Immaculate Reception
Kevin Cook's The Last Headbangers cites the play as the beginning of a bitter rivalry between Pittsburgh and Oakland that fueled a historically brutal Raiders team during the NFL's most controversially physical era.
A Pittsburgh woman, Sharon Levosky, called Cope before his 11:00 p.m. sports broadcast that night and suggested the name, which was coined by her then-boyfriend Michael Ord during a celebration at a local bar after the two attended the game in person.
[5] The phrase was apparently meant to imply that the play was miraculous in nature (see Hail Mary pass for a similar term).
The following three seasons they made it back to the playoffs but lost to the eventual champions in all three instances (New York Jets in 1968, Kansas City Chiefs in 1969, Baltimore Colts in 1970).
[6] The Pittsburgh Steelers, on the other hand, had appeared in the postseason only once, losing against the Philadelphia Eagles, 21–0, in an NFL divisional playoff game on December 21, 1947.
The Steelers' fortunes began to change, however, in 1969, when they hired head coach Chuck Noll, who won four Super Bowls in six years with the team between the 1974 and 1979 seasons.
The Miami Dolphins hosted the wild card team in the first round of the playoffs, which set up the matchup between Pittsburgh and Oakland.
[9] The teams played to a scoreless tie at halftime, with Oakland's longest gain coming on an 11-yard completion from Daryle Lamonica to Fred Biletnikoff.
[10] On its first possession of the second half, however, Pittsburgh opted for a field goal, with placekicker Roy Gerela's successful 18-yard attempt accounting for the first score of the game.
[11] Lamonica's latest turnover prompted Raiders head coach John Madden to put Ken Stabler into the game at quarterback.
The ensuing extra point by placekicker George Blanda gave Oakland a 7–6 lead with 1:17 left, setting up the dramatic ending to the game.
Steelers fullback Franco Harris, after initially blocking on the play, had run downfield in case Bradshaw needed another eligible receiver.
After Bradshaw threw the pass towards Fuqua, Harris recounted the advice of his college football coach Joe Paterno, who always told his players, "Go to the ball.
From the dugout telephone, Boston put in a call to the press box to reach the NFL's supervisor of officials, Art McNally.
Fans immediately rushed the field; it took fifteen minutes to clear them so the extra point could be kicked to give the Steelers what turned out to be their final margin of victory, 13–7.
[20] NFL officials Jim Kensil and Val Pinchbeck, who were in the press box with McNally, also deny that replay was used in making the decision on the play.
According to a writer for the New York Daily News, "NBC's replay showed the ball clearly hit one and only one man[:] Oakland DB Jack Tatum.
In 2004, John Fetkovich, an emeritus professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University, analyzed the NFL Films clip of the play.
"[18]: 14–15 The week after this playoff victory, the Steelers lost the AFC Championship Game, 21–17, to the Miami Dolphins,[40] who went on to win Super Bowl VII in their landmark undefeated season.
Had the Raiders advanced to the AFC Championship Game instead, they would have entered that contest with an all-time record (including playoffs) of 6–1–1 against the Dolphins.
[41] Despite the loss to the Dolphins, the Steelers started to reverse four decades of futility and went on to become a dominant force in the NFL for the rest of the 1970s, winning four Super Bowls in six years with such stars as Bradshaw, Harris, John Stallworth and Lynn Swann along with the Steel Curtain defense led by Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, "Mean Joe" Greene, Mel Blount, and Dwight White.
Since the AFL–NFL merger, the Steelers have the league's best record (surpassing Miami in 2007 because of the Dolphins' recent struggles), have had a league-low three head coaches, and have had only nine losing seasons, none worse than 5–11.
To date, the two last met in the playoffs in 1983 when the eventual Super Bowl champion Raiders, playing in Los Angeles at the time, crushed the Steelers, 38–10.
This led to the two becoming friendlier away from the football field with Harris becoming an "honorary Raider" while Villapiano has accepted the events of the play over time.
Whether a future Franco Harris would have been ruled as catching such a deflected football before it struck the turf is a different matter, thanks to myriad cameras and use of instant replay that is part of the present-day NFL.
Baker managed to scoop up the ball during the ensuing melee after the extra point kick, grabbed his nephew, and ran off the field.
Baker has instead kept this coveted piece of NFL memorabilia in a guarded bank vault in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, occasionally bringing it out for public appearances involving the Steelers, including one with Franco Harris in 1997 to commemorate the play's 25th anniversary.
[53] "The 100-Year Game", a short film created by the league for Super Bowl LIII, featured many current and former football stars.
In it, Bradshaw is seen throwing a football across the room towards such contemporary star receivers as Larry Fitzgerald and Odell Beckham Jr. — only to see the ball tipped, and snatched by Harris just before it hits the floor.
[54] On December 24, 2022, while hosting the present-day Las Vegas Raiders to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, Harris became only the third player in Steelers history to have his jersey retired.
