Steelers fans gather for 50th anniversary of Franco Harris’ ‘Immaculate Reception’ after his death

The 50th anniversary of Franco Harris’ famed ‘Immaculate Reception’ was a somber one for Pittsburgh Steelers fans following his death at 72 earlier this week.

The team had previously planned to retire his No. 32 at halftime of Saturday’s game against the visiting Raiders, who were on the wrong side of Harris’ memorable touchdown at Three Rivers Stadium in 1972.

A day earlier, 50 years to the minute after Harris returned a deflected pass against the Raiders for a game-winning touchdown in the playoffs, fans gathered at an indoor hall within Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium to rewatch the play.

‘I’ve heard that so many times,’ Franco’s son Dok Harris told ESPN about the radio call of the famous touchdown. ‘It’s really hard to process, but it’s been hitting really differently over the last few days. What’s difficult and what’s also beautiful is that this isn’t something for my mother and for me, this for everybody.

Former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers football player Franco Harris arrives for a private ceremony Friday, September 16, 2016, in State College, Pennsylvania

‘My dad had such a personal relationship with so many people, the city, this country, all over the world. And a lot of people are hurting and a lot of people are mourning, and they really are all family.’

At one point, according to ESPN, chants of ‘here we go Franco’ burst out in the Great Hall concourse at the Stadium.

For Dok, the day was a chance to speak with fans who had been touched in some way by his father.

‘It’s almost impossible to process that he could give so much to so many people personally,’ Dok Harris told ESPN. ‘People [have been] telling me stories about how they met him sometime in 1977 or 1987 or 1991. It was important to them, and it made a difference in their lives. And that’s really the beauty of my father, truly a very blessed soul who just really sought to help everybody out.’

It’s almost certainly what Harris would have wanted. When the NFL put the schedule together last spring, it was with an eye toward history and the hope that both teams would still have something to play for.

As was planned before his death this week, Franco Harris’ No. 32 will be retired on Saturday

They do, but just barely. Pittsburgh has won three of four to keep its wafer-thin postseason hopes alive. The Raiders enter with their own scaled-down version of ‘The Immaculate Reception’ in their bizarre game-ending walk-off victory over New England last week, when defensive end Chandler Jones grabbed an ill-advised lateral by the Patriots and raced to the end zone as time expired while his teammates stood dumbfounded on the sideline.

Ahead of the game, several current Steelers remembered Harris, including head coach Mike Tomlin.

‘We’re all heartbroken, but we do look forward to honoring him and his legacy this weekend,’ Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said. ‘And obviously, where our attention needs to be is on the preparation required to put together the type of performance that’s fitting of a great man like Franco.’

A stuffed football is placed at Immaculate Reception memorial outside Acrisure Stadium on the Northside of Pittsburgh in memory of Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris

Flowers and Terrible Towels are placed at Immaculate Reception memorial outside Acrisure Stadium on the Northside of Pittsburgh in memory of Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris

Current Steelers running back Najee Harris (no relation) called Franco a ‘role model.’

‘He was obviously the icon here,’ Najee told ESPN. ‘He was more than just an athlete. He was a really important person, and in the organization, he turned around so much stuff. He’s the standard where we all talked about of what it is to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. Not only that, he’s the standard of what it is to be a human being. The stuff that he did around here in the community, not only just around here, but just everywhere, he tried to give back as much as he can.’

‘This was a huge game before the news of Franco’s passing even hit,’ outside linebacker TJ Watt said, ‘and now it’s obviously ramped up more.

‘I think we’re going to see tomorrow just the impact that he had on people when the fans show up and show the appreciation for all that he’s done for Steeler Nation.’

Despite the shock of losing his father, Dok Harris said he wants Saturday to be a happy occasion for fans.

‘I’m sad my dad’s not here, but we’ll make sure that we do it right because he loved throwing a good party,’ Dok Harris told ESPN. ‘We’ll make sure that we do it how he would’ve wanted it.’

Pittsburgh Steelers’ Franco Harris (32) eludes a tackle by Oakland Raiders’ Jimmy Warren as he runs 42-yards for a touchdown after catching a deflected pass during an AFC Divisional NFL football playoff game in Pittsburgh on December 23, 1972

Harris is mobbed by fans at Three Rivers Stadium after scoring the winning touchdown, nicknamed the ‘Immaculate Reception,’ during the American Football Conference (AFC) semi-final game against Oakland. Harris made the touchdown, one of the most famous single plays in the history of professional American football, on a tipped pass from quarterback Terry Bradshaw to Frenchy Fuqua to Harris for the score in the fourth quarter in Pittsburgh

Ryah Gadson-Wooten and her 3-year-old son Steven Wooten, of Atlanta stop to take a photo with a statue depicting the “Immaculate Reception” by Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris in the Airside Terminal of Pittsburgh International Airport

Mauricio Martinez, left, and Mayela Medrano, of Monterey, Mexico, who traveled to Pittsburgh to attend Saturday’s NFL football game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers, stop to take a photo with a statue depicting the “Immaculate Reception” by Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris in the Airside Terminal of Pittsburgh International Airport

Harris won the NFL’s Rookie to the Year award in 1972 after rushing for a then-team-rookie record 1,055 yards and 10 touchdowns as the Steelers reached the postseason for just the second time in franchise history

Harris ran for 12,120 yards and won four Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, a dynasty that began in earnest when Harris decided to keep running during a last-second heave by Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw in a playoff game against Oakland in 1972.

