Today is the day our fortunes changed and the Same Old Steelers became the STEELERS!
Quotes about the Immaculate Reception (From Wikipedia):
Last chance for the Steelers. Bradshaw trying to get away. And his pass is…broken up by Tatum. Picked off! Franco Harris has it! And he’s over! Franco Harris grabbed the ball, a deflection! Five seconds to go! He grabbed it with five seconds to go and scored!
You talk about Christmas miracles. Here’s the miracle of all miracles. Watch this one now. Bradshaw is lucky to even get rid of the ball! He shoots it out. Jack Tatum deflects it right into the hands of Harris. And he sets off. And the big 230-pound rookie slipped away from Warren and scored.
—Gowdy, describing an instant replay of the play on NBC
Hang onto your hats, here come the Steelers out of the huddle. Twenty-two seconds remaining. It’s down to one big play, fourth down and 10 yards to go. Terry Bradshaw at the controls. And Bradshaw… back and looking again. Bradshaw, running out of the pocket, looking for somebody to throw to, fires it downfield, and there’s a collision! [volume increases] And it’s caught out of the air! The ball is pulled in by Franco Harris! Harris is going for a touchdown for Pittsburgh! Harris is going…5 seconds left on the clock. Franco Harris pulled in the football, I don’t even know where he came from!
—Jack Fleming, on the Steelers radio broadcast
We wanted to hit Barry Pearson with the post. The pass protection broke down so all of the timing was off. Bradshaw rolls out to his right and I thought he was going to get tackled, but he ducked and he came up and he fired the ball. Now, from the angle I’m coming from, the outside in, Jack Tatum’s coming from an angle straight ahead. What I was going to do, if nothing else, is beat him to the point. We got there about the same time. Now, if the ball hit me, it bounced a hell of a ways. If the ball hit him, he wasn’t aiming at it, he was going at my head. I can tell you this: I did not take my eyes off the ball, as you can tell from the way that my body was. What happens from that point on was truly Immaculate.
—Frenchy Fuqua on the play.[38]
The play that changed a city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMuUBZ_DAeM