Former Steelers RB Franco Harris, Pro Football Hall of Fame member and the “reception” piece of the famous Immaculate Reception, died overnight Wednesday, Harris's son, Dok, told the Associated Press. No cause of death was given. He was 72 years old.
The Steelers were set to retire Harris’s No. 32 jersey Saturday as part of a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the Reception—an event the team announced in September. On Dec. 23, 1972, with less than five seconds remaining in a game against the Oakland Raiders, Harris caught a deflected pass and ran for a touchdown, a 60-yard play that gave the Steelers a 13–7 win for its first playoff victory in team history.
While the Steelers fell the next week to Miami in the AFC Championship, Pittsburgh was on its way to becoming the dominant team of the 1970s, twice winning back-to-back Super Bowls, first after the 1974 and ’75 seasons and again after the 1978 and ’79 seasons.
