Deployment: the Immaculate Reception
Brandishing this corno at that fateful game in late December 1972, Franco’s Italian Army would have front row seats to Harris’ Immaculate Reception.
In the seconds before Bradshaw queued up for one final play, the generals of Franco’s Italian Army were armed with their protective corno. However, just as they went to extract the hunchback to cast the malocchio on the Raiders, it fell to the ground.
The generals scrambled to recover the figurine before all was lost.
According to their recounting of the tale, just as Vento rescued the hunchback from the ground and handed it to Stagno, the ball fatefully bounced off of Tatum and into the hands of their commander-in-chief, Franco Harris.
Listen as Al Vento recounts this moment in Franco's Italian Army history.