Watch a nice take on the play: http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/pittsburgh-steelers-immaculate-reception-franco/njY5L/
Sure looks to me like it hit Tatum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMuUBZ_DAeM
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It’s absolutely impossible to tell. The resolution is so poor it’s plausible either way, ergo without conclusive evidence the call on the field stands.
Here is a slow mo video of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMksKd9Jjho
If watching the frame by frame playback at 1:35 it seems clear that the ball most likely hit Tatum.
Further corroboration from the Wikipedia entry:
One official, Back Judge Adrian Burk, signaled that the play was a touchdown, but the other game officials did not immediately make any signal. When the officials huddled, Burk and another official, Umpire Pat Harder, thought that the play was a touchdown because Tatum and Fuqua had both touched the ball, while three others said that they were not in a position to rule. [Thus, the refs were either in agreement that Tatum touched the ball or were neutral. None took the Oakland side.]
From the dugout telephone Boston put in a call to the press box to reach the NFL’s supervisor of officials, Art McNally. Before the call McNally had “an opinion from the get-go” that the ball had hit Tatum’s chest, which he confirmed by looking “at one shot on instant replay.” [Supervisor of officials confirmed Tatum touched the ball.]
In his memoirs, Tatum equivocated, stating that he could not honestly say if the ball hit him. [Even Tatum said it was inconclusive.]
Jack Tatum has conceded that “even after we viewed the game films with stop action, nobody could tell who the ball hit on that moment of impact.” Years later Madden wrote, “No matter how many times I watch the films of the ‘immaculate reception’ play, I never know for sure what happened.” [Inconclusive at best.]
In 1998, during halftime of the AFC Championship game, NBC showed a replay from its original broadcast. The replay presented a different angle than the NFL Films clip that is most often shown. According to a writer for the New York Daily News, “NBC’s replay showed the ball clearly hit one and only one man: Oakland DB Jack Tatum.” Curt Gowdy, doing the live TV play-by-play, called it as having been deflected by Tatum, and reiterated that during the video replay.
Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope, in a 1997 article and in his 2002 book Double Yoi!, related that two days after the game he reviewed film taken by local Pittsburgh TV station WTAE-TV, and that the film showed “no question about it – Bradshaw’s pass struck Tatum squarely on his right shoulder.” Cope stated that the local film would be next to impossible to find again, because of inadequate filing procedures.
In 2004 John Fetkovich, an emeritus professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University, analyzed the NFL Films clip of the play. He came to the conclusion, based on the trajectory of the bounced ball and conservation of momentum, that the ball must have bounced off Tatum, who was running upfield at the time, rather than Fuqua, who was running across and down the field. Fetkovich also performed experiments by throwing a football against a brick wall at a velocity greater than 60 feet per second, twice the speed Fetkovich calculated that Bradshaw’s pass was traveling when it reached Tatum and Fuqua. Fetkovitch achieved a maximum rebound of 10 feet when the ball hit point first, and 15 feet when the ball hit belly first, both less than the 24 feet that the ball actually rebounded during the play. Timothy Gay, a physics professor and a longtime Raiders fan, cited Fetkovich’s work with approval in his book The Physics of Football, and concluded that “the referees made the right call in the Immaculate Reception.”
However, I will say that if you look at that frame by frame replay near the 1:35 mark, the angle of the ball appears to deflect very slightly just prior to hitting Tatum in the chest. That suggests the ball may have just grazed Fuqua’s hands but then hit Tatum and bounced back. That also would have made it a legal catch for Harris.
Whatever. Crybaby Raider fans are still bitching about this play 40 years later when even Phil Villapiano is over it.
Like Seattle fans and the 2005 SB, Raider fans will never get over it despite a total lack of evidence to support their position. However, their ongoing pain just makes it more delightful for Steelers fans. Steeldenfreude.