With Pittsburgh trailing 7-6 and facing fourth-and-10 from their own 40 yard line and 22 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Bradshaw drifted back and threw deep to running back French Fuqua. Fuqua and Oakland defensive back Jack Tatum collided, sending the ball careening back toward midfield in the direction of Harris.

While nearly everyone else on the field stopped, Harris kept his legs churning, snatching the ball just inches above the Three Rivers Stadium turf near the Oakland 45 then outracing several stunned Raider defenders to give the Steelers their first playoff victory in the franchise’s four-decade history.

‘That play really represents our teams of the ’70s,’ Harris said after the ‘Immaculate Reception’ was voted the greatest play in NFL history during the league’s 100th anniversary season in 2020.

With 22 seconds left in the Steeler-Raider playoff game, Steeler QB Terry Bradshaw threw a 4th down desperation pass intended for John ‘Frenchy’ Fuqua. When the ball was deflected, it traveled 7 yards into the arms of Franco Harris who ran 42 yards for the winning TD

But the play was not without controversy.

NFL rules at the time specified that a receiver could not record a catch if the pass was first touched by another offensive player. So the question remains: Did the ball touch off Oakland’s Tatum or Pittsburgh’s Fuqua before falling into Harris’ outstretched arms.

While the Steelers are inclined to believe it was Tatum, upholding Harris’ touchdown, Raiders players have accused officials of an act of cowardice: Overruling an illegal reception for fear of their own safety.

‘We wandered over to hear what they were talking about,’ Raiders safety George Atkinson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2012 (re-reported by Mike Tanier for Bleacher Report in 2016). ‘We thought they were deciding if the play was dead; instead, they were concerned about security. I heard it with my own ears.’

Officiating crew chief Fred Swearingen was seen walking over to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ dugout at multi-purpose Three Rivers Stadium. Once inside, he is said to have placed a call to NFL executive Art McNally, but details of their conversation remain murky.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., from left, accompanied by former Pittsburgh Steelers NFL football players Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris, holds up a towel as they leave the Soldiers and Sailors Museum and Memorial in Pittsburgh on March 28, 2008

Harris did appear to be healthy in a recent social media post, reenacting his famous catch

Keep in mind, this was decades before instant replay in the NFL, so the purpose of the call wasn’t immediately clear to players.

But Atkinson claims Swearingen made the call to check on security for himself and his crew, and not liking what he’d heard in response, decided to please the local fans by ruling a touchdown.

‘They were concerned how much security was there if they made the wrong call,’ Atkinson said. ‘Other than that, why would they have to call upstairs? For what? There was no instant replay. They were calling security there.’

While the Steelers fell the next week to Miami in the AFC Championship, Pittsburgh was on its way to becoming the dominant team of the 1970s, twice winning back-to-back Super Bowls, first after the 1974 and 1975 seasons and again after the 1978 and 1979 seasons.

Harris, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound workhorse from Penn State, found himself in the center of it all. He churned for a then-record 158 yards rushing and a touchdown in Pittsburgh’s 16-6 victory over Minnesota in Super Bowl IX on his way to winning the game’s Most Valuable Player award. He scored at least once in three of the four Super Bowls he played in, and his 354 career yards rushing on the NFL’s biggest stage remains a record nearly four decades after his retirement.

Franco Harris, (L), of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Willie Buchanon of the Green Bay Packers show their Bert Bell Memorial Trophies received, after being named 1972 National Football League Rookies of the Year. They were selected from ten nominees voted by football fans throughout the countr

Born in Fort Dix, New Jersey, on March 7, 1950, Harris played collegiately at Penn State, where his primary job was to open holes for backfield mate Lydell Mitchell. The Steelers, in the final stages of a rebuild led by Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll, saw enough in Harris to make him the 13th overall pick in the 1972 draft.

‘When (Noll) drafted Franco Harris, he gave the offense heart, he gave it discipline, he gave it desire, he gave it the ability to win a championship in Pittsburgh,’ Steelers Hall of Fame wide receiver Lynn Swann said of his frequent roommate on team road trips.

Harris’ impact was immediate. He won the NFL’s Rookie to the Year award in 1972 after rushing for a then-team-rookie record 1,055 yards and 10 touchdowns as the Steelers reached the postseason for just the second time in franchise history.

