The Immaculate Reception: 50 Years Later

December 23, 1972: As the clock ticked to under 30-second remaining, one down to go, and many yards to cover, we, part of the Steelers faithful fans, sat in the front row of the fifth deck of Three Rivers Stadium. Two days shy of my 18th birthday I was with my dad, Bob McCarthy; my brother, Bob; and my mother’s brother, my Uncle Dewey Milich. Each of us carried memories of prior seasons of campaigns waged and a divisional title never won.

I have memories of sitting in a Pitt Stadium (pre-Three Rivers) during a snow storm. As the Steelers' Buddy Parker defense lined up for a goal line stand, disgruntled fans pelted our players with snowballs.

The Steelers huddled and then took the line of scrimmage. Their backs were to us. Our end zone seats positioned high and slightly left of the goal post.

Before St. Vincent, I remember watching the Steelers pre-season, lightly attended practices at the South Park Fairgrounds. Defensive coaches Thurman “Fum” McGraw and then Lavern “Torgy” Torgeson were family friends so my dad would take my brother and me to watch. Or sometimes we rode our bikes to the Fairgrounds on our own. After practices, I recall the dirtied white jerseys and yellowish pants of players crossing the two lanes of Brownsville Road with little fanfare as they dodged cars to return to their parked cars. ?

Fourth down. Bradshaw stood over center surveying the field. He began barking out the count. This was the moment of truth. He dropped back and threw. The pass breakup was followed by a collective stadium-wide groan. We stood frozen in the chilling loss of yet another December defeat.

We began to gather our belongings. Seconds later, from the distant opposite endzone a wave of thunderous cheers began rolling toward us. Why were Steelers fans cheering? What happened? Our end of the stadium was clueless. From our respective high stadium perch we couldn’t follow the football into Franco’s outstretched hands or see his gaming winning cross into the endzone.

What? The scoreboard shows the Steelers ahead! Celebration erupted within and around us. My brother Bob recalls our Dad uncharacteristically leaping up and down in a rare emotional display. Gathering around any fan with a transistor radio we sought to listen and learn what happened. Ten minutes later as our fellow end zone fans and we triumphantly worked our way out of Three Rivers, we were remained unsure, yet jubilant.

My brother Bob and I recently talked about our experience of being in Three Rivers for The Immaculate Reception. We had no idea then that December 23, 1972 would be the pivotal point in the franchise trajectory for the Some Place Special Steelers. It didn’t matter. Our team finally won a divisional game! And that was sufficiently historic for these Steelers faithful.

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