Mark A. Emmert, Ph.D., (born December 16, 1952) was named president of the NCAA on April 27, 2010. He is the fifth CEO of the NCAA; he assumed his duties on 1 November 2010. Emmert was previously the 30th president of the University of Washington, his alma mater, taking office in June 2004, becoming the first alumnus in 48 years to lead the UW. He left Washington on 1 October 2010 having announced his departure for the NCAA Executive Directorship on 27 April 2010.

Before Emmert became president of the University of Washington, he was chancellor at Louisiana State University and held faculty and administration positions at the University of Connecticut, Montana State University, and University of Colorado.

Tenure at the University of Washington[link]

In 2006, the UW established the Husky Promise, a guarantee that tuition and fees will be covered for lower-income students from Washington state who are accepted to the UW. The UW also has increased access for Washington students by expanding UW Bothell and UW Tacoma to four-year programs in the fall of 2006. The UW is now looking to add a fourth campus north of Seattle to better serve the residents of North Puget Sound. The UW Seattle campus is expanding with the purchase of the Safeco property in the University District, adding about 500,000 square feet (46,000 m²) of building space.

Under Emmert's tenure, the UW received more than $1 billion in grant and contract research funding for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007. This marked the first time the UW received more than $1 billion in funding for sponsored research in a single year. The UW has been the top public university in federal research funding since 1974 and among the top five universities, public and private, in federal funding since 1969. In recent years, it has been second only to The Johns Hopkins University.

In 2006, under Emmert's presidency, the university created the Department of Global Health and in the spring of 2007, they launched the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Emmert is also amongst the first 20 to sign the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and is an active member of its Steering Committee.^[1]

In August 2007, Emmert announced that the UW would open an office in Beijing to lay the groundwork for expanding the university's presence in China (see article). Emmert made the announcement during a campus visit by Zhou Wenzhong, ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States.

In January 2007, the fundraising goal for Campaign UW: Creating Futures was increased to $2.5 billion after the campaign reached its initial $2 billion goal 17 months ahead of schedule (see article). When the campaign ended on June 30, 2008, the total raised was more than $2.6 billion. The UW has received a number of transformational gifts during Emmert's presidency, including a gift in fall of 2007 from the Foster Family Foundation leading to the business school at the Seattle campus being named the Michael G. Foster School of Business.

Emmert has been courted by the University of Wisconsin, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Cornell University, the University of California System, and the Louisiana State University System over the past several years. In February 2008, Emmert turned down an offer from Vanderbilt University that might have made him the most highly paid college leader in the nation.^[2] Nevertheless, he was the second most highly compensated public university president in the nation, at $888,000 for 2007-2008.^[3] In addition, he received $200,000 compensation for serving on the board of Expeditors International and $140,000 for serving on the board of Weyerhaeuser, giving him a total annual compensation of over $1.2 million.^[4]

NCAA Presidency[link]

On 27 April 2010 Emmert was named President of the NCAA in Indianapolis, Indiana. He assumed his duties on 1 November 2010.

Education[link]

• Fife High School
• Green River Community College
• BA, 1975, University of Washington
• MPA, 1976, and Ph.D., 1983 Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Personal[link]

Mark and DeLaine Emmert have been married for more than 30 years and have two children, Stephen and Jennifer. Emmert's base salary is $620,000 per year, but his total University of Washington compensation package is $906,500 annually, which made him the second highest earning public university president in the United States behind Ohio State's Gordon Gee.^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• President Emmert's home page
• President Emmert's blog
• President Emmert's Curriculum Vitae
• 2007 President's Annual Address to the UW Community
• April 2006 Rotary Club speech during which he called for "achieving excellence in everything we do"
• "The Homecoming," Columns alumni magazine article about Mark Emmert becoming UW president (see article)

Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley, 2011
Born	(1964-09-13) September 13, 1964 (age 47) Gulfport, Mississippi United States
Education	Indiana University (B.A., public affairs, 2003)
Occupation	Talk show host Author Entrepreneur Advocate Philanthropist
Notable credit(s)	Tavis Smiley host (2004–present) The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI (radio) host (2005–present) "Smiley & West" co-host (2010–present) BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley host (1996–2001)
Religion	Christian
Website
http://www.tavistalks.com/

