Terry Bradshaw has still not sent a wig to Terry Hanratty.

Bradshaw, the Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, used to wear wigs when he started losing his hair 40 years ago, Hanratty said. Hanratty, who backed up Bradshaw during the Steel Curtain days, still vividly remembers Bradshaw wearing one while singing “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” during “The Merv Griffin Show.”

The wig stands out in his memory more than Bradshaw’s voice.

“So I told him (recently when he called),” Hanratty said last week, “I said, ‘That wig you had on ‘The Merv Griffin Show,’ do you still have that? Because I may need that.’”

Hanratty, 78, was diagnosed several months ago with Stage 4 small cell lung cancer, which had spread to his liver. It has slowed the former Butler High great’s walks and chemo treatments have made him tired. But it has not taken away his unique sense of humor.

When the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame inductee asked his pulmonologist what small cell lung cancer is, the answer was: “‘Well, that’s the one that moves real fast.’

“I’m going, ‘Woah, aren’t I lucky?’” Hanratty said. “‘I caught the fast one. I couldn’t get some big, fat cell that we could smack in the face and get rid of it. I had to get the little guy that could run all around the field.’”

That was after he asked the doctor if they were “telling me I should rent things instead of buy?” Hanratty said the doctor couldn’t believe his reaction.

Hanratty went through a weeks-long session of chemo, lost his hair — and saved money on shampoo and hair cuts — and said his prognosis is good. He had an MRI Monday, March 16, to see if the cancer has spread and will get the results Thursday, and said he’s now entering a clinical trial.

He is doing well. The cancer is “at bay,” he said.

“There’s not a lot I don’t do that I did before,” Hanratty said. “I don’t think you can ever say cancer left you. … I wanna tell people out there, believe me, you are not alone.”

Hanratty broke the news of his diagnosis during the Dec. 31 episode of his podcast, “Hanratty’s Huddle.” It’s where he shared his Bradshaw story and has provided updates on his health most weeks while also talking about the College Football Playoff, Steelers and more.

Terry Hanratty, right, has not let Stage 4 small cell lung cancer take away his sense of humor. Hanratty, 78, said his cancer is “at bay” last week and is still receiving treatment. Butler Eagle file photo

Hanratty said he quit smoking about a decade ago. But when he was one of the first to contract COVID-19, along with double pneumonia, he said, his doctor was put on alert. So Hanratty was getting an MRI in April 2025 when doctors spotted a small spot in his lung. By October it had doubled in size and “threw up all the alarms,” he said.

He starts a clinical trial Thursday and will get immunotherapy. His doctors hope to find the “right cocktail” of drugs and treatments he can’t begin to pronounce (yet another joke) to keep the cancer at bay even longer.

Hanratty sounds optimistic. He knows cancer can come back anytime, especially if he ignores it, but he doesn’t intend to.

Laughter and prayer — he was raised Catholic and said he’s on a “million” prayer lists but has room for more — are helping him through this phase of life, as they always have.

“You gotta have a little levity in life, you gotta have prayer,” Hanratty said.

Also a great support system. His wife, Kelly, has been “amazing,” and he praises his nurses and doctors constantly.

And his football community has rallied around him. Joe Greene, who was drafted by the Steelers with him in 1969, Mel Blount, Archie Manning, J.T. Thomas, Bubby Brister and many others have reached out in various ways.

“You have a very high threshold of pain, No. 1. And football, as bad as people make it out to be with injuries … football teaches you the camaraderie, the teamwork,” Hanratty said of how the sport has helped him. “The outcry of people when they found out I have cancer … I don’t think that would happen in a normal situation.”

Hanratty is still walking regularly and hopes to get back to 4 miles one day. He also has opinions on the Steelers’ draft prospects. The NFL draft is being held in Pittsburgh this year, April 23-25, and the Steelers draft No. 21 in the first round.

“I think the Steelers, you can never go wrong with offensive and defensive linemen,” he said. “You don’t need a quarterback, (Indiana’s Fernando) Mendoza’s the only quarterback I see that is ready out of college. … I don’t think (Pittsburgh) can afford a quarterback at this point, I think they need much bigger stuff.”