The city’s large Italian-American population embraced Harris immediately, led by two local businessmen who founded what became known as ‘Franco’s Italian Army,’ a nod to Harris’ roots as the son of an African-American father and an Italian mother.

The ‘Immaculate Reception’ made Harris a star, though he typically preferred to let his play and not his mouth do the talking. On a team that featured big personalities in Bradshaw, defensive tackle Joe Greene, linebacker Jack Lambert among others, the intensely quiet Harris spent 12 seasons as the engine that helped Pittsburgh’s offense go.

Former NFL player, Franco Harris speaks onstage during day 2 of SiriusXM at Super Bowl LIV on January 30, 2020 in Miami

Eight times he topped 1,000 yards rushing in a season, including five times while playing a 14-game schedule. He piled up another 1,556 yards rushing and 16 rushing touchdowns in the playoffs, both second all-time behind Smith.

Despite his gaudy numbers, Harris stressed he was just one cog in an extraordinary machine that redefined greatness.

‘You see, during that era, each player brought their own little piece with them to make that wonderful decade happen,’ Harris said during his Hall of Fame speech in 1990. ‘Each player had their strengths and weaknesses, each their own thinking, each their own method, just each, each had their own. But then it was amazing, it all came together, and it stayed together to forge the greatest team of all times.’

Harris also made it a habit to stick up for his teammates. When Bradshaw took what Harris felt was an illegal late hit from Dallas linebacker Thomas ‘Hollywood’ Henderson in the second half of their meeting in the 1978 Super Bowl, Harris basically demanded Bradshaw give him the ball on the next play. All Harris did was sprint up the middle 22 yards — right by Henderson — for a touchdown that gave the Steelers an 11-point lead they would not relinquish on their way to their third championship in six years.

teelers Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris dies aged 72 Frank Sinatra was made a one star general in Franco Harris’ one-man army as he watched the Pittsburgh Steelers workout for their big game against the San Diego Chargers in San Diego. Franco (L), Steeler’s one man army and leading ground gainer, is pleased at having Sinatra in his army

Despite all of his success, his time in Pittsburgh ended acrimoniously when the Steelers cut him after he held out during training camp before the 1984 season. Noll, who leaned on Harris so heavily for so long, famously answered ‘Franco who?’ when asked about Harris’ absence from the team’s camp at Saint Vincent College.

Harris signed with Seattle, running for just 170 yards in eight games before being released in midseason. He retired as the NFL’s third all-time leading rusher behind Walter Payton and Jim Brown.

‘I don’t even think about that [anymore],’ Harris said in 2006. ‘I’m still black and gold.’

Harris remained in Pittsburgh following his retirement, opening a bakery and becoming heavily involved in several charities, including serving as the chairman of ‘Pittsburgh Promise,’ which provides college scholarship opportunities for Pittsburgh Public School students.

Harris is survived by his wife Dana Dokmanovich and his son, Dok.

‘Franco Harris was so much more than just one play,’ tweeted ESPN’s Mike Greenberg. ‘He was one of the great backs of his time, or any time, and the heartbeat of the offense of those legendary #Steelers teams. He was also as classy a gentleman as you could ever hope to meet. RIP Franco, thanks for the memories.’

THE IMMACULATE RECEPTION, AT 50, STILL UNITES STEELERS FANS 

And it came to pass — actually, quarterback Terry Bradshaw came to pass, but bear with us. This is a story about football, culture and religion, so it seems right to begin with some biblical phrasing.

Thus, Bradshaw barely got off the pass, which was deflected in a collision between defender and receiver. Everyone thought the game was over except a hustling fullback, Franco Harris. He made an improbable shoestring catch and raced into the end zone, securing the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first-ever playoff win, the start of a long dynasty.

That was 50 years ago this Friday, on December 23, 1972. But even though the NFL has officially designated it the greatest play in league history, it was bigger than that.

‘December 23 will henceforth be celebrated in Pittsburgh as the Feast of the Immaculate Reception,’ legendary local sportscaster Myron Cope proclaimed.

He got the idea from a caller whose boyfriend had coined the name in a barroom victory celebration — putting a twist on the recently passed Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which marks the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin.

Franco Harris (L) and John Fuqua #33, former running backs for the Pittsburgh Steelers, hold Terrible Towels as they look on from the sideline before a game between the Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field on December 23, 2012 in Pittsburgh

The coinage was as durable as it was instant, ‘using religious terminology to almost mythologize a sporting event,’ said Anne Madarasz, chief historian and director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum.

The Immaculate Reception crystallized the rise of the Steelers — even as their namesake industry was on the decline, as was the Pittsburgh of compact immigrant neighborhoods with multiple ethnic Catholic parishes.

