JACK TATUM'S BREATH

By

Richard J. Noyes


Franco Harris was an all-Pro running back and a mainstay of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. His career rushing total and combined net yardage figure of 14,622 ranked as the third highest marks in pro football history at the time of his retirement.⁴⁶ Harris is also forever linked to a mythic play in his rookie year.

After years of struggling, the Steelers reached the 1972 AFC Divisional Playoffs against the potent Oakland Raiders. The visiting Steelers led 6-0 late in the game when Oakland backup quarterback and future star Kenny “The Snake” Stabler ran 30 yards for a touchdown. The Raiders kicked the point and led 7-6.

The Steelers got the ball back, but with 20 seconds remaining they had fourth down on their own 40-yard line. Quarterback Terry Bradshaw launched a pass downfield to Frenchy Fuqua who later said, “I could see (Jack) Tatum heading toward the middle of the field, and that the location of the pass would bring me on a collision course with him. I'm thinking that I just want to get my body between him and the ball. Now Bradshaw has released the ball, and here's Tatum. I hear his footsteps, then I hear his breath, then his heartbeat."

Tatum, the football, and Fuqua met simultaneously, and the force of the hit sent the ball ricocheting on the fly across the field. Franco Harris, who had followed the play out of the backfield, rescued the ball with his fingertips off his shoe tops, and never breaking stride dashed 60 yards for the most creative touchdown seen this side of Adelphia Coliseum.⁴⁷

The Raiders contested the touchdown claiming that two consecutive offensive players had touched the football making the play illegal. After a consultation with fellow officials, the referee called the touchdown good. The Steelers went on to lose the AFC Conference final to the Miami Dolphins who were on their way to a 17-0 season, the only perfect season in NFL history.

FRANCO HARRIS’S IMMACULATE RECEPTION was a catalyst for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his exemplary career as a ball carrier continued. The further development of Terry Bradshaw’s capabilities and leadership, strong draft picks like Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, and a steel-curtain defense led by Jack Lambert and Mean Joe Greene, gave the Steelers forceful playoff momentum, and they went on to win four Super Bowls in the 1970’s.

Jack Tatum, who wrote a book titled They Call Me Assassin, was one of the hardest-hitting defensive backs football has ever seen. In 1978, at the Oakland Coliseum, Tatum made a solid, head-on, colliding (legal) hit to the upper body of Patriots’ wide receiver Darryl Stingley. The collision broke Stingley’s neck as he extended to catch a pass in a dangerous crossing pattern. Later, Stingley said he knew he was paralyzed before hitting the ground. Tatum said soon after that he was just doing his job. Darryl Stingley lived 29 years as a quadraplegic and died at 55 from multiple causes many of which related to the collision and its dire consequences. Tatum and Stingley never reconciled.

SOURCES
46 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=89,
available as of 5/26/05
47 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, http://www.profootballhof.com/history/release.jsp?release_id=436, available as of 5/26/05


(Story excerpted from Guts in the Clutch. See below,)

Richard J. Noyes, former Associate Director, Center for Advanced Engineering Study, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a consultant to public and private sector organizations.

Noyes is the co-author with Pamela J. Robertson of Larceny of Love, a provocative print and eBook contemporary novel that traces the interwoven careers of three men in jeopardy (one of the men is a professional pitcher who suffers sudden, extreme, unexplained wildness) and the unforgettable women in their lives. Amazon print and e-Book. Nook and Google e-Books.

“Whenever dramatic storytelling about people you like is created around business, sports and film, I'm a happy reader. I'm sure you will be as well.” –Kevin Marcus, Real Estate Vice President

Another recent print and eBook by Richard Noyes and Pamela Robertson: Guts in the Clutch: 77 Legendary Triumphs, Heartbreaks, and Wild Finishes in 12 Sports, with a Foreword by Drew Olson of ESPN. Amazon print and e-Book. Nook and Google e-Books.

“The best compilation of fascinating sports stories I have read.” -David Houle, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer of documentaries on Hank Aaron and the Harlem Globetrotters.