FOR USE AS DESIRED
NFL-63 12/8/97

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"IMMACULATE RECEPTION" CONFERENCE CALL THIS WEDNESDAY

FRANCO HARRIS, TERRY BRADSHAW and FRENCHY FUQUA will be on a national conference call this Wednesday, December 10 at 10:00 AM ET at 904-779-4771 to discuss the 25th anniversary of the "Immaculate Reception." Access code for the call is "NFL."

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THE "IMMACULATE RECEPTION," FEATURING FOUR PLAYERS & ONE ALL-TIME
NFL MOMENT, REMEMBERED 25 YEARS LATER

The man who pulled it off wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Two others involved didn’t even see it. The fourth participant didn’t believe it happened – legally, that is. And a man who would have been thrilled to see it was instead staring at elevator doors.

They were the main players in a moment that may be the most memorable in the 78-year history of the National Football League – the "Immaculate Reception" touchdown scored in a playoff game by Pittsburgh Steelers rookie running back FRANCO HARRIS that magically occurred 25 years ago this December 23.

It only seems like yesterday to Harris because he hears about it almost every day.

"I still get people all the time coming up to me and talking about the ‘Immaculate Reception,’" says Harris, now the owner of Pittsburgh-based Super Bakery, a supplier of baked goods to hospitals and schools. "And I get all their stories about where they were, and what they were doing when it happened. It happens all around the country as I travel. It seems like this one play is really fixed in the minds of a lot of people."

The reason the play is so memorable is that it was so improbable. It wasn’t a long touchdown pass. It wasn’t a spectacularly executed run. It wasn’t a last-second game-winning kick.

It was much better because it was totally unexpected. And still memorable – 25 years later…

The Participants – The Oakland Raiders, champions of the AFC Western Division with a 10-3-1 record, traveled to Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh to face the 11-3 AFC Central champion Steelers in a Divisional Playoff game. It was the Steelers’ first playoff contest in their 40-year history. It was to be the Raiders, who had averaged more than 26 points per game, and had scored 148 points in the fourth quarter of their games, against the intimidating "Steel Curtain" defense of the Steelers, which had prevented opponents from scoring a touchdown in six games during the season.

The Prologue – With 50,350 fans – many of whom had attended a raucous pep rally the night before directly across the street from the Raiders’ Hilton Hotel – looking on, the teams maneuvered to a relatively quiet scoreless first half.

The one play of notice came early in the second quarter, when Steelers head coach CHUCK NOLL passed up the chance for a 38-yard field goal by ROY GERELA to try a line blast over right guard on fourth-and-two by fullback FRENCHY FUQUA. He was stopped short by Raiders safety JACK TATUM. Those two players would have a role – a major role – in what was about to transpire.

Eleven minutes into the fourth quarter, the Steelers were up by 6-0 thanks to two Gerela field goals. That is where things got interesting.

With three-and-a-half minutes left in the game, Oakland rookie quarterback KENNY STABLER, taking over from a flu-weakened DARYLE LAMONICA, took the Raiders 80 yards in a 12-play sequence that culminated when, rolling left under pressure, he took flight and raced untouched 30 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

After the kickoff, the Steelers were at their own 20, with 1:13 left.

"I thought we could win with a field goal," remembers Pittsburgh quarterback TERRY BRADSHAW. "I knew if we could connect with three or four passes, we’d get within range."

He did connect on his first two passes, for nine yards to Harris and another 11 to Fuqua to bring the Steelers to their 40.

His next three were for naught – one for JOHN MC MAKIN -- broken up by Tatum -- one for RON SHANKLIN – incomplete -- and the third, again intended for McMakin, again broken up by Tatum. It was now fourth-and-10 with 22 seconds left.

In the press box, white-haired ART ROONEY, the owner of the Steelers who had purchased the team for $2,500 in 1933, snuffed out his cigar and entered an elevator for the long journey down to console his players. He didn’t say a word.

Jack Tatum said to his teammates, "One more time."

Terry Bradshaw called the play – "66 option" -- and then said to his teammates, "We got to get it." History was about to unfold.

The Play – "66 option" was a pass play, with the primary receiver intended to be rookie wideout BARRY PEARSON, who was to run a post pattern. If things went wrong, Bradshaw would go to his secondary receiver, Fuqua, who was to curl into the middle beyond the down markers.

