If you have been around as long as I have, you have undoubtedly experienced your share of weird, strange, and downright bizarre moments in Pittsburgh Steelers history. Some moments are etched in one's memory and are remembered fondly, while others are remembered with contempt.
I prefer to remember those weird, strange, and bizarre moments fondly. Many of said moments altered the course of a game, while others altered the course of a season. For me, there is only one weird moment in Steelers history that is the crown jewel of jewels.
You may have figured out to which moment I am referring, but before we delve into our discussion, indulge me a bit while I preface the moment we will be lauding. Every franchise can point to some moment in time that defined it. For the Steelers, it is a moment that propelled the franchise into the future, so to speak.
The course of Pittsburgh Steelers history was forever transformed by a single, improbable play
By now, you have probably surmised the weirdest moment in Steelers history. It is none other than, you guessed it, the Immaculate Reception. Every Steelers fan knows or, at least, should know about the Immaculate Reception.
Before we get into the weird aspects of the play, let's summarize what transpired. In 1972, the Steelers advanced to the AFC Divisional Round, where we squared off against our nemesis, the then-Oakland Raiders, at Three Rivers Stadium.
In what I would label as a hard-fought game, we found ourselves trailing late in the fourth quarter by one point. On fourth down and ten yards to go, Terry Bradshaw threw a desperation pass to John "Frenchy" Fuqua, which took a fortuitous ricochet back to Franco Harris.
Harris made a shoestring catch en route to the endzone and to a victory. Although we would lose to the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game, that single, improbable play forever changed the Steelers' fortunes for the decade of the 1970s.
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Here's what I find weird, if you will, about the play and about the extraneous elements of the play. First, Jim Clack was the center on that play. Clack was in his second season with the Steelers and played both center and guard during his Steelers career, but our veteran center, Ray Mansfield, was not on the field.
I don't know why Mansfield was not out there, but I thought that was weird. Second, the play itself seemed to be doomed from the start. The protection was not very good. Bradshaw was scrambling and, almost out of desperation, threw the ball to Fuqua.
Harris was leaking out of the backfield and appeared to be more open than Fuqua, but maybe that's just my perspective. Nonetheless, I found that to be weird as well. Another element I found to be weird was that Art Rooney, Sr., 'the Chief', had already left the press box in anticipation that the result would be a loss for his team.
Imagine the jubilation he must have felt to have discovered that his team turned almost certain defeat into an improbable victory. As I stated earlier, the Immaculate Reception was truly the catalyst for the victories that the Steelers would enjoy during the decade of the 1970s.