Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney dies at 84.

Dan Rooney, the powerful and popular Pittsburgh Steelers chairman whose name is attached to the NFL’s landmark initiative in minority hiring, died Thursday. He was 84.

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

Rooney took over operation of the team in the 1960s from his father, Art, who founded the franchise. From there, Dan Rooney oversaw NFL championships for a team that had never even played in a league title game. Over the decades he became one of the most powerful and innovative forces within the game, developing the Rooney Rule under which NFL teams are required to interview minority candidates for coaching and front-office positions. He was a key figure in labor negotiations and league expansion.

In 2000, Rooney was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining his father. Dan Rooney’s son, Art II, has been the Steelers president since 2003, with Dan Rooney becoming chairman.

“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 mainstays from the 1970s dynasty, plus coach Chuck Noll, make the Hall of Fame.

Under Rooney, two stadiums were built in Pittsburgh, securing their place in a small market where they are sporting kings. Rooney’s ability to reach across status, class, race and gender made him beloved in a city that identifies itself with its teams with a passion few others can match.

“My father meant so much to all of us, and so much to so many past and present members of the Steelers organization,” Art Rooney II said. “He gave his heart and soul to the Steelers, the National Football League and the city of Pittsburgh. We will celebrate his life and the many ways he left us in a better place.”

A confidant of three commissioners, he played a major role in negotiations with the players’ union and in league expansion in 1976 to Seattle and Tampa. He also was involved in scheduling and realignment decisions.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called Rooney “one of the finest men in the history of our game,” adding Rooney’s “dedication to the game, to the players and the coaches, to his beloved Pittsburgh, and to Steelers fans everywhere was unparalleled.”

Perhaps Rooney’s most lasting contribution to the NFL — and to sports in general — came with the Rooney Rule.

Then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and league lawyers recognized the need for a hiring policy that was fair and transparent; the NFL had many critics over the lack of minorities in high-profile jobs, particularly as head coaches.

Rooney brought new employment requirements to his fellow owners and got the measure passed.

Why Rooney? As so many of his players said through the years, he saw no color, only talent.

Rooney was such a fixture in the Steel City that he regularly walked to home games.

He mingled with fans, much as his father did before him, and made his players feel supremely comfortable in his presence.