Antedating of "Hail Mary pass" (1974)

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:45 PM -0500 12/3/03, Dave Wilton wrote:
>It appears that Staubach did originate it.
>
>I'm a bit surprised that HDAS only has it from '82. It's one of the all-time
>classic plays in football and even a casual fan can date the term to 12 Dec
>1975 when Staubach threw a desperation, last minute pass to Drew Pearson,
>who caught it and ran it into the end zone. Dallas beat Minnesota, 17-14,
>taking the Divisional Title.

Playoff game on 12 Dec?  The Hail Mary in question, whether or not it
was the first cite, happened later in the season; both the fact that
it was a playoff game and the fact that I remember watching it live
(well, live on TV) during the LSA conference suggest that it happened
between Christmas and New Years', when we used to meet.  Dec. 27 or
28, maybe?  (According to my computer calendar, those would have been
the relevant weekend days.)

>  Vikings' Cornerback Nate Wright claimed that
>Pearson committed offensive pass interference, but the officials never
>called the foul. After the game, Staubach said, "it was just a Hail Mary
>pass, a very, very lucky play." Evidently as Mr. Clements has discovered,
>this was not the first time Staubach used the term. (Some years later,
>Pearson admitted that he had indeed committed interference.)
>
>The other famous '70s football play that uses Marian word play is the
>"Immaculate Reception." 23 Dec 1972, losing 7-6 with about a minute left,
>Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw threw a pass to halfback John Fuqua. Fuqua was
>hit by Raider defenseman as he was catching the ball. It bounced off his
>hands, hit another player, and bounced into the hands of Steeler running
>back Franco Harris, who ran the ball 42 yards for a touchdown, winning the
>game. Some claimed that the ball hit the ground before bouncing into
>Harris's hands--which would have been the end of the play, but the refs
>didn't call it and the camera angles are inconclusive. (Unlike Pearson,
>Harris has never admitted the ball hit the ground, but he does smile and
>wink when people bring up the subject.) The term "Immaculate Reception" was
>first used by Myron Cope, the Steelers' radio announcer later that night.
>The term was suggested by a fan, Michael Ord.

I'm pretty sure that history is a bit off too.  At the time, the NFL
rules prohibited two offensive players touching a pass consecutively
(without a defender touching it between the two), so no passes could
be batted or tipped accidentally or deliberately by one receiver to
another.  The Raiders maintained the ball was indeed touched by Fuqua
and then Franco Harris, which would have been illegal; the Steelers
maintained that the referee correctly ruled the ball was batted by
defensive back Art ("They Call Me 'Assassin'") Tatum.  Later replays
were inconclusive, but on the question of who tapped the ball back to
Harris, Fuqua or Tatum, but the preponderance of the evidence is that
the refs got it wrong.  Nobody to my knowledge claimed the ball hit
the ground before making it into Harris's hands, and the replays do
make it clear the ball never touched the ground; the question was
whether two Steelers touched it in a row, which would have resulted
in an all too maculate reception.  Since then the rules (like the LSA
meeting dates) have been changed, so that the pass would have been
been a legal reception on either the Raiders' or Steelers' account of
the events, but it would have been a lot less memorable.

Larry