Tavis Smiley (pronounced /ˈtævɨs/; born September 13, 1964) is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist.^[1][2] Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles. Smiley became a radio commentator in 1991, and starting in 1996, he hosted the talk show BET Talk (later renamed BET Tonight) on BET. Controversially, after Smiley sold an exclusive interview of Sara Jane Olson to ABC News in 2001, BET declined to renew Smiley's contract that year. Smiley then began hosting The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR from 2002 to 2004 and currently hosts Tavis Smiley on PBS on the weekdays and "The Tavis Smiley Show" from PRI. In 2010 Smiley and Dr. Cornel West have joined forces for their own radio talk show, Smiley & West. They were featured together interviewing musician Bill Withers in the 2009 documentary film Still Bill.^[3]

Early years[link]

Tavis Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, the son of Joyce Marie Roberts, a single mother who first became pregnant at age 18.^[4] On September 13, 1966, just shy of his second birthday, his mother married Emory Garnell Smiley, a non-commisioned officer in the U.S. Air Force.^[5] It would not be until a few years later that Tavis would learn the identity of his biological father, whom he identifies in his autobiography, What I Know For Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America only as "T."^[6]

His family soon moved to Indiana because his stepfather had been transferred to Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, Indiana. Upon arriving in Indiana, the Smiley family took up residence in a crowded mobile home in the small town of Bunker Hill, Indiana.^[7] Smiley's immediate family size was increased following the homicide of his aunt, whose death left five children with no stable home. Smiley's parents agreed to take in and raise their five orphaned nieces and nephews. Joyce and her husband also had eight children of their own over the years, resulting at one point in 13 children and Mr. and Mrs. Smiley all living in the trailer-home. Smiley's mother was a very religious person, and the family attended the local New Bethel Tabernacle Church, part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World.^[8] The Smiley children were forbidden from listening to secular music at home and going to the movie theater and could watch television shows that their parents felt were family-friendly.^[9] When Tavis Smiley was in seventh grade, New Bethel pastor Elder Rufus Mills accused Tavis and his siblings of "running wild, disobeying their teacher, disrespecting their teacher, disrespecting the sanctity of this building, and mocking the holy message being taught" during Sunday School.^[10] According to Smiley's account of the incident, Smiley's Sunday School teacher became more confused as she was asking questions about the Book of John, and while other students "responded by giggling and acting a little unruly", he and his sister Phyllis "remained quiet".^[11] Garnell whipped Tavis and Phyllis with an extension cord, wounding the two children.^[12] The next day at school, administrators found out about the children's injuries.^[13] The local newspaper in Kokomo reported on the beating and the legal proceedings against Garnell, and Tavis and Phyllis were sent to foster care temporarily,^[14] Garnell told his children that the judge decided that he had "overreacted" and found he and Joyce as "concerned parents who were completely involved in our children's lives and well-being".^[15]

Smiley became interested in politics at age 13 after attending a fundraiser for U.S. Senator Birch Bayh.^[8] At Maconaquah High School in Bunker Hill, Indiana, a school that Smiley described as "98 percent white",^[16] Smiley was active in student council and the debate team, even though his parents were "skeptical of all non-church extracurricular activities".^[17]

College and political career[link]

In 1982, Smiley enrolled in Indiana University Bloomington (IU). Because Smiley's parents refused to complete financial aid papers, Smiley entered Indiana University with only $50 and a small suitcase.^[18] Administrators let Smiley complete the paperwork to become a full-time student.^[19] The summer after his freshman year, Smiley worked, attended summer classes, and lived off campus with Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players, then being coached by Bob Knight.^[20] Smiley was accepted into the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity during his sophomore year and became business manager of his dormitory, a member of the student senate, and director of minority affairs.^[21] After his friend Denver Smith was killed by Indiana police officers who claimed to have acted in self-defense, Smiley helped lead protests to defend Smith, whom he believed had been wrongfully killed.^[22] Those protests led Smiley to a work-study internship at the office of Bloomington mayor Tomilea Allison. Being paid $5 an hour, Smiley wrote letters to local residents, researched for Mayor Allison, and helped write positions on local issues. Mayor Allison rebuked Smiley for padding his time sheets and had Smiley work off the extra hours without pay.^[23] During his first semester of junior year, Smiley was under academic probation and blamed his extracurricular activities for interfering with his studies.^[24] When Smiley visited Los Angeles to attend a national student leaders' convention, the cousin of his roommate introduced Smiley to football star Jim Brown. Brown introduced Smiley to fellow football player George Hughley, who worked for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and connected Smiley to Mayor Bradley's staff.^[25] Every week since meeting Bradley's staff, Smiley wrote a letter to the mayor's office asking for an internship and once personally flew to Los Angeles to appeal. However, by summertime he received a letter from the city stating that all internship positions were filled.^[26] Smiley then handwrote a letter to the mayor that he said represented his feeling "from the heart", and Bradley called Smiley to say that he had a position available for Smiley.^[27] As the internship was unpaid but counted for college credit, the Bloomington Community Progress Council funded Smiley with $5,000 for living expenses in Los Angeles, and Brown allowed Smiley to live as a houseguest during September 1985. Starting the next month, Smiley lived in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity house in the University of Southern California. At City Hall, Smiley worked at the Office of Youth Development on the 22nd floor.^[28]

