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View Full Version : The Steelers Immaculate Reception: The play that changed a city



polamalubeast
09-17-2012, 11:15 PM
They walked with heads held high, harboring dreams imagined in black and gold, marching to the peculiar orders of the times.

A movement was beginning. That day, 50,000 people passed through the doors of Three Rivers Stadium, the massive concrete structure looming just west of the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, this time hoping that the Steelers, after 40 irrelevant seasons, were finally taking them somewhere worth going.

Each person in the stadium had his or her own dramas outside of it. There was the war that seemingly would not end, the intensifying of racial tensions across the city and, for those who were paying close enough attention, the fear that those hulking mills that lined the rivers were not going to be needed forever. But, the Steelers were host to the Oakland Raiders in the first round of the NFL playoffs, and such pressing matters could be thrust to the back burner for the good of Pittsburgh.

On Dec. 23, 1972, at 1 p.m., the clock stopped ticking.

It suddenly wasn't important that Jim Palochik, who sat next to his wife, Karen, near the 45-yard line, had just returned to his hometown of Arnold, Pa., from a one-year stint as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, followed by two years of duty in Germany. Palochik, whose father was a welder in the mill, never questioned whether he should fight for his country when his name was called, and his loyalties didn't waver even after his co-pilot died in battle. He was glad to be home, and he would settle in the neighborhood where he was raised. He called it his "Linus blanket syndrome."


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/steelers/immaculate-reception-the-play-that-changed-a-city-652468/#ixzz26n8Azvqa


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xMDIcsUMmA