Steelers fans this weekend will mourn the passing of Franco Harris and celebrate his legacy with the city of Pittsburgh and within the NFL.
In the next several days, countless articles may be online detailing his involvement in the greatest play in NFL history or how he affected a generation of Steelers fans. Yet there is one angle that writers might gloss over. While being an ambassador for the sport of football and becoming a member of the Hall of Fame, Franco did something else for the City of Pittsburgh in a way few other athletes could ever imagine doing.
In the early ‘70s, racial tensions still existed in America. Although improvements had been well underway since the ‘60s they still existed. Depending on what story you choose to believe, Steelers quarterback Joe Gilliam might have lost his starting role as quarterback to the color of his skin.
Still, it is a debated topic, and no one has answered it conclusively. Nonetheless, two years earlier, something else happened, which ended up causing a cultural shift in the City of Steel. A movement began in which people began to see it didn’t matter the color of your skin; it didn’t matter where you came from; we all had a common denominator: the love of football.
For fans, it was not just the game of football but the love of the team representing Pittsburgh in the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the center of it all was the rookie running back from Penn State, Franco Harris.