RIP Franco Harris

Man, I can't believe he died when they were retiring his jersey and celebrating The Immaculate Reception this week.

I blather on sometimes about famous people I played hoops with and against, like The Blaze and Cindy Haugejorde and John Amaechi and the Parkhill boys. But I never got to play against Franco Harris. When Harris visited Penn State's Rec Hall after he retired to play pickup, he was always on Court One, which was for Division 1 type players, while I was almost always on Court Two or Three (there were four courts). The man could hoop pretty good for a football player with stubby legs. We'd sit in the bleachers and watch him play.

Time passes quickly. Stunning, really.

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Originally Posted by redietz

Man, I can't believe he died when they were retiring his jersey and celebrating The Immaculate Reception this week.

I blather on sometimes about famous people I played hoops with and against, like The Blaze and Cindy Haugejorde and John Amaechi and the Parkhill boys. But I never got to play against Franco Harris. When Harris visited Penn State's Rec Hall after he retired to play pickup, he was always on Court One, which was for Division 1 type players, while I was almost always on Court Two or Three (there were four courts). The man could hoop pretty good for a football player with stubby legs. We'd sit in the bleachers and watch him play.

Time passes quickly. Stunning, really.

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I played college basketball - wanted to play for a major college but wasn't good enough

I was raised in the DC area and lived on DC playgrounds

I can't brag about myself as a player - so many were better than me

but I can brag about some of the players I got to get out on the same court with:



Elgin Baylor, Austin Carr, John Thompson, James Brown the CBS Sports talking head who starred at Dematha and then Harvard - and several others not quite at that level



my small college - 2,700 students - ridiculously scheduled Pitt - 35,000 students there and Penn State also - I guess Pitt and Penn State saw it as a practice game - just a workout



my claim to fame:

I had a 3 point play on Billy Knight - an All American at Pitt and an NBA and ABA All Star

maybe some won't believe it - I don't have video - it was pretty far back in the day - but even if people don't believe it - it's okay - I know it happened

the funny thing about the play - he didn't foul me - he didn't even touch me - just came close - but the ref called it



.

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Originally Posted by Half Smoke

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Originally Posted by redietz

Man, I can't believe he died when they were retiring his jersey and celebrating The Immaculate Reception this week.

I blather on sometimes about famous people I played hoops with and against, like The Blaze and Cindy Haugejorde and John Amaechi and the Parkhill boys. But I never got to play against Franco Harris. When Harris visited Penn State's Rec Hall after he retired to play pickup, he was always on Court One, which was for Division 1 type players, while I was almost always on Court Two or Three (there were four courts). The man could hoop pretty good for a football player with stubby legs. We'd sit in the bleachers and watch him play.

Time passes quickly. Stunning, really.

---

I played college basketball - wanted to play for a major college but wasn't good enough

I was raised in the DC area and lived on DC playgrounds

I can't brag about myself as a player - so many were better than me

but I can brag about some of the players I got to get out on the same court with:



Elgin Baylor, Austin Carr, John Thompson, James Brown the CBS Sports talking head who starred at Dematha and then Harvard - and several others not quite at that level



my small college - 2,700 students - ridiculously scheduled Pitt - 35,000 students there and Penn State also - I guess Pitt and Penn State saw it as a practice game - just a workout



my claim to fame:

I had a 3 point play on Billy Knight - an All American at Pitt and an NBA and ABA All Star

maybe some won't believe it - I don't have video - it was pretty far back in the day - but even if people don't believe it - it's okay - I know it happened

the funny thing about the play - he didn't foul me - he didn't even touch me - just came close - but the ref called it



.

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That's very cool. And I did not know James Brown starred at Dematha and Harvard. I had no idea. Thanks for those details.

I was never any good, but I was smart enough to fit in with better players when called upon. On a few occasions, when teams were scrounging for a fifth player on Court One at PSU, they'd pick me up. I could survive because night ball at Rec Hall was all 2-3 zone defense because if you won you stayed on, and nobody wanted to expend a lot of energy. So as long as I didn't have to play man against a real player, I was okay. My dad, who was about 6'1, played center for one of the PSU branch campuses. He had all of those 1950's moves.

My most fun at PSU playing ball was some beer-sponsored major event with three-on-three and two-on-two tournaments. Two really good players who had signed up for the two-on-two needed a third for the three-on-three. I didn't know either of them; I was just hanging around, working out at the IM building. So they took me off the street and we won the thing. The worst beating I ever took at PSU was in an IM game versus a team with two all A-10 forwards (Tom Hovasse and Bruce Blake) on the other team. They were practicing to play in Europe. Plus that team had that Jets TB from PSU, Blair Thomas, and they had a guy better than those players, but he was about 350 pounds so he was only good for about five trips up and down. Worst basketball court beating ever. But fun. I got to guard Bruce Blake for about half the game. LOL. He could have scored on every possession, but he was working on his jump shot.

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Originally Posted by redietz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Half Smoke

Quote:

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Originally Posted by redietz

Man, I can't believe he died when they were retiring his jersey and celebrating The Immaculate Reception this week.

I blather on sometimes about famous people I played hoops with and against, like The Blaze and Cindy Haugejorde and John Amaechi and the Parkhill boys. But I never got to play against Franco Harris. When Harris visited Penn State's Rec Hall after he retired to play pickup, he was always on Court One, which was for Division 1 type players, while I was almost always on Court Two or Three (there were four courts). The man could hoop pretty good for a football player with stubby legs. We'd sit in the bleachers and watch him play.

Time passes quickly. Stunning, really.

