Steelers fans gather for 50th anniversary of Franco Harris' famed play (2023)

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.

'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.

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.'

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.'