Twice, Smiley considered quitting college, first during junior year,^[29] and then after finishing his internship with Mayor Bradley. Bradley successfully convinced Smiley to return to college, and Smiley did.^[30] Smiley took the LSAT twice, as he was considering attending Harvard Law School.^[31] However, in his senior year, he failed a test in a computer class after being accused of copying another student's, so he failed that class and several others and lacked nine hours of credits and thus did not graduate from IU.^[32] Following a hiring freeze by the government of Los Angeles, Smiley served as an aide to Mayor Bradley until 1990.^[33] A 1988 article in the Los Angeles Times identified Smiley as "a Bradley administrative assistant who works in South Los Angeles".^[34] In 2003, Smiley officially received his degree from Indiana University in public affairs.^[35]

Radio and television career[link]

Campaigning for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1991 against incumbent Ruth Galanter, Smiley finished fourth among 15 candidates. Smiley became a radio commentator, broadcasting one-minute daily radio segments called The Smiley Report on KGFJ radio.^[8] With Ruben Navarrette, Jr., Smiley co-hosted a local talk show in Los Angeles where his strongly held views on race and politics, combined with his arguments regarding the impact of institutional racism and substandard educational and economic opportunities for inner-city black youth, earned him attention on the Los Angeles Times. His commentaries focused on local and national current-affairs issues affecting the African-American community.^[36] For six months, Smiley worked on a community news program on a local cable network and spent six more months working on television in Montreal.^[37]

In 1996, Smiley became a frequent commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, a nationally syndicated radio show broadcast on black and urban stations in the United States.^[38] He developed a friendship with host Joyner; together they began hosting annual town hall meetings beginning in 2000 called "The State of the Black Union", which were aired live on the C-SPAN cable television network. Each of these town hall meetings focused on a specific topic affecting the African-American community, featuring a panel of African-American leaders, educators, and professionals assembled before an audience to discuss problems related to the forum's topic, as well as potential solutions.^[39] Smiley also used his commentator status on Joyner's radio show to launch several advocacy campaigns to highlight discriminatory practices in the media and government and to rally support for causes such as the awarding of a Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights icon Rosa Parks. Smiley also began building a national reputation as a political commentator with numerous appearances on political discussion shows on MSNBC, ABC, and CNN.

Also in 1996, Smiley began hosting and executive producing BET Tonight (originally BET Talk when it first premiered), a public affairs discussion show on the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network. Smiley interviewed major political figures and celebrities and discussed topics ranging from racial profiling and police brutality to R&B music and Hollywood gossip. Smiley hosted BET Tonight until 2001, when in a controversial move, the network announced that Smiley's contract would not be renewed. This sparked an angry response from Joyner, who sought to rally his radio audience to protest BET's decision. Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET, defended the decision, stating that Smiley had been fired because he had sold an exclusive interview to ABC News without first offering the story to BET, even though Smiley's contract with BET did not require him to do so. Smiley countered with the assertion that he had offered the story — an interview with Sara Jane Olson, an alleged former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army — to CBS, which, along with BET, was owned by Viacom. Smiley ultimately sold the interview to rival network ABC, he said, only after CBS passed on the interview, and suggested that his firing was payback for the publicity he gained as a result of providing an exclusive interview to ABC.^[40] Ultimately BET and Viacom did not reverse their decision to terminate Smiley's contract.