Things did go wrong fast, in the form of Raiders defensive linemen HORACE JONES and OTIS SISTRUNK. They chased Bradshaw out of the pocket and around the backfield.

"I felt pressure coming from one side," said Bradshaw, "so I moved to the other side. Then I got some pressure over there, so I started to scramble. I was hoppin’ around back there, hoppin’, and nobody had a real good shot at me."

When he saw that the play was broken, Harris, who was supposed to stay back and block for Bradshaw, took off downfield. "I sensed that Terry was scrambling for his life, so I thought I’d go downfield and give him another receiver," said Harris. "I’d be a safety valve – either be a target or help block for whoever caught the pass."

Things were falling apart quickly. Bradshaw finally spotted Fuqua, 20 yards downfield, with just a spot of daylight between him and the nearest defender, Tatum. He winged it towards Frenchy.

"When I made my hook, I was wide open, but Terry was getting pressure," remembers Fuqua. "Then all I hear is Tatum coming up. I can hear him breathing. I can hear his steps."

Tatum was indeed coming. "I was something like 35 yards downfield and I immediately broke for the ball," he said. "When I saw I couldn’t get it, I aimed for Fuqua to try to either jar the ball from him or at least make the tackle."

All three -- Fuqua, Tatum and the ball -- collided.

"I hit him and I thought the game was ours," said Tatum. "I looked down at him on the ground and he didn’t have the ball."

The ball? It was, like a rubber ball thrown against a house, now caroming back downfield at least 15 yards – right towards the out-of-position Harris.

"I saw Frenchy and Tatum go up," says Harris. "I saw the ball go up in the air and I said, ‘Oh, no!’ But then I saw the ball coming toward me and I figured we’re not out of this yet."

A second before it hit the ground at the 42, a few inches off his shoe tops, Harris scooped up the ball, cut to the left and headed down the sideline, right in front of a hysterical Steelers’ bench.

Fuqua, on the ground, didn’t know what all the commotion was about. "I was dazed," he said. "I looked around and I hear people cheering. I couldn’t imagine what happened. Then I finally get up and I saw this dude (Harris) at the five-yard line and I couldn’t figure out why."

Bradshaw was just as mystified. "I got knocked down," he said. "Next thing I know, Franco is running for the touchdown. I couldn’t figure how Franco got the ball when I threw it to Fuqua. Man, I thought I had hit him right in the numbers!"

Pittsburgh’s McMakin partially blocked one Raider for the speeding Harris and there was only one left, safety JIMMY WARREN, who was fast angling towards the ballcarrier.

"I might have had him at the 10-line," said Warren, "but I grabbed him and his pads were wet. I just slipped off."

And Harris then slipped into the end zone – with a 60-yard touchdown ball in his arm.

"It was our last chance, our last play," says Harris. "And suddenly I had the ball and there was the goal line. I never considered after that that we hadn’t won."

Maybe he didn’t, but others, especially the Raiders, did.

The Postscript – There was no signal by referee FRED SWEARINGEN on whether the touchdown counted. Both teams – and fans -- ran onto the field, trying to find out what happened, and what was going to be ruled. There were still 15 seconds to go in the game.

The Raiders said that the ball bounced from Fuqua to Harris, which, in those days, would have made Harris’ catch illegal. A pass could not rebound from one offensive player to another without also touching a defensive player.

"I came up and hit him from behind, and there wasn’t any way I could have made contact with that ball," said Tatum.

After a conference with his officiating crew, Swearingen disappeared into a dugout and got on a phone to the press box to speak to ART MC NALLY, the NFL supervisor of officials. Swearingen said to McNally: "Two of my men (umpire PAT HARDER and back judge ADRIAN BURK) ruled that the ball was touched by opposing players (Tatum and Fuqua), and caught by Harris," and that therefore the reception was legal, as was the touchdown.

He then put the receiver down, ran back to the field, and signaled…touchdown! And 50,350 fans erupted.

"I’ll never forget the look on Tatum’s face while everything was happening," said Fuqua. "It was like slow-motion. He was smiling and celebrating and then it slowly melted and turned into anger."

After the field was cleared, Stabler tried a long desperation pass that was broken up.

And in the bowels of Three Rivers Stadium, Art Rooney, the man who waited all those years to see his team win a playoff game, and then didn’t see the play that accomplished the feat, waited to congratulate his players.

