The Immaculate Reception

Lore & Background

With his team trailing 7–6, on fourth down with 22 seconds left in the game, Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw a pass targeting Steelers running back John Fuqua. The ball may have bounced off the helmet of Raiders safety Jack Tatum, although many observers believe that Tatum never contacted the pass. Steelers fullback Franco Harris caught it just before it hit the ground and ran for a game-winning touchdown. The play has been a source of much controversy and speculation ever since, with many contending that the ball touched only Fuqua (and did not in any way touch Tatum) or that it hit the ground before Harris caught it, either of which would have resulted in an incomplete pass by the rules of the time. Kevin Cook's The Last Headbangers cites the play as the beginning of a bitter rivalry between the Steelers and the Raiders that fueled a historically brutal Raiders team during the NFL's most controversially physical era.

In Their Own Story

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was freezing as the clock ticked under two minutes. The Raiders held a slender lead, their defense seemingly impenetrable. Terry Bradshaw scrambled, launching a desperate pass that seemed destined for an interception. Instead, it hit two Raiders defenders in mid-air, bouncing like a pinball before landing miraculously in Franco Harris's arms. As the crowd gasped and the referee pointed to the end zone, time seemed to stop. The impossible had happened.

Reader's Guide

NFL Films has chosen the Immaculate Reception as the greatest play of all time, as well as the most controversial. The play was also selected as the Greatest Play in NFL History in the NFL Network's 100 series. The play proved to be a turning point for the Steelers, reversing four decades of futility with their first playoff win ever; they went on to win four Super Bowls by the end of the 1970s.

Did You Know?

• The play's name is a pun derived from the Immaculate Conception, a dogma in the Roman Catholic Church.
• The phrase was first used on air by Myron Cope, a Pittsburgh sportscaster who was reporting on the Steelers' victory.
• 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 t
• The phrase was apparently meant to imply that the play was miraculous in nature (see Hail Mary pass for a similar term).