Smiley was then offered a chance to host a radio talk show on National Public Radio. He served as host of The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR until December 2004 when he announced that he would be leaving his NPR show, citing the network's inability to reach a more diverse audience.^[41] Smiley launched a weekly version of his radio program The Tavis Smiley Show on April 29, 2005, distributed by NPR rival Public Radio International. On October 1, 2010, Tavis Smiley turned the second hour of his PRI program into Smiley & West co-hosted by his longtime collaborator Dr. Cornel West. Smiley also hosts Tavis Smiley, a late night talk show televised on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network and produced in association with WNET in New York.^[42]

Smiley moderated two live presidential candidate forums in 2007: a Democratic forum on June 28 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.,^[43] and a Republican forum on September 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore.^[44]

Smiley appears on the Democracy Now! show.^[45]

Controversy over Presidential Candidate Barack Obama[link]

On April 11, 2008, Tavis Smiley announced that he would resign in June 2008 as a commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. He cited fatigue and a busy schedule in a personal call to Joyner. However, Joyner, referring to several commentaries in which Smiley was critical of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, indicated otherwise on his program, stating: "The real reason is that he can't take the hate he's been getting regarding the Barack issue—hate from the black people that he loves so much."^[46] Prior to the public controversy and being elected President, Obama had been on Smiley's PBS show six times.

In 2012, Smiley participated in a "Poverty Tour" with Princeton University professor Cornel West in promoting their book The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. The stated aim of the tour was to highlight the plight of the impoverished population of the United States prior to the 2012 Presidential Election, whose candidates Smiley and West stated had ignored the plight of the poor.^{[47][48][49][50]}

[edit] The Covenant with Black America

In March 2006, The Smiley Group and Third World Press published The Covenant with Black America, a collection of essays by black scholars and professionals edited by Smiley. The book covered topics ranging from education to healthcare. The book was a New York Times Bestseller.^[51]

Awards and contributions[link]

Smiley was honored with the NAACP Image Award for best news, talk, or information series for three consecutive years (1997–99) for his work on BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley.

Smiley's advocacy efforts have earned him numerous awards and recognitions including the recipient of the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association of Minorities in Communications.

In 1999, he founded the Tavis Smiley Foundation, which funds programs that develop young leaders in the black community. Since its inception, more than 6,000 young people have participated in the foundation's Youth to Leaders Training workshops and conferences.

His communications company, The Smiley Group, Inc., serves as the holding company for various enterprises encompassing broadcast and print media, lecturers, symposiums, and the Internet.

In 1994, Time named Smiley one of America's 50 Most Promising Young Leaders.^[52] Time would later honor him in 2009 as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World". In May 2007, Smiley gave a commencement speech at his alma mater, Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana (the university recently honored Smiley by naming the atrium of its School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) building, The Tavis Smiley Atrium).

In May 2008, he gave the commencement address at Connecticut College, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate. In May 2009, Smiley was awarded an honorary doctorate at Langston University after giving the commencement address there.

On December 12, 2008, Smiley received the Du Bois Medal from Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

He would also be awarded the 2009 Interdependence Day Prize from Demos in Istanbul, Turkey.

Smiley would be named No. 2 change agent in the field of media behind Oprah Winfrey in EBONY Magazine's POWER 150 list.

Bibliography[link]

• Just a Thought: The Smiley Report (ISBN 0-963-69523-1)
• Doing What's Right: How to Fight for What You Believe—And Make a Difference (ISBN 0-385-49931-0)
• Hard Left (ISBN 0-385-48404-6)
• Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing, and Hope from Black America (ISBN 0-385-72169-2)
• How to Make Black America Better: Leading African Americans Speak Out (ISBN 0-385-72087-4)
• On Air:The Best of Tavis Smiley on the Tom Joyner Morning Show (ISBN 1-890194-33-6)
• The Covenant with Black America (ISBN 0-88378-277-4)
• What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America (ISBN 978-0-385-50516-1; ISBN 0-388-50516-7)
• Accountable: Making America As Good As Its Promise
• Fail Up (ISBN 1-401-93390-4)
• The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto (with Cornel West) (ISBN 1-401940-63-3)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• LaRue, William. "Tavis Smiley: NPR Host Brings Latenight Talk to PBS". The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), 1 February 2004, STARS section, pp. 4–6.
• Slade, Scott. "Author Issues Wakeup Call". Kokomo Tribune (Indiana), 20 June 1996, p. 7.
• Smiley, Tavis (2006), What I Know For Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America, New York City, New York, United States: Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-50516-7, http://books.google.com/books?id=lBHwtgmBJ1IC </ref>

External links[link]

• Official website
• Tavis Smiley on Twitter
• Tavis Smiley on WNET/PBS
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Smiley on Doing What's Right, April 9, 2000.
  • C-SPAN Q&A interview with Smiley, October 29, 2006
• Tavis Smiley on Charlie Rose
• Tavis Smiley at NPR
• Works by or about Tavis Smiley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Tavis Smiley: The State of the Black Union Interview
• Tavis Smiley on Rev. Martin Luther King and His Opposition to the Vietnam War - video by Democracy Now!