By 1980, just as the Steelers were celebrating their fourth Super Bowl victory, Pittsburgh’s famed steel industry was moving from decline to all-out collapse. Many young people moved out of the demoralized region in search of jobs across the country (helping build the Steelers’ national fan base, by the way).

Still, those who left and those who stayed had the memory of a play called immaculate — a story with a never-give-up moral.

‘This was our cultural rallying point,’ said the Rev. Lou Vallone, a retired Catholic priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

‘It’s what kept us going as we saw our immigrant culture begin to dissipate, as the economics went down, the steel mills closed, as people moved out into the suburbs, people moved out of the area,’ said Vallone. He used to preside at Masses at St. Peter Church, the parish nearest the stadium, where the congregants included many game-day tailgaters, clad in Steelers’ black and gold.

Terry Bradshaw throws a pass to John Fuqua during a 1972 playoff game against the visiting Raiders. The play would come to be known as the Immaculate Reception

The city’s and region’s population decreased in the years after the catch. The ranks of Catholics — 40 percent of the region’s population in 1972 — dropped by about a third. Many ethnic and other parishes have closed or merged, and often merged again. A church named for the Immaculate Conception recently closed.

The region has taken on new economic drivers — education, medicine, energy.

But the mythology of the Immaculate Reception endures.

At the Pittsburgh International Airport, a statue immortalizing Franco Harris at the moment of his catch stands next to another historical figure, someone named George Washington.

And where Three Rivers Stadium once stood — now a sea of parking spaces near the Steelers’ current stadium — there’s a monument to the Immaculate Reception. You might call it a shrine.

It includes a marker where fans who are so inclined can put their foot in the exact spot where Harris’ foot landed.

And as with the Immaculate Reception, people have been putting themselves in Harris’ cleats since they first poured onto the field in 1972, joining him in an end zone celebration.

‘It’s not just him crossing the goal line, it’s the team and the city,’ Madarasz said.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans in the stands display a banner for their fan club for Steelers Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris known as ‘Franco’s Italian Army’ during the Steelers 13-7 victory over the Oakland Raiders in the 1972 AFC Divisional Playoff Game on December 23, 1972 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh

It’s hardly the only Catholic connection to the Steelers. ‘There was nobody more Catholic than the Chief,’ Vallone said of the team’s legendary founder, Art Rooney. And for decades, the team has practiced at St. Vincent College, a nearby Catholic school and home to a Benedictine abbey.

While the Immaculate Reception has a Catholic name, it also has an element of interfaith cooperation.

Sportscaster Cope was Jewish. Years later, he addressed the perennial controversy of whether the catch was even legitimate under NFL rules (depending on whether the ball touched the defender or receiver before bouncing to Harris). In a New York Times essay, he posed an only-in-America question:

‘Was Franco Harris’ Immaculate Reception kosher?’

It was indeed, he insisted, after studying the film.

Religious and football iconography have merged long before praying coaches had their day in the Supreme Court this year. Quarterback Doug Flutie’s 1984 ‘Hail Mary’ touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan gave a legendary victory to a Catholic school, Boston College, over the University of Miami.

‘Touchdown Jesus,’ a large mural of Christ with his arms raised, is a landmark near the stadium of Notre Dame University, the Catholic school that long ago fielded the apocalyptic backfield, the Four Horsemen.

Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers takes a break during the Steelers 13-7 victory over the Oakland Raiders in the 1972 AFC Divisional Playoff Game on December 23, 1972 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh

The Oakland Raiders, while on the losing end of the Immaculate Reception, may have benefited from divine help another time, if nicknames are to be believed. They won a 1978 game on a ‘Holy Roller’ fumble that took a long, winding route through running back Pete Banaszak’s hands toward a teammate in the end zone. ‘I believe in the Big Guy,’ Banaszak later said. ‘He was there.’

Vallone hears that kind of talk a lot, from fans as well as players. He’s even got a homily to go with it.

‘If you want to believe God’s on your side in a football game or a soccer game, that’s fine, as long as you live your life on God’s side,’ Vallone said.

Fans tailgating near the Immaculate Reception monument before the Steelers’ December 11 game against the Ravens could readily recite the moment-by-moment details of the play. That includes those who saw it live, and those who weren’t even born then.

The 1972 game was subject to local blackout rules. But Buster Boots, living northwest of Pittsburgh in Ellwood City, recalled his family using a large antenna to catch the broadcast ‘on a big old 25-inch RCA TV with a picture coming in from Cleveland.’

After the play, ‘we were going nuts,’ he recalled. ‘We got to see it live.’

John Michael of nearby Aliquippa said he saw the Immaculate Reception in person. He said there’s a good reason for the name.

‘Probably because of Pittsburgh, you know,’ he said. ‘A lot of ethnic groups, a lot of religions, a lot of churches and a lot of love.’

– Associated Press