Dick Hoak recalls Franco Harris' early days with the Steelers

Dick Hoak’s phone doesn’t often ring early in the morning. So, when Hoak heard the phone Wednesday morning, and it was his son on the other end, his first thought was “What the heck? What’s going on?”

The news wasn’t good. Franco Harris had died.

What hurt Hoak most about the shocking death of his former pupil and long-time friend is that Hoak and his daughter, Kelly Hoak Shuster, had lunch with Harris at the Panera Bread in Greensburg less than two weeks ago. Harris drove out to Hempfield Township, where Hoak lives, to help celebrate his friend’s 83rd birthday.

“They talked for three hours,” Hoak Shuster said, “about Penn State, the Steelers, their Italian mothers. I am so thankful to have been there. What an amazing afternoon.”

Then, on Tuesday, the day before he died, Harris called Hoak to make sure he was coming Friday to the 50th anniversary celebration of the Immaculate Reception.

“He was a great man who always cared about my father,” Hoak Shuster said. “We are all heartbroken.”

Hoak was Harris’ first and only position coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers after he joined the team as a first-round draft choice in 1972. Both played at Penn State and both were drafted as running backs by the Steelers.

Asked what he, as a coach, had to do to help indoctrinate Harris to the NFL, Hoak said, “Not much.”

“You could see it on film that he was pretty good.”

But coach Chuck Noll wasn’t initially impressed.

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“He came to camp and the first few days, he didn’t look very good,” Hoak said. “It wasn’t his fault. What it was, our offense would go against our defense. It wasn’t live. It was what they called a dummy scrimmage.

“Nobody was really going all out, and Franco was. Franco would run up, and there was somebody just sitting there. He’d stop and jiggle. In fact, Chuck came to me and said ‘What’s wrong (with Franco)?’

“I said, ‘Chuck, don’t worry about it. He’s the only one going full speed out there and all those other guys are standing around. He doesn’t look as good.’ ”

Noll’s thinking changed as soon as the first preseason game when the future Pro Football Hall of Famer ran about 75 yards for a touchdown. Hoak, sitting upstairs on the headsets, called down to Noll. “I said, ‘Chuck, see, I told you so.’”

Much later that season, seconds after the Immaculate Reception, Hoak was back on the headsets with Noll and said, “Chuck, I think we’ve got something.”

Over the years, there have been stories about Noll wanting to draft Houston running back Robert Newhouse, instead of Harris, in the first round.

Hoak didn’t confirm that story, but he said, “I know this: He may have wanted to, but he left it up to a couple of us and we ended up with Franco. I don’t think Robert Newhouse would have done anything like he did.”

“He was really something,” Hoak said Wednesday morning. “He was a better person than he was a player, too. He never did anything to hurt anybody, just a class person.”

Hoak recalls how Harris helped the Steelers gain immediate respectability.

“They called the Steelers every (derogatory) name, and after he got there, everybody jumped on the bandwagon,” Hoak said.

Hoak said he was planning to attend the Immaculate Reception celebration Friday.

“I was,” he said. “I don’t know what I’ll do now.”