Pittsburgh Steelers’ Franco Harris (32) eludes a sort out by Oakland Raiders’ Jimmy Warren as he runs 42-yards for a landing after catching a deflected cross throughout an AFC Divisional NFL soccer playoff sport in Pittsburgh in 1972. Harris died on Wednesday morning at age 72.

Harry Cabluck/AP

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Pittsburgh Steelers’ Franco Harris (32) eludes a sort out by Oakland Raiders’ Jimmy Warren as he runs 42-yards for a landing after catching a deflected cross throughout an AFC Divisional NFL soccer playoff sport in Pittsburgh in 1972. Harris died on Wednesday morning at age 72.

Harry Cabluck/AP

PITTSBURGH — Franco Harris, the Hall of Fame operating again whose heads-up pondering authored “The Immaculate Reception,” thought of essentially the most iconic play in NFL historical past, has died. He was 72.

Harris’ son Dok advised The Associated Press his father handed away in a single day. No reason for demise was given.

His demise comes two days earlier than the fiftieth anniversary of the play that supplied the jolt that helped rework the Steelers from also-rans into the NFL’s elite and three days earlier than Pittsburgh is scheduled to retire his No. 32 throughout a ceremony at halftime of its sport towards the Las Vegas Raiders.

Harris ran for 12,120 yards and received 4 Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers within the Seventies, a dynasty that started in earnest when Harris determined to maintain operating throughout a last-second heave by Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw in a playoff sport towards Oakland in 1972.

With Pittsburgh trailing 7-6 and going through fourth-and-10 from their very own 40 yard line and 22 seconds remaining within the fourth quarter, Bradshaw drifted again and threw deep to operating again French Fuqua. Fuqua and Oakland defensive again Jack Tatum collided, sending the ball careening again towards midfield within the route of Harris.

While practically everybody else on the sector stopped, Harris stored his legs churning, snatching the ball simply inches above the Three Rivers Stadium turf close to the Oakland 45 then outracing a number of surprised Raider defenders to present the Steelers their first playoff victory within the franchise’s four-decade historical past.

“That play really represents our teams of the ’70s,” Harris mentioned after the “Immaculate Reception” was voted the best play in NFL historical past throughout the league’s a hundredth anniversary season in 2020.

While the Steelers fell the following week to Miami within the AFC Championship, Pittsburgh was on its option to turning into the dominant crew of the Seventies, twice successful back-to-back Super Bowls, first after the 1974 and 1975 seasons and once more after the 1978 and 1979 seasons.

Pittsburgh Steelers NFL soccer gamers Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris accompany then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 as they depart the Soldiers and Sailors Museum and Memorial in Pittsburgh.

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Pittsburgh Steelers NFL soccer gamers Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris accompany then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 as they depart the Soldiers and Sailors Museum and Memorial in Pittsburgh.

Alex Brandon/AP

Harris, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound workhorse from Penn State, discovered himself within the heart of all of it. He churned for a then-record 158 yards dashing and a landing in Pittsburgh’s 16-6 victory over Minnesota in Super Bowl IX on his option to successful the sport’s Most Valuable Player award. He scored at the least as soon as in three of the 4 Super Bowls he performed in, and his 354 profession yards dashing on the NFL’s greatest stage stays a report practically 4 many years after his retirement.

Born in Fort Dix, New Jersey, on March 7, 1950, Harris performed collegiately at Penn State, the place his main job was to open holes for backfield mate Lydell Mitchell. The Steelers, within the last phases of a rebuild led by Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll, noticed sufficient in Harris to make him the thirteenth total choose within the 1972 draft.

“When (Noll) drafted Franco Harris, he gave the offense heart, he gave it discipline, he gave it desire, he gave it the ability to win a championship in Pittsburgh,” Steelers Hall of Fame broad receiver Lynn Swann mentioned of his frequent roommate on crew highway journeys.

Harris’ affect was speedy. He received the NFL’s Rookie to the Year award in 1972 after dashing for a then-team-rookie report 1,055 yards and 10 touchdowns because the Steelers reached the postseason for simply the second time in franchise historical past.

The metropolis’s giant Italian-American inhabitants embraced Harris instantly, led by two native businessmen who based what grew to become referred to as “Franco’s Italian Army,” a nod to Harris’ roots because the son of an African-American father and an Italian mom.

The “Immaculate Reception” made Harris a star, although he usually most popular to let his play and never his mouth do the speaking. On a crew that featured large personalities in Bradshaw, defensive sort out Joe Greene, linebacker Jack Lambert amongst others, the intensely quiet Harris spent 12 seasons because the engine that helped Pittsburgh’s offense go.

Eight occasions he topped 1,000 yards dashing in a season, together with 5 occasions whereas enjoying a 14-game schedule. He piled up one other 1,556 yards dashing and 16 dashing touchdowns within the playoffs, each second all-time behind Smith.

Despite his gaudy numbers, Harris confused he was only one cog in a rare machine that redefined greatness.

“You see, during that era, each player brought their own little piece with them to make that wonderful decade happen,” Harris mentioned throughout his Hall of Fame speech in 1990. “Each player had their strengths and weaknesses, each their own thinking, each their own method, just each, each had their own. But then it was amazing, it all came together, and it stayed together to forge the greatest team of all times.”

Harris additionally made it a behavior to stay up for his teammates. When Bradshaw took what Harris felt was an unlawful late hit from Dallas linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson within the second half of their assembly within the 1978 Super Bowl, Harris principally demanded Bradshaw give him the ball on the following play. All Harris did was dash up the center 22 yards — proper by Henderson — for a landing that gave the Steelers an 11-point lead they might not relinquish on their option to their third championship in six years.

Despite all of his success, his time in Pittsburgh ended acrimoniously when the Steelers minimize him after he held out throughout coaching camp earlier than the 1984 season. Noll, who leaned on Harris so closely for thus lengthy, famously answered “Franco who?” when requested about Harris’ absence from the crew’s camp at Saint Vincent College.

Harris signed with Seattle, operating for simply 170 yards in eight video games earlier than being launched in midseason. He retired because the NFL’s third all-time main rusher behind Walter Payton and Jim Brown.

“I don’t even think about that (anymore),” Harris mentioned in 2006. “I’m still black and gold.”

Harris remained in Pittsburgh following his retirement, opening a bakery and turning into closely concerned in a number of charities, together with serving because the chairman of “Pittsburgh Promise,” which supplies faculty scholarship alternatives for Pittsburgh Public School college students.

Harris is survived by his spouse Dana Dokmanovich and his son, Dok.