Art Rooney II shares his experience during the Immaculate Reception

In a fan forum call on Wednesday, Steelers Team President Art Rooney II took questions from members of Steelers Nation Unite. One of the early questions Rooney discussed was the immaculate reception being voted as the top play in NFL history.

To close out the call, Rooney was asked about his experience during the immaculate reception and where he was when it occurred.

“It’s a pretty great memory for sure,” Rooney answered. “That was actually the last season that I worked on the field and so I was actually on the field for that game. The play kind of happened right in front of me, which was amazing. Maybe the most amazing, crazy thing about it was it was, you may know, the fans rushed the field after the play and the game wasn’t even over yet. But the fans just stormed the field.

“One of our ex-players who played for us and in the 60s came running over to me- came running out of the stands-he saw me and came running over to me. He had me in a bear hug jumping up and down and I almost passed out. So I survived the play and the celebration. Obviously, a moment I’ll never forget and anybody who is there that day will never forget it. It’s just a great, great moment in Steelers’ history. As I said before, I’m glad to see that it’s still being voted as the number one moment in NFL history.”

For many users at BTSC, we were not even alive on December 23, 1972. For those of us who weren’t, or those were too young to remember, the iconic play is embraced by all Steelers’ fans. For those BTSC users who were alive and remember where you were during the play, please share your stories in the comments below!