---

I played college basketball - wanted to play for a major college but wasn't good enough

I was raised in the DC area and lived on DC playgrounds

I can't brag about myself as a player - so many were better than me

but I can brag about some of the players I got to get out on the same court with:



Elgin Baylor, Austin Carr, John Thompson, James Brown the CBS Sports talking head who starred at Dematha and then Harvard - and several others not quite at that level



my small college - 2,700 students - ridiculously scheduled Pitt - 35,000 students there and Penn State also - I guess Pitt and Penn State saw it as a practice game - just a workout



my claim to fame:

I had a 3 point play on Billy Knight - an All American at Pitt and an NBA and ABA All Star

maybe some won't believe it - I don't have video - it was pretty far back in the day - but even if people don't believe it - it's okay - I know it happened

the funny thing about the play - he didn't foul me - he didn't even touch me - just came close - but the ref called it



.

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That's very cool. And I did not know James Brown starred at Dematha and Harvard. I had no idea. Thanks for those details.

I was never any good, but I was smart enough to fit in with better players when called upon. On a few occasions, when teams were scrounging for a fifth player on Court One at PSU, they'd pick me up. I could survive because night ball at Rec Hall was all 2-3 zone defense because if you won you stayed on, and nobody wanted to expend a lot of energy. So as long as I didn't have to play man against a real player, I was okay. My dad, who was about 6'1, played center for one of the PSU branch campuses. He had all of those 1950's moves.

My most fun at PSU playing ball was some beer-sponsored major event with three-on-three and two-on-two tournaments. Two really good players who had signed up for the two-on-two needed a third for the three-on-three. I didn't know either of them; I was just hanging around, working out at the IM building. So they took me off the street and we won the thing. The worst beating I ever took at PSU was in an IM game versus a team with two all A-10 forwards (Tom Hovasse and Bruce Blake) on the other team. They were practicing to play in Europe. Plus that team had that Jets TB from PSU, Blair Thomas, and they had a guy better than those players, but he was about 350 pounds so he was only good for about five trips up and down. Worst basketball court beating ever. But fun. I got to guard Bruce Blake for about half the game. LOL. He could have scored on every possession, but he was working on his jump shot.

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since you seemed to have some interest I will tell you a funny story - hilarious to me anyway - about playground basketball

Austin Carr showed up at our local courts and we were playing full court with him

a local kid from my neighborhood who had ZERO game - didn't even play in Junior h.s. - got into the game somehow

he didn't even know who Austin Carr was - but he heard somebody call him Austin

whenever Carr had the ball this idiot would start yelling "Austin, Austin - I'm open - I'm open - I'm wide open"

here is this punk no game nobody telling Austin Carr - one of the greatest college players of all time - that he should throw him the ball

I must have told this story to 50 people - when I saw it happen I was doubled over with laughter - I had to leave the court to pull myself together



.

Sorry to interrupt you guys and your reminiscing, but I did want to comment on the so called immaculate reception. Obviously before my time, but I certainly have seen the clip a number of times. With Franco Harris's passing, clips are again front and center, so I tried to take a fresh look. Detractors have 2 points as to why the play shouldn't have counted. the first being the Oakland defender claiming he never touched the ball, and back in 1972, the rule was that two offensive players couldn't touch the ball consecutively, without a defender touching it in between.

I didn't slow it down and go frame by frame, as replay would, if this happened today, but it certainly looks like the ball went off the defender or at least the defender and initial receiver simultaneously, so I don't see that argument at all. Second argument is that the ball touched the ground before Harris caught it. I can't see that on the clips I saw today, as the ball bounces out of the frame. perhaps there is a better angle, although I suspect less angles back then.

But I did see something I don't remember being discussed. It looks to me like after Harris caught the ball and was heading towards the endzone that #89 on Pittsburgh blocks a Raider from behind. It is very close. He is running at the Raider from the side, but with the Raider player sort of running way from #89 and towards Harris, it looks like a block in the back to me. Of course if it wasn't called on the field, even replay wouldn't change anything.

Just some observations for discussion.....or not.

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Originally Posted by kewlJ

Sorry to interrupt you guys and your reminiscing, but I did want to comment on the so called immaculate reception. Obviously before my time, but I certainly have seen the clip a number of times. With Franco Harris's passing, clips are again front and center, so I tried to take a fresh look. Detractors have 2 points as to why the play shouldn't have counted. the first being the Oakland defender claiming he never touched the ball, and back in 1972, the rule was that two offensive players couldn't touch the ball consecutively, without a defender touching it in between.

I didn't slow it down and go frame by frame, as replay would, if this happened today, but it certainly looks like the ball went off the defender or at least the defender and initial receiver simultaneously, so I don't see that argument at all. Second argument is that the ball touched the ground before Harris caught it. I can't see that on the clips I saw today, as the ball bounces out of the frame. perhaps there is a better angle, although I suspect less angles back then.

But I did see something I don't remember being discussed. It looks to me like after Harris caught the ball and was heading towards the endzone that #89 on Pittsburgh blocks a Raider from behind. It is very close. He is running at the Raider from the side, but with the Raider player sort of running way from #89 and towards Harris, it looks like a block in the back to me. Of course if it wasn't called on the field, even replay wouldn't change anything.

Just some observations for discussion.....or not.

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I always assumed the ball hit the ground a bit as Harris caught it. Can't see it from the replays, but that would've been my speculation.

And I distinctly remember Austin Carr -- I watched the game where he tortured UCLA and broke their winning streak. He was unconscious. When I would go to the playground as a kid and take long shots that I thought would go in, I would say, "Austin CARRRRRRRRRR!"