Old Lycoming family saw, celebrated ‘Immaculate Reception’ 50 years ago

“Back then, there wasn't instant replay."

When Rick Edler, his father Don, mother Ginny, brother Randy and sister Lynn saw Franco Harris make the famed "immaculate reception" 50 years ago today, everyone in the stands thought the pass was incomplete -- until they saw fullback Harris, who died Tuesday at the age of 72, dash into the end zone.

"We didn't know what happened," Rick said. Once they realized it was a touchdown, "we were all jumping up and down."

In the excitement, "Mom got a bloody nose," Rick said. The family stopped to ask her if she was OK, "but she didn't even care. She kept jumping up and down."

Randy remembered that she bumped her face while jumping up and down, and was wearing a white coat when the nose bleed happened.

"It was a big deal," Randy said of the catch by Harris. "It was what turned the Steelers around."

The Edlers, who still live in Old Lycoming Township, had season tickets in 1972. Randy said the family was sitting in different seats for that game than the ones they usually had that season, behind the Steelers' bench. He also remembered taking sleeping bags and hot chocolate into the stadium most games to help keep warm.

"We would take our truck camper down and spend the weekend," Rick said.

He credits the trips to their father, Don, who drove.

"Snowstorms and back, two or three in the morning and he would go to his job" the next day, Rick said. "We would have never got out there and back without him."

"When we first started going, they were terrible," Rick said of their trips to see the Steelers in the late '60s.

They tried going to Philadelphia Eagles games instead for a while, but didn't like the experience at Veterans Stadium.

So they stuck with the Steelers and their love of the team grew.

Rick's wife Heidi noted that in 1972, the family could still get autographs in the parking lot, showing up three or four hours before kickoff.

The family saw Harris "hundreds of times," Randy remembered. He said Harris would give out tickets to children before games and would "always talk to anybody."

"He was a great guy," Randy said. "Probably one of the nicest guys" to ever play for the Steelers.

They would see quarterback Terry Bradshaw "getting out of his beat-up, yellow pick-up," Rick said.

"Back then you got to know them," he said.

Randy remembers defensive tackle Joe Greene driving a green Cadillac, linebacker Jack Lambert driving a Jeep Cherokee, "usually with a 12-pack of Genesee in the back" and defensive tackle Ernie Holmes driving an orange Volkswagen Beetle.

He remembers one time when Holmes gave a ride to several of his teammates, and how the car lifted a foot further off the ground once they all emptied out.

The family has stuck by the Steelers all these years.

"I love them, I root for them," Rick said, while acknowledging that he is far from the biggest fan in the family – his brother has a Steelers tattoo.

Randy said he got the tattoo "at least 20 years ago."

Several years ago, family members even entered a Williamsport Sun-Gazette contest for biggest Steelers fans.

"I'm pretty sure they won," Rick said.