Pittsburgh Steelers team chairman Dan Rooney dies at age 84.

Dan Rooney, who succeeded his father as Pittsburgh Steelers team president and rose to become one of the most powerful and popular owners in sports, died Thursday. He was 84.

The team announced his death but details were not immediately available.

Born Daniel Milton Rooney, he succeeded his father and Steelers founder, Art Rooney Sr., as team president and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, becoming only the second father-son combination to be enshrined. Under his leadership since the late 1960s, the Steelers transformed from lovable losers into a Super Bowl dynasty in the 1970s and remain among the most successful and popular franchises in the game.

“My job is to do what’s best for the organization and to make that decision regardless of what the consequences are to me personally,” Dan Rooney once said. “I take my position very seriously. What I want is an organization that can be together, one where everybody in the place has the same goal, and that is to win.”

And win the Steelers did. With superb drafts that led to the building of the Steel Curtain defense and a potent offense, Pittsburgh eventually saw nine Rooney mainstays from the 1970s dynasty, plus coach Chuck Noll, make the Hall of Fame.

Dan Rooney did more than lead the Steelers, however. He became a powerful voice in the NFL for decades, often out of the public eye. He helped settle two players’ strikes, served on many league committees and was a confidante and adviser to three commissioners. He fought to give more opportunities for minority coaches to ascend in the NFL, an effort that prompted the adoption of what is known as the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority coach in the process of hiring a head coach.

Then at an age when many cut back on their activities, Rooney took on more in an entirely different field when President Barack Obama appointed him as United States Ambassador to Ireland, a job he began two weeks before his 77th birthday.

Said former coach Bill Cowher, “He was like a father, a friend, a mentor, a boss who inspired others around him. He was a people person and he never forgot where he came from. He epitomized Pittsburgh — hard working, humble, no-nonsense, tell it the way it is and never forget where he came from. That’s him, that’s Pittsburgh.”