{"id":68087,"date":"2022-09-06T22:09:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T22:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/pittsburgh-steelers-to-retire-franco-harris-no-32-to-honor-50th-anniversary-of-immaculate-reception\/"},"modified":"2022-09-06T22:09:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T22:09:24","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-to-retire-franco-harris-no-32-to-honor-50th-anniversary-of-immaculate-reception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/pittsburgh-steelers-to-retire-franco-harris-no-32-to-honor-50th-anniversary-of-immaculate-reception\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers to retire Franco Harris&#8217; No.  32 to honor 50th anniversary of Immaculate Reception"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>PITTSBURGH &#8212; As part of a weekend-long celebration to honor the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, the Steelers will retire the No.  32 jerseys of Franco Harris.<\/p>\n<p>The running back&#8217;s number is only the third to be retired by the Steelers, joining Ernie Stautner (70) and Joe Greene (75).  Harris is also the first Steelers offensive player to have his number retired.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Immaculate Reception marked the turning point in franchise history,&#8221; Steelers team president Art Rooney II said.  &#8220;My grandfather once was quoted saying, &#8216;Before Franco got here, we didn&#8217;t win much. Since he got here, we don&#8217;t lose.&#8217;  I think that sums it up pretty good. Franco&#8217;s impact on the franchise would be hard to overstate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An immaculate moment. <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/orSRV2M8N9\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/orSRV2M8N9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/steelers\/status\/1567210846652088322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">September 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Harris&#8217; number will be retired at halftime of the Dec.  24 primetime game against the Oakland Raiders.  The Steelers will also wear a special yellow patch on their jerseys honoring the 50th anniversary of the game.<\/p>\n<p>Rooney asked the NFL for a home game on the weekend of the Immaculate Reception anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I pointed out to them that we actually had the Raiders on our schedule this year, not thinking that they would actually put the Raiders in Pittsburgh that weekend,&#8221; Rooney said.  &#8220;So I was surprised when it happened.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The day before, on the actual anniversary of Harris&#8217; legendary play, the Steelers will hold a ceremony at 3:29 pm on the marker outside the stadium in the exact spot where Harris made the catch in 1972. The ceremony will be open to the public and attended by Harris, some of his teammates and former Raiders players Mike Siani and Phil Villapiano.  A replay of the radio broadcast will be available on the team website.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In my wildest dreams, I never expected it and, and it never crossed my mind,&#8221; Harris said of having his number retired.  &#8220;It just wasn&#8217;t something that was top of mind. The Steelers don&#8217;t retire numbers. So you don&#8217;t have any thoughts about it. And so when Art mentioned it to me, I was blown away. I mean, that was a wow moment and unbelievable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Not only did Harris snag the Immaculate Reception, he also was a part of four Super Bowls and was the Super Bowl IX MVP.  He also earned the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1972 and was named NFL Man of the Year in 1976. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No one saw the Steelers of the &#8217;70s coming,&#8221; Harris said.  &#8220;Nobody saw that, and it probably was beyond all expectations and dreams.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PITTSBURGH &#8212; As part of a weekend-long celebration to honor the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, the Steelers will retire the No. 32 jerseys of Franco Harris. The running back&#8217;s number is only the third to be retired by the Steelers, joining Ernie Stautner (70) and Joe Greene (75). Harris is also the first &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/pittsburgh-steelers-to-retire-franco-harris-no-32-to-honor-50th-anniversary-of-immaculate-reception\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pittsburgh Steelers to retire Franco Harris&#8217; No.  32 to honor 50th anniversary of Immaculate Reception<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[46,423,6855],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67926,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/steelers-to-retire-franco-harris-no-32\/","url_meta":{"origin":68087,"position":0},"title":"Steelers to retire Franco Harris&#8217; no.  32","date":"September 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Pittsburgh Steelers are retiring Franco Harris' no. 32.The Steelers already had a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception planned for the Raiders game on Dec. 24, but news of retiring Harris' number came Tuesday after Steelers President Art Rooney II was expected to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67934,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/steelers-to-retire-harris-number-32\/","url_meta":{"origin":68087,"position":1},"title":"Steelers to retire Harris&#8217; number &#8217;32&#8217;","date":"September 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Steelers announced on Tuesday that the team will retire Franco Harris' Number '32' in a halftime ceremony on December 24, when the team hosts the Las Vegas Raiders at Acrisure Stadium. That weekend the Steelers will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Immaculate Reception.\"I am thrilled we are going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35478,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/pittsburgh-steelers-hold-in-wr-diontae-johnson-agree-to-two-year-contract-extension\/","url_meta":{"origin":68087,"position":2},"title":"Pittsburgh Steelers, hold-in WR Diontae Johnson agree to two-year contract extension","date":"August 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PITTSBURGH -- Diontae Johnson got his deal.After a week-long hold-in at the Pittsburgh Steelers' training camp, the wide receiver and team reached a two-year extension that averages $18.355 million per year, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter and Kimberley Martin.The deal, worth up to $39.5 million if he reaches incentives, includes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13874,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/in-instagram-post-leveon-bell-wishes-2018-season-with-steelers-wouldve-played-out-differently\/","url_meta":{"origin":68087,"position":3},"title":"In Instagram Post, Le&#8217;Veon Bell Wishes 2018 Season With Steelers Would&#8217;ve &#8216;Played Out Differently&#8217;","date":"July 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In a heartfelt and honest Instagram post that strong hinted at his retirement, former Pittsburgh Steelers' running back Le'Veon Bell wrote he his 2018 season would've ended differently. 2018 was the year he skipped playing after opting against playing on the franchise tag after him and the Steelers failed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2015\/1216\/r36660_1296x729_16-9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}