The “Immaculate Reception” turns 50 this Friday, Dec. 23.
FILE - Pittsburgh Steelers' Franco Harris 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, Dec. 23, 1972. Harris' scoop of a deflected pass and subsequent run for the winning touchdown forever known as the"Immaculate Reception" has been voted the greatest play in NFL history.
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. Still, those who left and those who stayed had the memory of a play called immaculate — a story with a never-give-up moral.
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. While the Immaculate Reception has a Catholic name, it also has an element of interfaith cooperation. 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.”
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