NFF Gold Medal Recipients
Biography
Roger Blough played football at tiny Susquehanna University (Pa.) against such powerhouses as Army, Cornell and Penn State, and although time and time again they suffered very one-sided defeats, Blough learned the hard way how to compete on and off the field. He considered football a training period in which boys become men. Blough attended Yale Law School and after graduation entered private practice which eventually led to being named the second youngest president of U.S. Steel in 1955. Blough held that post until 1969.
He is best known for serving as the American steel industry’s principal spokesman when the industry clashed in April 1962 with President John F. Kennedy on the issue of commodity steel prices. Motor vessel Roger Blough, an iron ore bulk carrier vessel built for U.S. Steel in 1968-72 and used starting in 1972 in the Great Lakes, was named in his honor. As of 2014 this vessel remains in service. He passed away on Oct. 8, 1985. He was 81 years old.
