Immaculate Reception

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Trailing Oakland 7–6, the Steelers faced fourth-and-10 on their own 40-yard line with 22 seconds remaining and no timeouts. Head coach Chuck Noll called a pass play, 66 Circle Option, intended for receiver Barry Pearson. Bradshaw dropped back and, under great pressure from Raiders linemen Tony Cline and Horace Jones, scrambled to his right and threw the ball from his 29-yard line to the Raiders' 34-yard line, toward Fuqua. Raiders safety Jack Tatum collided with Fuqua just as the ball arrived. Tatum's hit knocked Fuqua to the ground and sent the ball sailing backward several yards, end over end. Steelers fullback Franco Harris, after initially blocking on the play, had run downfield. Harris recounted the advice of his college football coach Joe Paterno, who always told his players, 'Go to the ball.' Harris scooped up the sailing ball at the Oakland 44-yard line, just before it hit the ground. Harris ran past Raiders linebacker Gerald Irons, while linebacker Phil Villapiano, who had been covering Harris, was blocked by Steelers tight end John McMakin. Harris used a stiff arm to ward off Raiders defensive back Jimmy Warren and went in for a touchdown. The touchdown gave the Steelers a 13–7 lead when Gerela added the ensuing extra point.

In Their Own Story

Inside Three Rivers Stadium, with 22 seconds left and the Steelers trailing 7–6, Bradshaw dropped back and scrambled under pressure from Cline and Jones. He threw from his own 29-yard line toward Fuqua at the Raiders' 34. Tatum collided with Fuqua just as the ball arrived, knocking Fuqua down and sending the ball sailing backward. Harris, following Paterno's advice to 'Go to the ball,' scooped it up at the Oakland 44-yard line just before it hit the ground. He ran past Irons, benefited from McMakin's block on Villapiano, stiff-armed Warren, and scored the game-winning touchdown. The play's name was first used on air by Myron Cope, a Pittsburgh sportscaster. 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. The phrase was apparently meant to imply that the play was miraculous in nature.

Reader's Guide

The Immaculate Reception proved to be a turning point for the Steelers, reversing four decades of futility with their first playoff win ever. The Steelers had appeared in the postseason only once before, losing against the Philadelphia Eagles, 21–0, in an NFL divisional playoff game on December 21, 1947. Their fortunes began to change 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. That streak began two years after the Immaculate Reception game. The play was selected as the Greatest Play in NFL History in the NFL Network's 100 series. NFL Films has chosen the Immaculate Reception as the greatest play of all time, as well as the most controversial.

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 Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope, after a fan named Sharon Levosky suggested the name coined by her boyfriend Michael Ord.
• The rule that made Harris's catch legal—if a defensive player touches the pass first, or simultaneously with or subsequent to its having been touched by only one offensive player, then all offensive players become eligible—was rescinded in 1978.
• Referee Fred Swearingen called the NFL's supervisor of officials, Art McNally, from a baseball dugout telephone before confirming the touchdown. McNally said Swearingen 'never asked me about the rule and never asked what I saw. All he said was, "Two of my men say that opposing players touched the ball." And I said, "Everything's fine then, go ahead."'
• The play marked the Steelers' first playoff win ever, after four decades of futility.