WTAE confirms Franco Harris has died.
- Thread starter happjack
- Start date
I can't help but wonder what the diehard raider faithful that refuse to believe it was a legal play think about the timing of his death. I worked with a few of them over the years. I am guessing they are feeling good this morning.
Fun story, my dad and his family watched it live on WJAC. However, he grew up in the Johnstown neighborhood of Oakland so he was a Raiders fan because he thought they played right down the road when he was young. Safe to say he was likely the only person in Western PA not happy when Franco scored!
People in Indiana, PA were able to watch it. I have the audio tapes to prove it. My grandpa had to miss the game because he was in the mines. My grandma put a tape recorder up against the TV so he could listen when he got home. Maybe my tape is a figment of my imagination though? I have tapes of Super Bowls 9 and 13 as well as a partial of a Pirates WS game.
I have no idea how you did but maybe you did. Probably worth listening to again and hearing the call signals of the station.
I emailed WJAC to see if they know. Tim Rigby might be old enough. Bill Wilson and Ron Stephenson are dead , I think.
I’m not sure what influence from other factors you’re referring to. I just have a bad memory I guess of where I watched it live, or as you’re certain of, I didn’t watch it live.
So the consensus is that no one saw the game versus the Raiders live....kinda like how Franco couldn't see that Jerry and Joe covered up child rape.
It was definitely sold out. But there used to be a rule that all games must be sold out 72 hours prior to the game. So the game was on a Saturday, and remember then the season ticket base didn't take up 80-85% of the tickets. So I think that is why it wasn't televised. I mean I was 6 so wasn't exactly analyzing TV and ticket sales then.
As for Franco, I think the best description is the fact that is probably as famous and as recognizable of an athlete/personality in Pittsburgh history. But Franco walked amongst us. No special entrances, no entourage shielding him from the crowd. He could be that guy in the Strip walking next to you buying a loaf of bread. He didn't have a "back room" at restaurants he sat with the rest of us. I think this says alot about the person.
The 72 hour rule didn’t start until 1973, up until then home games were blacked out no matter what. Washington having their home games blacked out in 1972 got everyone in DC talking about the NFL’s anti-trust exemption, that’s why the league changed the rule.
nope...my father was also a diehard Raider fan. I think he identified with Blanda....Hated all Pittsburgh teams (I think it stemmed from a long forgotten Pirates screwing Johnstown out of a minor league affiliate deal in 1932 or some such thing---man could hold a grudge) except for Pitt and absolutely loathed Penn State...As for me eventually the acorns for the Pirates and Steelers moved far away from that tree but the Pitt Love/PSU hate one is still snug up against the trunk...Fun story, my dad and his family watched it live on WJAC. However, he grew up in the Johnstown neighborhood of Oakland so he was a Raiders fan because he thought they played right down the road when he was young. Safe to say he was likely the only person in Western PA not happy when Franco scored!
Vegas? I was watching some of their game last week, made me wonder? Do they still have all the crazy fans in the crazy outfits? Is Oakland close enough that maybe some diehards would drive out to Vegas for games? Raiders always had the wildest fans in crazy costumes in Oakland.
No doubt Madden was upset that Franco got a meal he didn't get.
THE RETURN OF FREE MEAL FRANCO | 105.9 The X | Mark Madden
Why the heck is Penn State alumnus Franco Harris in the middle of so many Pitt Hall of Fame pictures?1059thex.iheart.com
Back in that same timeframe, I used to hitch hike home from high school football practice. I think about that nowadays how that definitely was a different era.
I could be wrong, but my recollection is that it wasn't sold out. (Incredible now, but Steeler sellouts were rare back then.)
Sad to hear Franco has passed. Great athlete and was part of one of the most iconic plays in sports history. watching the video of the play the Raiders in the area stop momentarily and then chase after Franco. If one of them continues to chase after Franco there is no way he scores and the game is forgotten.
Yeah the d-back standing near Tatum jumped up to celebrate, then quickly turns in pursuit of Franco when he realizes what was happening. He doesn't do that little celebration he may have been able to make the play
I was really hoping not to see this take. Franco was a central part of so many iconic Pittsburgh sports memories. I was a kid in the '70's, and the "Super Steelers" were larger than life. Bigger than sports heroes now, where the sports landscape is more crowded and diverse. After his playing days, he was a solid citizen and fixture at charitable events. While he zealously defended Paterno, there was more to Paterno's career and legacy than Sandusky. I can understand Franco's lived experience, even if his devotion seemed extreme.
Franco enriched Pittsburgh greatly and deserves better than a punchline.
Well said. Franco gave a helluva a lot more to the city of Pittsburgh than we can ever repay. Always there when he was needed.
I live north and one late work evening in the 90s I stopped at the (now gone) Boston Market on McKnight Road to grab a late dinner. No drive thru there so you had to walk in. About 8:00 PM maybe. I walked in. Only one other customer was in there that late. It was Franco, just sitting in there, eating Boston Market, all alone. I had loved him as a kid and I was star stuck to be honest. So I was able to stammer “Hey Franco, I’m a huge fan” or something similarly brilliant. He smiled and gave a little wave. I stumbled out.
Okay. Thanks for the clarification. I never even knew there was a blackout rule until I went to college, and we were in Buffalo's viewing area, and on a Monday night game, it was blacked out in Erie because it was sold out. All my life the Steelers were sold out (at least my life as I was old enough to watch the games on TV)
The name confused many until he became more famous. I recall when he was at Penn State, many a sportscaster referred to him as "O'Harris", as in "the backfield of Mitchell and O'Harris".
Most folks here probably aren't old enough to remember this, but there was a time when no sports teams allowed or even wanted their home games to be on television. Everyone thought that if you allowed home games on television that it would completely eviscerate your live gate. Even if the game sold out, putting it on television would cause people who had tickets to stay home, and people who stayed home weren't buying programs and hot dogs and beers inside the venue And that cost teams money. Money that they, for the most part, did not make up with television money, because television money wasn't anything like it is today.
People need to go look at MLB attendance in the 70's. Spare me the "baseball sucks" comments. But you had franchises like San Fran, Atlanta, Philly, etc...with many of games attendance under 10K.
With the rise of televised sports, so did attendance. It is amazing how the opposite worked against the conventional stance back then.
Yeah, it turned out that all those 2-1/2 to 3 hour "advertisements" for the product made people want to see it live more, not less.
The Chicago Blackhawks were the last holdout. Bill Wirtz, their owner, was the last of the team owners who refused to allow any home games to be televised. Their fans absolutely despised him. He died in the late 00s and his son took over the team, and that was one of the first changes that he made.
I have been critical of Franco because as I posted a month or two ago, if he had his way the Penguins would no longer be in Pittsburgh. But he was my idle when I was a kid, what you say about him is absolutely true. He is football royalty. And as Sal Palontonio says here, it was the Steelers and Franco that launched the NFL, sports television, and ESPN into the cultural phenomenon they all are.
So in a way it was Franco ironically who changed the rule because sports television was growing and changing in the 70’s, and it was the immaculate reception that really started it.