"Everything seemed hopeless, everything seemed lost," says Harris. "Everything surrounding that play made it really special."

The Steelers went on to lose to Miami in the AFC Championship Game. But they had gotten a taste of the NFL postseason. Within two years they began a run of four Super Bowl titles in six years.

"The Immaculate Reception," says Harris, "was really the start of a great decade for the Pittsburgh Steelers."

ROONEY & FUQUA

To this day, the effusive Fuqua, now a product manager for the Detroit News, says that he knows what "really" happened on the amazing play.

But, says Frenchy, he has told only one other person – the late Art Rooney. And to this day, Fuqua remembers what Rooney told him: "Frenchy, let it stay immaculate."

THE RULE

The wording from the 1972 NFL rule book that allowed Franco Harris’ "Immaculate Reception" touchdown to stand: "If a defensive player touches pass first, or simultaneously with or subsequent to its having been touched by only one eligible offensive player, then all offensive players become and remain eligible."

WHO COINED THE PHRASE "IMMACULATE RECEPTION?"

Who used the term "Immaculate Reception" first? MICHAEL ORD. Never heard of him? MYRON COPE, the longtime Pittsburgh Steelers announcer hadn’t either until his phone rang at the WTAE-TV studios the night of the game. It was moments before Cope was to go on the air with his report of the Steelers’ improbable triumph. A woman by the name of SHARON LEVOSKY said that her friend Michael had a suggestion for a name for Franco Harris’ catch – the "Immaculate Reception." Cope loved it, used it on the air, and the rest is history.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Raiders head coach JOHN MADDEN: "We got fogged in at the start of the trip and nothing went right from then on. You play 21 ball games for this moment – fourth down. Then the ball bounces off one man’s chest into another man’s arms and it’s over. No tomorrow."

Steelers head coach CHUCK NOLL: "Franco made that play because he never quit on the play. He kept running, he kept hustling. Good things happen to those who hustle."

Raiders tackle GENE UPSHAW: "It’s a helluva way to lose. He just threw the ball up for grabs, a desperation pass, and it bounced into a guy’s hands. One fluke play. I guess that’s football, but I can’t accept it."

Steelers center RAY MANSFIELD: "I went from the depths of despair to the apex of ecstasy."

Steelers defensive end L.C. GREENWOOD: "I didn’t see the play. I was talking to the man upstairs. I didn’t want to interrupt what I was doing. Next thing I know, the guys are jumping around and there goes Franco and I’m saying, ‘Lord, I hope he has the ball.’"

Steelers quarterback TERRY BRADSHAW: "I’ve played football since the second grade and nothing like that ever happened. It’ll never happen again."

Raiders tight end RAYMOND CHESTER: "I don’t want to talk."

IMMACULATE RECEPTION TRIVIA

THE REAL ARMY…AND FRANCO’s ITALIAN ARMY: Many of the Steelers had their own fan clubs ("Frenchy’s Foreign Legion," "Bradshaw’s Brigade," "Gerela’s Gorillas," "Ham’s Hussars"), but none had a bigger following than Franco Harris and his "Franco’s Italian Army" (Harris is part African-American, part Italian).

On the day of the game, the real Army showed up outside Three Rivers Stadium, with two jeeps and a two-and-a-half-ton truck with a 105-mm howitzer attached. The reason? SGT. HARRY BILLINGS though it would be a perfect day for a recruiting drive. Especially since three members of his 107th Field Artillery unit were playing for the hometown team – center JIM CLACK, defensive end L.C. Greenwood and tackle JOHN KOLB.

FROM FRANK TO FRANCO – Forty-five minutes after the game, a telegram arrived in the Steelers locker room. It said, "The following is an order: Attack, attack, attack, attack." It was signed, "Colonel FRANCIS SINATRA (of Franco Harris’ Italian Army)."

AN NFL RECORD?: It was almost as if a fifth quarter was added to the game. What might be the longest time period in NFL history between the scoring of a touchdown and the kicking of an extra point took place after Harris’ score. It took a full 15 minutes to clear the field of fans so Roy Gerela could kick the PAT. "I don’t remember how long it took them to clear the field," said Steelers linebacker ANDY RUSSELL, "but for all I cared, they could have taken a week."

PLAY-BY-PLAY OF STEELERS’ FINAL DRIVE

OAKLAND 7, PITTSBURGH 6

PITTSBURGH 13, OAKLAND 7