each position is and how important it is playing together. You have to have that common goal that is to be the best that you can be, and then to win this game. And we have our own responsibilities in doing that and coming together and working as a team. The military is very much like that as well.”

Prior to speaking at the Farm Bureau’s “Salute to Idaho Veterans” event at its headquarters on Friday, Bleier said he had visited Pocatello previously (though the reason why exactly escaped him). He said he was asked to speak at the event this year and said yes because he appreciates what the event stands for.

“It’s wonderful coming back,” he said. “The Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company who is putting this gathering together in a “Salute to Veterans” is doing a good job. Veterans need to be recognized and patted on the back for their commitment to their country and what they’ve done to serve.”

During his speech Thursday, Bleier spoke about the positive influences in our lives and how we don’t achieve what we do in life alone.

“Nobody is an island,” he said. “We didn’t get to where we are today by ourselves. We got here because of someone or something. We got here because of an opportunity. We got here because somebody got hurt. We got here because somebody who cared kicked us in the rear end. We got here because of a coach, a teacher, somebody that pushed us in a direction or told us what needed to be done. And all those life lessons mold you along the way.”

Bleier spoke about one of his positive influences who helped him during what he described as the best football game he ever played when he was just a child.

“The greatest football game I ever played in I was nine years old,” he said. “I was playing my next door neighbor, Dickie Weisgerber. It was an away game. In short, I scored 51 touchdowns. More importantly, I shut him out. The sucker didn’t score. That’s 357 to nothing. Now, just because the fact that he was five shouldn’t take anything away from my personal achievement, it was a big bias. I say this story because we played in the neighborhood and he was always there. He always showed up.”

Bleier continued, “There’s a catalyst in our lives, sometimes it’s a neighbor, or a mentor or a coach that pulls individuals together and pulls them into a team.”

Bleier still keeps in touch with some of his fellow Steelers teammates, recently attending the 50th reunion for Super Bowl IX. He still lives in Pittsburgh, mostly because he said he couldn’t return to his hometown because of his success with the NFL team that he played for.

“I couldn’t go back to Appleton, Wisconsin, because I didn’t play for the Packers,” he said.

Bleier operates a construction company that primarily bids on new government projects involving the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to thank our veterans,” he said. “It’s very important in today’s society to be able to reinforce that there are people that care.”