If the "Immaculate Reception" happened today, most of us wouldn’t remember it for more than a week. Sad but true.
The most famous play in pro football history, as engineered by Franco Harris, unfolded 50 years ago this weekend. It’s an absolute tragedy that Harris died just days before what was to be a celebration of a magnificent moment, but thankfully he received all the acclaim he was due, from a berth in the Pro Football Hall of Fame to a life-sized, crouching, mid-Immaculate Reception statue in Pittsburgh International Airport.
As for the play itself, it lives on in football lore, thanks to its preeminent role in the smashmouth era of 1970s football, as well as that divinely inspired nickname.