A statue at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) celebrating a much-loved local football hero became an impromptu public memorial to his life and career on Wednesday.
The airport, operated by the Allegheny County Airport Authority, is home to a Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame sculpture running back against Franco Harris; it depicts him performing the play “Immaculate Reception” in 1972 which is considered the best play in NFL history.
Harris died suddenly on Tuesday night. His death comes just days before he, the city of Pittsburgh and football fans everywhere prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the famous play.
Since the statue was installed in 2005, passengers have stopped to take pictures next to the sculpture. On Wednesday, however, passengers began leaving flowers, Pittsburgh Steelers hats, yellow “terrible scarves” and other items in memory of Harris by the statue.
To make it easier for people to pay their respects, PIT airport staff moved the statue from its post-security location by train on Level 1. Currently, the statue is placed in an easily accessible post-security location. than the airport’s resort tree front in the central core airport campus. There is a condolence book on a nearby table, and the airport plans to deliver the notebook and messages from fans to the Harris family.
The Immaculate Reception was a deflected pass that Harris picked up and made for a touchdown on December 23, 1972. It gave the Pittsburgh Steelers a surprise playoff win over the Oakland Raiders. Before Harris died, the PIT and NFL celebrated the play’s upcoming 50th anniversary with a social media campaign “#Francoing” asking people to post pictures of themselves posing like Franco.
Harris himself had an interview with the folks at PIT to mark the celebration and promote the campaign.
On Saturday, the Steelers are scheduled to play against the Raiders (now Las Vegas) at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh. The plan was to celebrate the match with Harris’s Immaculate Reception and the retirement of Harris’ shirt number, 32, in a halftime ceremony. That celebration remains on the agenda, but it will now include a special memorial service in honor of Franco Harris.
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For those who want to see the Immaculate Conception Reception, here is a NFL video of the play.