Franco Harris

Harris in January 2009
No. 32, 34
Full back
Personal information
Date of birth: (1950-03-07) March 7, 1950 (age 62)
Place of birth: Fort Dix, New Jersey
Career information
College: Penn State
NFL Draft: 1972 / Round: 1 / Pick: 13
Debuted in 1972 for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Last played in 1984 for the Seattle Seahawks
Career history
Pittsburgh Steelers (1972-1983) Seattle Seahawks (1984)
Career highlights and awards
9× Pro Bowl selection (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980) 7× All-Pro selection (1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979) NFL 1970s All-Decade Team 4× Super Bowl Champion (IX, X, XIII, XIV) Super Bowl IX MVP 1972 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year 1972 UPI AFL-AFC Rookie of the Year 1976 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award
Career NFL statistics
Rushing Yards 12,120 AVG 4.1 Total TDs 100 Stats at NFL.com
Pro Football Hall of Fame

Franco Harris (born March 7, 1950) is a former American football player. He played his NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks.

In the 1972 NFL Draft he was chosen by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round, the 13th selection overall. His selection by the team was considered controversial at the time, as many thought the team would select his Penn State teammate, Lydell Mitchell. (Mitchell was later selected by the Baltimore Colts in the draft.) He played his first 12 years in the NFL with the Steelers; his 13th and final year (1984) was spent with the Seattle Seahawks. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.^[1] He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011.^[2]

Early life[link]

Harris was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey. His African-American father served in World War II; his mother was a "war bride" from Italy.^[3] Harris graduated from Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey and then attended Penn State University. While playing for Penn State's Nittany Lions, Harris served primarily as a blocker for the All-American running back Lydell Mitchell, though he amassed 2,048 yards rushing (17th in PSU history) with 24 touchdowns and averaged over 5 yards per carry, while also catching 29 passes for 358 yards and another touchdown. He led the team in scoring in 1970.

Professional career[link]

In his first season with the Steelers (1972), Harris was named the league's Rookie of the Year by both The Sporting News and United Press International. In that season he gained 1,055 yards on 188 carries, with a 5.6 yards per carry average. He also rushed for 10 touchdowns and caught 3 touchdown passes. He was popular with Pittsburgh's large Italian-American population: his fans dubbing themselves "Franco's Italian Army" and wore army helmets with his number on them.

In his 13 professional seasons, Harris gained 12,120 yards on 2,949 carries, a 4.1 yards per carry average, and scored 91 rushing touchdowns. He caught 307 passes for 2,287 yards, a 7.4 yards per reception average, and 9 receiving touchdowns. Harris's 12,120 career rushing yards rank him 12th all time in the NFL, while his 91 career rushing touchdowns rank him 10th all time tied with Jerome Bettis.^[4]

Harris was chosen for 9 consecutive Pro Bowls (from 1972 through 1980), and was All-Pro in 1977. Harris rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 8 seasons, breaking a record set by Jim Brown. The tandem running package of Harris and Rocky Bleier combined with a strong defense to win four Super Bowls in the 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979 seasons. In 1975 he was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl IX; in that game he rushed for 158 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries for a 16-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Harris was the first African American as well as the first Italian-American to be named Super Bowl MVP. Harris was a major contributor for the Steelers in all of their first four Super Bowl wins. His Super Bowl career totals of 101 carries for 354 yards are records and his 4 career rushing touchdowns are tied for the second most in Super Bowl history.

Critics, including Jim Brown, have complained about Harris' tendency to run out of bounds instead of taking on tacklers for extra yards. Harris responds that he extended his career and thus his contribution to the team's objectives (including four Super Bowl victories to Brown's single pre-Super Bowl NFL Championship) by avoiding unnecessary contact.^[5] Critics have highlighted Harris' running back record of 90 total career fumbles – often leaving out the fact that his career spanned many seasons and he had 3,256 touches, giving him a fumble percentage of only 2.7%, which is not considered high by NFL standards.

