50 years ago this Friday, hustling fullback Franco Harris secured the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first-ever playoff win. It was the start of a long dynasty.
PITTSBURGH — 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.
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 Harris, who went to Rancocas Valley High School in South Jersey, at the moment of his catch stands next to another historical figure, someone named George Washington. Sportscaster Cope was Jewish. Years later, he addressed the perennial controversy of whether the catch was even legitimate under NFL rules . In a New York Times essay, he posed an only-in-America question:It was indeed, he insisted, after studying the film.
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