The selection of Donnie Shell to the Pro Football Hall of Fame last week gave the Pittsburgh Steelers a neat and tidy 10 players from the four-time Super Bowl championship teams in the 1970s a spot in Canton, Ohio.

Shell became the fifth member of the Steel Curtain defense to make it, matching the five players picked from the Super Steelers offense.

Half of those selections were produced by the 1974 rookie class, a feat — much like Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak or Wayne Gretzky’s 2,857 points — that will never be equaled.

But while wide receiver Lynn Swann joined the Steelers in the first round, linebacker Jack Lambert in the second, receiver John Stallworth in the third and center Mike Webster in the fifth, the strong safety from Division I-AA South Carolina State wasn’t among the 442 players selected over the draft’s 17 rounds. A linebacker at the start of his college career, Shell moved to the secondary in his senior season, and his measurables — 5-foot-11,190 pounds — weren’t extraordinary.

Bill Nunn scouted the historically black colleges and universities for the Steelers and found a hidden gem in Shell. At the behest of his college coach, Willie Jeffries, Shell signed a free-agent contract with the Steelers, choosing them over the Denver Broncos and Houston Oilers.

Little did Shell or anyone realize at the time, but he would be joining the greatest collection of pro football talent assembled in one class.

“You don’t really know,” at the time, Shell said this week when asked when he knew he was among an elite group. “When guys start making All-Pro. One year, we won the Super Bowl, and I think we had 10 players in the Pro Bowl.

“That’s when I got the sense we had some pretty good players around. But when you’re playing, you’re so focused on the next game that you really don’t have time to think about it. But now I’ve been out and look back at it, there were some special teams, some special people.”

Shell was just another fresh face when he reported to training camp in 1974. There were a lot of them in attendance at Saint Vincent, and very few veterans thanks to a players’ strike that lasted until August.

The absence of such veterans gave Shell a chance to make an immediate impression on the coaching staff.

Shell recalled an early scrimmage in which defensive line coach George Perles insisted he stay on the field.

“He kept saying, ‘Keep bringing Shell. Keep bringing Shell,’ because I was knocking them out,” Shell said, laughing. “That’s how I knew I belonged there.”

That wasn’t obvious to everyone, however, when the preseason started with a game in New Orleans against the Saints. The Steelers won, 26-7, but Shell didn’t impress some veterans on the team watching the game from afar, particularly starting cornerbacks Mel Blount and J.T. Thomas.

“Mel and I were watching and said, ‘Who’s that in the secondary?’” Thomas recalled. “We can strike another two months here. He’s not going to make the ballclub. He’s gone.”

For all the hard hitting Shell brought to the practice field, he apparently had difficulty holding onto the football and struggled in coverage in the early stages of his career, which was ironic considering he holds the NFL record for interceptions by a strong safety with 51.

“When he came to camp, he couldn’t catch a football,” Blount said, “but he worked hard to develop his ball skills.”

Shell made the roster based on his special teams play, and in that regard, he was equal to many of his Hall of Fame contemporaries. Only Lambert started all 14 games of his rookie season. Stallworth started three, Swann two and Webster one in 1974.

“I knew I had a lot of work to do in learning the nuances of my position,” Shell said.

Shell kept delivering big hits on special teams, earning the nickname “Torpedo” and making enough plays as an extra defensive back that he forced coach Chuck Noll’s hand.

On defense, Shell would be used in the slot to cover wide receivers and tight ends. This allowed Blount and Thomas to remain on the outside and not take on the additional responsibility.

“He made our jobs easier because of his skill sets,” Thomas said. “He probably lengthened my career and Mel’s.”

After the 1977 season — Shell made 12 starts that year — the Steelers traded former Pro Bowl free safety Glen Edwards to San Diego, so they could keep Shell and Mike Wagner as a tandem in the secondary.

“Donnie wasn’t going to sit still about anything,” Hall of Famer Joe Greene said. “He let everybody know, the coach in particular, that he was ready to play. And we didn’t miss a beat.”

The Steelers won their third Super Bowl in 1978 and fourth the next season. Shell made the Pro Bowl in each season (he would end his career with five), and he earned the first of three first-team All-Pro nods in 1979.

With his background as a linebacker, Shell became a hybrid defender about four decades before the term became fashionable. It accentuated his strengths in providing run support and allowed Shell to improve his skills in intercepting passes over the middle.

“He was so physical and versatile,” said Jack Ham, the Hall of Fame linebacker from those ’70s teams. “Everybody remembers the hit he made on Earl Campbell (in 1978) and how great he was on special teams early in his career. Then he morphed his way into being a starter.

“You didn’t have defensive backs who could play multiple roles like that. He was a very physical player, and he gave us advantages because he was so versatile.”

Lambert was the first member of the Class of ‘74 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, gaining entrance in 1990. Webster joined in ‘97, followed by Swann in 2001 and Stallworth in ‘02. It took 18 years for Shell to round out the class and give the ’70s Steelers a double-digit representation in Canton.

Will there be more?

It took the expanded 15-member Centennial Slate for Shell to gain entrance. Still, teammates continue to push for linebacker Andy Russell (Class of ‘63) and late defensive lineman L.C. Greenwood (Class of ‘69) to make it someday.

“There’s several more that should be in there,” Blount said. “But we’re grateful for the one they’ve recognized this year.”

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