Great write-up, Maryrose, and a well-defended surprise selection as #1 Heartbreaker. Two great points:
1. Darkest day in Pittsburgh sports history, with Clemente’s passing (also, Penn State lost to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl that night), and as I’m wont to say, “Happy effin’ New Year.”
2. At the time, there were no glory days to fall back on for the purposes of assuaging the pain.

I was in the house that day, and a few things that I particulary remember:
a. How hot it was (as you say, all week long we’re talking about the warm-weather Fins needing to play in Steeler weather).
b. A sign that I spied pre-game reading, “Congrats Miami on 15-1 season.” For some reason, this sign boosted my confidence
c. The Sieple play. Sitting behind the play, the Steelers return team resembled an unknowing phalanx of blockers for Sieple.
d. Larry Little owned Joe Greene….hadn’t seen Mean Joe owned before or since. On both 2nd half TD drives, Miami converted 4th &1s, over Greene.

I’ll post my write-up on the ‘72 season….hopefully it’s a good sidebar.

Great work on this series, Maryrose……found myself waiting daily for your next installment.

-only organization to have an undefeated season & win the super bowl.
-the first time their organization ever touched the ball it was a touchdown. they took the opening kickoff back for a TD
-i have a feeling they’ll be the first organization to ever play in a superbowl when they host it. this is impossible for some teams like the steelers who play outdoors in the cold whether, but very possible for a team that gets to host the super bowl a fair amount.

that was a pretty rough day for me. My mother had passed away right after Thanksgiving. I remember riding my bike across town in Philadelphia to my brother’s house the previous week to watch the Steelers first playoff game against the Raiders. My father was there as well. It was the first Christmas I had spent anywhere other than my home in Pittsburgh. The game was the perfect distraction from the grief. That is, until Ken Stabler scrambled for a touchdown late in the game, and to all appearances adding another sad chapter to the Steelers history of heartache. For us the Immaculate Reception seemed to be as much an intimate, personal miracle as it was a great civic event.

The following week promised a great celebration. (MR forgot to mention, I think, that the game took place on New Years Eve). I think the general belief at the time was that the Raiders were a more formidable opponent than the Dolphins. I don’t think I was the only one who was anticipating a Super Bowl appearance in a couple of weeks. I had a great day lined up. After watching the game, which was played early that day, I would jump on a train to New York City where my friend and (college) roommate had invited me to party and bring in the new year. Seiple’s fake punt seem to completely derail the Steelers and soon my trip to New York was less a celebration than an escape. Later that evening we are driving on Queens Blvd when the radio announces that Clemente’s plane was missing and had probably crashed. Clemente was my very first sports hero. This could not be happening. About 12 hours later I emerge out of Penn Station in Philly. I am sweating from the unseasonably warm weather (the high that day would be about 80 degrees) The Philadelphia Bulletin had one of those outdoor electronic news tickers that repeatedly announced that Clemente was, indeed lost. And on that New Years Day so was I. The grieving process seemed to be recycled and amplified. What a sad, sad day.

You did mention that the game was played on New Years Eve.

But I can imagine the low after the Immaculate Reception high was pretty rough.

I really enjoyed reading about all these games, even though it dredges up some terrible memories. Any list like this will be debatable because these losses affect everyone differently. The ‘94 Championship will always be my #1, mainly because my expectations were so high. It’s much easier to stomach these games because of the last four years. If we were still waiting on our fifth ring I doubt anyone would want to discuss these nightmares.

I’m glad I don’t remember it.

Other thing that we forget is that Steelers nearly avoided Miami altogether. Browns were the wild card team (only one WC back in the day) with a 10-4 record, and on Christmas Eve had Miami on the ropes at the Orange Bowl. Brownies took a 14-13 lead in the 4th quarter, but Fins drove the length of the field for a 20-14 victory.

maryrose gave his ranking of the worst steelers losses and you guys spoke of having everyone vote on what they thought were the worst losses. but judging from the comments a lot of the older fans felt that this loss was well justified in ranking this loss #1, but the younger fans who were born in the 80’s (aka fans like me) seem to have trouble completely appreciating the loss and may still feel that the ’94 or ’01 loss deserved to be higher.

