SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Thanks for the memories, I knew they would catch up, but never envisioned 72 would become the magic number.
That’s not true of every memory, but this one was special. It was fifty years ago and two days before Christmas. A cold Dec. 23, 1972 day to be exact at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
Off the hands of starting Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw The ball fluttered in the air and all but one of the 22 players on the turf essentially stopped. Franco Harris never did.
The Oakland Raiders on defense were kind of confused, while the Steelers running back Harris kept on going, the instincts that carried him through his life both on and off the field during his Hall of Fame career taking over, shifting the perception of a moribund franchise and a reeling region in the process.
Pittsburgh rarely won before Harris’ rookie season of 1972. He had played his college ball under Joe Paterno at Penn State. The moment his shoe-top grab enterally known at the “Immaculate Reception”
entered the lexicon, they rarely lost. They won this one in historic fashion, then lost to the Miami Dolphins’ lone ’72 Super Bowl champions.
But lo and behold, with Bradshaw at quarterback and Harris more experienced and Pitt more confident, it was the Steelers’ Super Bowl turn in 1973.
There was good then and now a long time after, sad to hear that Franco Harris passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 72. His son, Dok, informed the Associated Press that his father died overnight. No cause of his passing was given.
t also two days before the Pittsburgh franchise was scheduled to retire his No. 32 during a ceremony of at halftime against the now Las Vegas Raiders. Harris had been in the run-up to the celebration, and during media interviews on Monday he spoke for about a minute to which he is forever linked.
Linked to eluding a tackle by Oakland’s Jimmy Warren after he reached for the ball headed down the left sidelines, caught it before it hit the ground, and took off for the remaining 42 yards and into the end zone as the home crowd went wild cheering his every step while the Raiders were protesting that he never caught it, that it touched the turf.
But the officials stuck to their original call. Harris ran the ball down as it floated in the air and snagged it. Touchdown, extra point, extraordinary finish that found the Steelers on top, and with a new victorious road to follow.
As for Harris, he ran for 12,120 yards and won four Super Bowls rings with Pittsburgh in the 70s, a dynasty that began in earnest when Harris decided to keep running during a last-second heave by Bradshaw in the playoff game versus Oakland in 1772.
Pitt was trailing 7-6 and facing fourth and 10 from its own 40-yard line and with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Always going for broke, Bradshaw drifted back and threw deep to running back Frenchy Fuqua. The latter and Raiders’ defensive back Jack Tatum collided, sending the up in the air ball careening back towards midfield in the direction of — you got it — Harris.
Game officials weren’t sure who deflected the pass, and replays were inconclusive. Meanwhile, while nearly everyone on the field stopped, Harris kept his legs churning, snatching the ball just inches
above the turf near the Oakland 45, then outracing several stunned Raider defenders to bring the Steel City team their initial playoff triumph some four decades after founder Art Rooney, Sr., brought the still-fledging NFL to western Pennsylvania.
Though Oakland cried foul on the moment, over time it somewhat embraced its role in NFL lore. Raiders linebacker Phil Villapiano, who was covering Harris in the exact location of the catch, even attended a 40th anniversary celebration in 2012, and a small monument commemorating the exact location of Harris catch was unveiled.
Even the time of 3:29 was listed.
As for Harris, he was born in Fort Dix, N.J., the huge United States Army base right off the Jersey Turnpike. While in the backfield for Penn State at 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, his primary job was to open holes for backfield mate Lydell Mitchell. In the college draft Harris was chosen by Pittsburgh Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll as the 13th overall pick in the first round.
RIP now Franco Harris. You certainly brought a historic time to the game with your Immaculate Reception. In Pittsburgh you were embraced by the city’s large Italian-American population. After a stellar career with the Steelers, you were picked up by Seattle, and after two seasons there, was released and returned to Pittsburgh where he lived until his dying day.
He brought success to the franchise, joy to the die-hard fans, was on the top of the list of his teammates, the team owners, and known to about everybody in the Steel City as the one who put it on the Super Bowl map. Nothing like history when it brings along the likes of Franco Harris.
