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SPORTS Thursday 22 december 2022
Franco Harris, Steeler who caught Immaculate Reception, dies

By WILL GRAVES veiled. Villapiano still plans
AP Sports Writer to attend Saturday night’s
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Franco jersey retirement ceremony
Harris, the Hall of Fame run- for his former rival-turned-
ning back whose heads- friend, and is just fine with
up thinking authored the the mystery that still sur-
“Immaculate Reception,” rounds what actually hap-
considered the most iconic pened at 3:29 p.m. on Dec.
play in NFL history, has died. 23, 1972.
He was 72. “There’s so many angles
Harris’ son, Dok, told The As- and so many things. No-
sociated Press on Wednes- body will ever figure that
day that his father died out,” Villapiano said. “Let’s
overnight. No cause of let it go on forever.”
death was given. While the Steelers fell the
His death comes two days next week to Miami in the
before the 50th anniver- AFC championship, Pitts-
sary of the play that pro- burgh was on its way to be-
vided the jolt that helped coming the dominant team
transform the Steelers from of the 1970s, twice winning
also-rans into the NFL’s elite back-to-back Super Bowls,
and three days before Pitts- first after the 1974 and 1975
burgh is scheduled to retire Pittsburgh Steelers’ Franco Harris (32) eludes a tackle by Oakland Raiders’ Jimmy Warren as seasons and again after
his No. 32 during a ceremo- he runs 42-yards for a touchdown after catching a deflected pass during an AFC Divisional NFL the 1978 and 1979 seasons.
ny at halftime of its game football playoff game in Pittsburgh on Dec. 23, 1972. And it all began with a play
against the Las Vegas Raid- Associated Press that shifted the fortunes of
ers. Harris had been busy in back in so many ways. He back Frenchy Fuqua. cade history. “That play re- a franchise and, in some
the run-up to the celebra- touched so many, and he Fuqua and Oakland de- ally represents our teams of ways, a region.
tion, doing media inter- was loved by so many.” fensive back Jack Tatum the ‘70s,” Harris said after Harris, the 6-foot-2,
views on Monday to talk Harris ran for 12,120 yards collided, sending the ball the “Immaculate Recep- 230-pound workhorse from
about a moment to which and won four Super Bowl careening back toward tion” was voted the great- Penn State, found himself
he is forever linked. rings with the Pittsburgh midfield in the direction est play in NFL history during in the center of it all. He
“It is difficult to find the ap- Steelers in the 1970s, a dy- of Harris. Game officials the league’s 100th anniver- churned for a then-record
propriate words to describe nasty that began in earnest weren’t sure who deflect- sary season in 2020. 158 yards rushing and a
Franco Harris’ impact on when Harris decided to ed the pass; replays were Though the Raiders cried touchdown in Pittsburgh’s
the Pittsburgh Steelers, his keep running during a last- inconclusive. foul in the moment, over 16-6 victory over Minnesota
teammates, the City of second heave by Steelers While nearly everyone time they somewhat em- in Super Bowl IX on his way
Pittsburgh and Steelers Na- quarterback Terry Brad- else on the field stopped, braced their role in NFL lore. to winning the game’s Most
tion,” team President Art shaw in a playoff game Harris kept his legs churn- Oakland linebacker Phil Vil- Valuable Player award.
Rooney II said in a state- against Oakland in 1972. ing, snatching the ball just lapiano, who was covering He scored at least once
ment. “From his rookie sea- With Pittsburgh trailing 7-6 inches above the Three Harris on the play, even at- in three of the four Super
son, which included the and facing fourth-and-10 Rivers Stadium turf near the tended a 40th-anniversary Bowls he played in, and his
Immaculate Reception, from its own 40-yard line Oakland 45, then outrac- celebration of the play in 354 career yards rushing on
through the next 50 years, and 22 seconds remain- ing several stunned Raider 2012, when a small monu- the NFL’s biggest stage re-
Franco brought joy to peo- ing in the fourth quarter, defenders to give the Steel- ment commemorating the mains a record nearly four
ple on and off the field. Bradshaw drifted back ers their first playoff victory exact location of Harris’ his- decades after his retire-
He never stopped giving and threw deep to running in the franchise’s four-de- tory-altering catch was un- ment. q

Russian hurdler stripped of 2012 Olympics gold for doping

MONACO (AP) — Russian “proceed with the reallo- ings in a number of cases
400-meter hurdler Natalya cation of medals and the that came out of Russia’s
Antyukh will lose her gold update of the IOC data- state-sponsored doping
medal from the 2012 Lon- base.” scandal.
don Games due to dop- Zuzana Hejnová of the At the London Games, An-
ing, putting American Lash- Czech Republic and Ka- tyukh finished in 52.70 sec-
inda Demus in position to liese Spencer of Jamaica onds, lowering her personal
be named the champion are in line to receive silver best by .22 to beat Demus
more than a decade after and bronze. by .07. Demus, who also
the race. AIU said Antyukh, who had won world championships
The Athletics Integrity Unit, already been serving a in 2011, stopped compet-
which oversees doping four-year ban, received ing in 2016.
cases in track and field, the added sanction of hav- In an email exchange with
announced Wednesday ing the 2012 results stripped NBC Sports when the initial
that Antyukh had not ap- because of evidence that decision was released, De-
pealed a penalty handed came from a database mus said “I’m not afraid to
down two months ago that kept at the Moscow anti- say that I then deserve the Russia’s Natalya Antyukh, right, powers ahead of United States’
included the stripping of doping laboratory. Though official title, medal, recog- Lashinda Demus to win gold in the women’s 400-meter hurdles
her results from July 2012 AIU offered no specifics, nition, and missed com- final during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012
through June 2013. The AIU data from that lab was pensation that goes along Summer Olympics in London, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.
said the IOC could now used to corroborate find- with it all.”q Associated Press