so i would recommend for the polls to also include the year ppl started following the steelers. for ex:
‘72 vs ’94
A) ’72 was worse & i didnt follow the steelers until after ’72
B) ’72 was worse & i followed the steelers before ’72
C) ’94 was worse & i didn’t follow the steelers until after ’72
D) ’94 was worse & i followed the steelers before ’72

i think this would be more interesting because you’d get to see if fans who didnt follow the steelers until after certain losses, still feel that those losses are worse than some of the bad ones they’ve experienced.

and maybe 2 “worst loss” winners can be crowned. one that’s from voters who started following the steelers during the 70’s and another from those who started following the steelers post 70’s

It’s been interesting to recall and debate these games maryrose. Your rankings are personal, as they should be, and you’ve reminded readers about that throughout the countdown. There is no statistical way of measuring “heartbreak” and, in each case, the passage of time and circumstances has added perspective to the losses and affected our own personal rankings. Being older and having watched so many games also blurs the edges of specific games and I perceive many of them now as representative of eras rather than standing on their own, as should be the case. I wish I had kept notes (congrats to swissvale on that count) because it’s a challenge to recall some of the details of the games and my feelings at the time about why we lost.

I’ve agreed generally with almost all of your rankings. We’re close to the same age and saw these games from similar perspectives. But in this particular case, the 1972 loss probably wouldn’t even rank in my top five for three reasons. 1. The Immaculate Reception was and always will be my overriding football memory of that season. The football gods smiled on us that day and I didn’t expect anything more. That was the Super Bowl for me. The Dolphins were beatable but I honestly didn’t think the Steelers were ready to do it. 2. Losing the game did nothing to discourage me from thinking the team would win a Super Bowl in the near future and be a dominant team for a number of years. Everything was going in the right direction with great young players who were going to improve and, by this time, adequate proof that we had the coach who would take them all the way. 3. I heard the news about Clemente’s plane crash in the middle of the night, waking up to a newscast from the transistor radio I had left on beside my bed. I spent the rest of the night scanning the radio, hoping he had somehow survived and that his strong arms would allow him to swim to safety. A football defeat was suddenly and irrevocably put into perspective by the tragic loss of a great athlete and a great person who had been my first sports hero. I simply cannot think of that football game without also remembering what happened a few hours later. Even now, as I write this, the game doesn’t register as a disappointing or even significant event. It was just too sad a day for other reasons.

However, it’s with great respect that I acknowledge how it could easily be No. 1 for you for all the reasons you mention above. My own personal top three rankings are 1. The 95 Super Bowl. 2. 94 AFCCG. 3. 1975 AFCCG. My negative feelings about Cowher increasingly affected how I viewed every playoff game from 1996 to 2004. I was convinced he would never get the team to a Super Bowl, to the point where I had mixed feelings when the Steelers rallied to make the playoffs in 2005. I was hoping that missing the playoffs would get him fired. Of course, things have happily worked out differently (and perfectly). And thanks to Ben (and others, including a coach who I think has more Lombardi Trophies in his future) we do not have to put the 2008 season SB at the top of this list.

I really enjoyed this particular series. I wasn’t even born yet, but #1 still breaks my heart.

But I’ve heard about this game probably more than any other Steelers game before my birth. My mothers family is 100% Steelers fans. My father on the other hand is a Dolphins fan, and was then even more so when you take into account his high school team had just finished their first undefeated season in school history. This game was brought up at just about every family reunion that I can remember. The pain Steeler Nation, and for that matter, Pittsburgh/ PA sports fans felt that day is incomprehensible to fans my age. The way it was for fans on this and in the following days must have been unbearable. This article was written so well, as always MR, that I can feel the pain. And when you take into account there were ZERO championships for us fans to hang our hats on and find some solace in, it makes it that much worse.
   As I’ve said I’m too young to know the true pain felt. But hearing stories like this, as well as hearing tales of Roberto Clemente as a player, and more imprtantly a person, it was truly the saddest day for fans in Pittsburgh, and through out the world. I’ve been told there will never be another humanitarian in sports with the dedication and love for his fellow man as Roberto Clemente. The compound effects of these losses in such a short time, unbelievable.

The first one was heartbreaking becasue it was such a magical season — and the year I fell in love with the Steelers. Second was a year they battled back, and lost to Oakland (puke in my mouth).

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