Following the 1983 season, Harris and Walter Payton were both closing in on Jim Brown's NFL rushing record, and Harris had asked the Rooney family for a pay raise. The Rooney family refused, believing that Harris was on the downside of his career, and Harris threatened to hold out. The Steelers released Harris in training camp in 1984, which would start similar patterns years later with Rod Woodson and Alan Faneca both asking similar demands before leaving in free agency. (Free agency, as it is seen today in the NFL, was not in existence at the time of Harris's release.) Harris would sign with the Seattle Seahawks during the 1984 season^[6] and would play eight games with the team, earning only 170 yards before retiring (192 yards short of Jim Brown's record). Harris and the Rooneys reconciled after Harris retired; in 2006, during pre-game ceremonies for Super Bowl XL (the Steelers' second SB appearance - and first championship - since his retirement) honoring the MVPs of the previous 39 games, Harris waved a Terrible Towel while being introduced, much to the delight of the overwhelmingly pro-Steeler crowd. While the Steelers no longer officially retire uniform numbers, they have not reissued his number 32 since he left the team, and it is generally understood that no Steelers player will ever wear that number again.

Harris was a key player in one of professional football's most famous plays, dubbed "The Immaculate Reception" by Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope. In a 1972 playoff game, the Oakland Raiders were leading the Steelers 7-6 with 22 seconds to play when a Terry Bradshaw pass was deflected away from intended receiver John "Frenchy" Fuqua right as defender Jack Tatum arrived to tackle Fuqua. Harris snatched the ball just before it hit the ground and ran it in to win the game. The Raiders challenged the touchdown, claiming that Fuqua had handled the ball before Harris, which would invalidate the score because at that time it was against the rules for two offensive receivers to touch the ball. The Steelers maintained that the ball had touched Tatum instead. According to a recounting by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the film of the play is inconclusive.^[7] Raiders linebacker Phil Villapiano attempted to criticise Harris' achievement by stating that he was only in position to catch the ball because he was lazy, but replays show that Harris headed downfield when the Raiders forced Bradshaw out of the pocket, and can be clearly seen running before catching the deflected ball.

In 1999, he was ranked number 83 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.

In 2006, The Heinz History Center, home of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, installed a life-size figure of Harris in the grand concourse of Pittsburgh International Airport. The statue is a recreation of Harris' "Immaculate Reception."

Post-football[link]

Harris and Lydell Mitchell, successful college teammates at Penn State, now own Super Bakery, a company founded in 1990 to produce nutrition-oriented foods for schoolchildren. The business was renamed to RSuper Foods in 2006.^[8] RSuper foods produces the famous^{[citation needed]} Super Donut that has been widely served to students at public schools in the eastern United States.

Harris and Mitchell also partnered in 1996 to rescue the Parks Sausage Company in Baltimore, known for being the first publicly held black-owned business in the United States.

Harris is also a paid representative for the Harrah's/Forest City Enterprises casino plan for downtown Pittsburgh.^[9] This association has earned him the tongue-in-cheek nickname, "Franco Harrahs".

On July 9, 2006, Harris made an appearance in the 2006 Taco Bell "All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game" at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

In August 2008, Harris attended the 2008 Democratic National Convention, in Denver, Colorado, as part of the Pennsylvania delegation.^[10] Harris voted for Obama on December 15, 2008, as one of Pennsylvania's 21 Democratic presidential electors.^[11][12]

In John Grisham's 2008 novel Playing For Pizza, the fullback of the Parma Panthers is nicknamed Franco as a tribute to his hero, Franco Harris, who he refers to as the "greatest Italian football player". This is a reference to Franco's mixed racial heritage.

Harris briefly worked with The Meadows Racetrack and Casino in 2011, before the casino suspended the relationship after Harris' comments in support of Joe Paterno, his coach while at Penn State, during the Penn State sex abuse scandal.^[13]

Personal[link]

Harris' brother Pete Harris, a collegiate All-American football player, died on August 15, 2006, of a heart attack at the age of 49.^[14]

On July 27, 2009 Harris' son, Franco "Dok" Harris, officially announced his candidacy for Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh. He placed second in the general election on November 3 of that year, capturing over 25% of the vote.^[15]

Franco has served as part of the advisory board at Penn State's Center for Food Innovation, and was recently named a Conti Professor by Penn State's School of Hospitality Management.

Notes and references[link]

See also[link]

• Glossary of American football

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Franco Harris

• Pro Football Hall of Fame – Franco Harris
• Pro Football Reference – Franco Harris