{"id":1784547,"date":"2022-12-23T03:02:38","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T08:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1784547"},"modified":"2022-12-23T03:02:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T08:02:45","slug":"50-years-later-we-still-remember-the-immaculate-reception-and-the-great-roberto-clemente","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/50-years-later-we-still-remember-the-immaculate-reception-and-the-great-roberto-clemente\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years Later, We Still Remember The \u2018Immaculate Reception\u2019 And The Great Roberto Clemente"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F50-years-later-we-still-remember-the-immaculate-reception-and-the-great-roberto-clemente%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1784547&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Franco-Harris-of-the-Pittsburgh-Steelers-1200x647-1.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Even in death, Franco Harris still had an uncanny sense of timing. The demise of the Hall of Fame running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who passed away Tuesday night at the age of 72, comes mere days before Pittsburgh, and the nation, will commemorate one of the iconic moments in pro football history. The man who played \u201cJohnny on the spot\u201d to help his team to a miraculous victory half a century ago reinforced the bond between certain athletes and the cities in which they play.<\/p>\n<p>For if ever a series of events demonstrated the way in which sports serve as a window into a region\u2019s civic culture, the last days of 1972 in the seat of Pennsylvania\u2019s Allegheny County provide as good an example as any.<\/p>\n<p>Within the span of just over a week, the city of Pittsburgh went from ecstatic celebrations over an improbable \u2014 and historic \u2014 victory in football\u2019s playoffs to losing not just a Hall of Fame baseball player but a local and national treasure. Half a century later, people from well outside the Steel City can and do commemorate both occasions \u2014 one of them epic, the other tragic.<\/p>\n<h2>A Historic Catch<\/h2>\n<p>It stands as perhaps the most famous play in professional football history and certainly the one with the best nickname. On Dec. 23, 1972, the \u201cImmaculate Reception,\u201d which topped the NFL\u2019s 100th-anniversary list of greatest plays, changed the trajectory of a previously hapless Pittsburgh Steelers franchise.<\/p>\n<p>Trailing the Oakland Raiders by one point in a playoff contest, but with mere seconds left in the game, Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw hurled a desperation pass in the direction of running back \u201cFrenchy\u201d Fuqua. The ball caromed \u2014 off of Fuqua and\/or Raiders defensive back Jack Tatum \u2014 straight into the hands of Harris, who sprinted down the sideline for the touchdown that won the game for Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the seemingly impossible and dramatic outcome, the reception also brought with it controversy. Under NFL rules at the time, if the ball had caromed solely off of Fuqua \u2014 as opposed to Tatum, or both Fuqua and Tatum \u2014 Harris\u2019s catch would have been illegal. Officials waited several minutes, and the head referee ducked into a dugout at Pittsburgh\u2019s Three Rivers Stadium before awarding the Steelers the touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>In an era before the NFL or other sports leagues authorized instant replay and before ubiquitous slow-motion cameras allowed for the dissection of plays from every angle, the \u201cImmaculate Reception\u201d holds its lure in part because no one really knows exactly what happened \u2014 who did or did not touch the ball during that fateful carom. Raider players have maintained for decades that Fuqua alone touched the ball; Steelers enthusiasts, the opposite. The NFL even got a professor of physics (who, it must be noted, worked for a Pittsburgh-based university) to analyze the ball\u2019s trajectory in the hopes of bringing an end to the controversy. Spoiler alert: It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>But neither side can dispute the way in which the \u201cImmaculate Reception\u201d marked a turning point in the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 fortunes. The game served as the franchise\u2019s first-ever playoff win \u2014 in their 40th season of operations. Thanks to the \u201cReception,\u201d the team gradually shed its image as loveable losers, going on to win four Super Bowls later in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>The site of the \u201cReception,\u201d Three Rivers Stadium, was imploded in 2001. But at the successor stadium, Heinz Field, the Raiders (who have since moved to Las Vegas) and Steelers will convene on Saturday night to renew their rivalry and commemorate one of the most famous plays in football history.<\/p>\n<p>Near Heinz Field, a statue marks the exact spot where Harris caught the famous pass half a century ago. It stands as a testament to the athletic greatness that awaited the Steelers following Harris\u2019s dramatic touchdown and the controversy surrounding the play that persists to this day.<\/p>\n<h2>A Tragic Loss<\/h2>\n<p>Not two weeks after celebrating the highs of a historic victory, the city of Pittsburgh lost one of its icons and an icon of American sport. Roberto Clemente perished on the evening of Dec. 31, 1972, in an airplane accident off the coast of his native Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n<p>The accident ended the Hall of Fame career of a 15-time All-Star, a right fielder who won 12 Gold Gloves for his fielding abilities and incredibly accurate throws. Clemente notched his 3,000th \u2014 and, as it happens, final \u2014 hit just three months before his death, joining an elite list of players reaching that milestone.<\/p>\n<p>While playing all 18 seasons in Pittsburgh, Clemente faced challenges as one of the first prominent Caribbean and Latin-American players in Major League Baseball. Persistent back and neck pain from a 1954 accident when a drunk driver plowed into his car prompted some sportswriters to (wrongly) think him lazy. But in time, the Pittsburgh community grew to appreciate the talent and heart of their star.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the strength of his achievements on the field, Roberto Clemente\u2019s greater accomplishments came when he was off the diamond. He served his country by spending six years in the Marine Corps Reserves. And he returned to Puerto Rico every offseason, keeping his links to the land of his birth and working to support his Latin American brethren.<\/p>\n<p>That spirit of service led to his untimely demise. On Dec. 23, 1972 \u2014 the very day of the \u201cImmaculate Reception\u201d \u2014 a massive earthquake struck Nicaragua. Clemente immediately began organizing rescue supplies for the victims but feared (correctly) that the corrupt government of Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza would siphon off the relief supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking Somoza and his henchmen were less likely to steal from Clemente himself, the star decided to accompany the next shipment of relief supplies to Nicaragua. His spirit of service, and dedication toward others, prompted Clemente to hop on board the rickety, overloaded DC-7 that took off on New Year\u2019s Eve, 1972. The plane soon disappeared from radar, and the bodies of Clemente and four others on board were never recovered amid the wreckage found in the Caribbean. <\/p>\n<p>American Experience ended its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/americanexperience\/films\/roberto-clemente\/#transcript\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">biography of Clemente<\/a> with a quote from one of his friends that elegantly captured the man\u2019s legacy: \u201cIf he had died as a player, only the sports fans would have remembered him. But while helping others, he would be remembered as a humanitarian.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Half a century later, people from well outside the Steel City can and do commemorate two occasions \u2014 one of them epic, the other tragic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":1784550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[10772,6962,10847,11322,6919,4917,8254,10390,3885,11321,3825,4346],"class_list":["post-1784547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-immaculate","tag-the","tag-and","tag-clemente","tag-federalist","tag-great","tag-later","tag-reception","tag-remember","tag-roberto","tag-still","tag-years"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1784547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1784550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1784547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1784547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1784547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}