Antedating of "Hail Mary pass" (1974)

[Sam Clements]

!5 yards on Wilton for mangling the date!.

Horn gets the ball at the 9 yard line.  First and ten.

It was Sunday, Dec. 28, 1975.

But my antedating of that still stands.

SC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 11:46 PM
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Hail Mary pass" (1974)


> 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
>