Tunch Ilkin touched the lives of many, but perhaps especially those of his teammates, such as Jeff Hartings.
Teammates, you say? Surely you don’t know what you’re talking about. Tunch Ilkin retired before Jeff Hartings even came out of college. No, they never played together with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But they forged a relationship while Ilkin served as a broadcaster. Hartings talked about what Ilkin meant to him during an interview with Rob King for the team’s website.
“I think about him often, and I never come to Pittsburgh without thinking about him. Obviously, his death isn’t that far away, so you would maybe think that”, Hartings told King about Ilkin, who passed away in 2021.