Immaculate Reception: Steelers Wide Receiver Talks Life, Football and the Famous Play

By TIM JENSEN (Patch Staff)

WEST SIMSBURY, CT - Barry Pearson says he has no regrets about what might have been.

Sitting in the family room of his beautiful home in the quiet country setting of West Simsbury, the former wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers recently spent more than an hour with Patch editor Tim Jensen, discussing his life and football career, including his involvement in arguably the most memorable play in NFL history.

It was 1972, and Pearson, an undrafted rookie free agent out of Northwestern University, had spent the entire regular season on the Steelers’ taxi squad (today called the practice squad).

“I’d practice with the team every day during the week, and then would sit in the stands during the games,” he recalled.

His break came when Frank Lewis, one of the team’s top two receivers, was injured during the final regular season matchup against San Diego. With a first-round playoff game against Oakland looming just six days later, Pearson was elevated to the active roster.

Wearing number 83, his NFL debut consisted of playing on the special teams during kicking plays. He did not enter the offensive lineup until 22 seconds remained in the fourth quarter.

Pittsburgh trailed 7-6 and faced fourth down and 10 at their own 40 yard line, with elimination assured if they did not convert a first down. Head coach Chuck Noll called a pass play, 66 Circle Option, a 12-yard crossing pattern intended for Pearson.

Fate was about to intervene which would make household names of several participants.

As Pearson crossed the field in position to make a first-down catch, quarterback Terry Bradshaw faced heavy pressure from a pair of Raider linemen. He scrambled to escape their clutches, breaking up the diagrammed play, and heaved the ball downfield toward running back John “Frenchy” Fuqua.

In a sequence that is still hotly debated to this day, the ball caromed off either Fuqua or Oakland defensive back Jack Tatum (or both, as many argue). Out of nowhere, rookie running back Franco Harris snared the ricocheted ball and rumbled down the left sideline for a Pittsburgh touchdown and a 13-7 victory.

“All of a sudden I looked and saw Franco running in with the ball,” said Pearson, who quickly joined the joyous celebration behind the end zone.

Video credit: Nathan Baker via YouTube

The “Immaculate Reception” made instant celebrities of both Harris and Bradshaw, who would both find their way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A number of other people involved in that memorable game – including Noll, Raider coach John Madden, and Oakland defensive back Willie Brown (who was covering Pearson on the winning play) – also eventually wound up enshrined in Canton.

But what became of Pearson, the man for whom the play had been designed?

In his first full active season in 1973, he caught 23 passes for 317, a 13.8 average, and three touchdowns. His first scoring pass, a 46-yarder from backup quarterback Joe Gilliam, proved to be the winning points in a 21-16 win over defending Super Bowl runnerup Washington on Monday Night Football on Nov. 5, 1973.

In a playoff rematch with Oakland, he caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Bradshaw in the second quarter, but the Raiders prevailed, 33-14.

Prior to the 1974 season, the Steelers drafted a pair of future Hall of Fame wide receivers, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. With Lewis and Ronnie Shanklin still on the team, Pearson was deemed expendable and was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs for a conditional sixth-round draft pick.

“By conditional, it meant if I played at least half the time, the Steelers would get a sixth-round pick; if I didn’t, they would get an eighth-round pick,” Pearson recalled. “Needless to say, I only played part-time that season; they really didn’t want to give up that sixth-rounder.”

Despite starting only five games under future Hall of Fame head coach Hank Stram, Pearson improved his numbers from the previous year, grabbing 27 passes for 387 yards, a 14.3 yards-per-catch average. He also scored a touchdown, ironically against the Steelers.

Finally installed as a starter in 1975, Pearson produced his best offensive season, catching 36 passes for 608 yards (a 16.9 yards-per-reception average) and three touchdowns. Two of those scoring passes came from the arm of Len Dawson, in the final season of a 19-year career that also landed him in the Hall of Fame.

During training camp at William Jewell College in the summer of 1976, Pearson sustained an injury and played sparingly that season. After an unsuccessful attempt to come back in 1977, he retired from pro football at age 27.

He served as receivers coach at Oklahoma State University in 1979, under first-year head coach and future Super Bowl champion Jimmy Johnson. After that year, he had an unsuccessful interview with the NFL’s Detroit Lions, then returned to Connecticut, establishing a home in Avon, and began a new career with a food distribution company owned by his wife’s family, the Hartford Provision Company.

Pearson worked his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming president and CEO, a position he held for 20 years. After 35 years with the company, including overseeing a major relocation to a state-of-the-art facility in South Windsor and a name change to HPC Foodservice, he retired in late 2015.

Pearson’s hometown of Geneseo, Ill. honored him with induction into its Hall of Fame in 2013.

Other than that, his football involvement these days is limited to receiving and autographing football cards sent to his home by fans, old and young alike.

“I get cards all year long, maybe 40 or 50, and more as it gets closer to football season,” he said. “I’ve been to one NFL game since I retired. I’d rather watch it on TV.”

He would have attended the 40-year reunion of the Steelers’ “Immaculate Reception” team in 2012, but was unable to commit due to knee replacement surgery.

He said he definitely plans to be at the 50th anniversary of that memorable team in 2022.

Video credit: Geneseo High School Athletic Hall of Fame