Before Becoming A Hero Franco Harris was born on March 7, 1950 in Fort Dix, New Jersey.  He played football all the time as a kid.  Harris played Running Back.  Franco received scholarships from all over the nation.  They included Boston College, Penn State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, and many others.  He chose to attend Penn State.  As a freshman he scored in every game.

After College       After a very successful college career, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Franco Harris.  He went on to win four Super Bowls with Steelers.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990.

The Immaculate Reception             Franco Harris performed one of the most memorable plays in National Football League History.  It just happened to occur at the best possible time… the AFC Championship against, long time rival, the Oakland Raiders.  The score was 7-6 Oakland.  The Pittsburgh Steelers were on their own 20-yard line and they were passing on every down to get into the end zone.  With ten seconds to go the quarterback threw a blinding pass to Frenchy Fuqua, who was one of his receivers.  Fuqua leaped for the ball, but he was hit hard by the defender and then the ball hit off the defenders head and took a seven yard bounce right in Franco Harris’ direction and he scooped it up and ran it for a 42 yard touchdown with time expiring to win the game.

Career Rushing Statistics             Franco Harris has some very good rushing stats.  He carried the ball 2,949 times.  He racked up 12,120 rushing yards.  He had an unheard of 91 touchdowns.  In Franco’s play-off career he ran for 16 touchdowns.  He totaled up 1,555 yards.  In the Super Bowl he ran for 4 touchdowns and ball 101 times.

Career Receiving Statistics              Harris caught the ball 307 times. He converted those receptions into 2,287 receiving yards and 9 of those were touchdowns.