Brain injury foundation honors Noll’s legacy, makes advances for the future

When Chuck Noll was coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it wasn’t all about the wins and losses. Those who knew him recall a man who was not only a football legend, but a man ahead of his time off the field.

“He was someone who had a keen interest in the health of his players and research into injuries,” said Arthur J. Rooney II, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That’s why, two years after Noll’s death in 2014, Rooney started the Chuck Noll Foundation For Brain Injury Research, where Rooney is also the foundation chairman. Its goal is to fund early-stage research into the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of brain injuries, which all these years later remain a great need in sports.

In the past six years, the foundation has funded $2 million to more than a dozen research projects from Pittsburgh, where between UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Allegheny Health Network has been a world-renowned center for brain injury research and treatment.

Now the foundation is branching out beyond Pittsburgh, announcing a new round of grants that include researchers from the region as well as a handful of other centers around the country.

Dr. Joseph Maroon, who worked with Noll for years as a team physician and is chair of the foundation’s National Science Advisory Committee and a world-renowned neurosurgeon, said the grants have been crucial in the field not only for the advances that are being made and the potential for helping so many patients but also in leveraging other funding from the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere. That’s helped bring in a total of at least $12 million in grant funding since 2016 for brain-injury research, he said.

“The research is really very significant and a major contributor,” Maroon said.

In an interview with the Business Times, Rooney said that a conversation with University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher led him to realize before 2016 that there was a great need for the type of brain research that the foundation is funding. Brain injuries are incredibly common, impacting at least three million people a year. Maroon said that sporting-related causes are only about 10% of all brain injuries, with the others coming from falls and other accidents among other causes.

Rooney said that funding early-stage research is a short-term goal of the foundation and being able to diagnose concussions and brain injuries faster than the tools available today.

Click here to read more from the Pittsburgh Business Times.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

TRENDING NOW:

Target 11: Student who allegedly raped teacher accused of previous assault Family, friends remember man who died after falling from escalator at Acrisure Stadium Man killed after dump truck flies off overpass in Indiana County VIDEO: Missing Allegheny County woman had PFA order against boyfriend, prime suspect in her disappearance DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts