People to this day buy Robin Weber bar drinks.
"It's been good for beer," he joked in a recent phone interview.
On New Year's Eve, 1973, a year after the scoop-for-score that made Franco Harris famous, Notre Dame executed its own "Immaculate Reception" to defeat Alabama for college football's national championship.
The same programs will play for another title Monday night in South Florida.
The out-of-nowhere reception made by Weber four decades ago in New Orleans secured a 24-23 Sugar Bowl win and encased the game in football's all-time time capsule.
There was no controversy, just jaw-dropping surprise.
Protecting a one-point lead late in the game, Notre Dame was backed against its own goal line facing third and long. Everyone expected Notre Dame to run the ball and punt. In 1966, Irish Coach Ara Parseghian had played conservatively in a 10-10 tie against Michigan State that cinched for Notre Dame the national title Alabama fans still think they deserved.
This time, though, in the rain at rickety old Tulane Stadium, Parseghian threw caution and pigskin to the wind.
The play was designed for star tight end Dave Casper but Weber, the second end in the set, had slipped wide open near the left sideline. Quarterback Tom Clements floated a perfect strike to Weber, who caught the ball in stride over his left shoulder for a 36-yard gain with 2:12 left.
Weber remembers running right past Alabama Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. "He could have reached out and slapped the ball," Weber said.
Weber fell out of bounds on the Alabama sideline, and found himself looking square into Bryant's anguished, disgusted, defeated face.
"There are all these red helmets looking down on me," Weber recalled. "And here comes Bryant, he's mad. He's very, very unhappy … but I knew it was checkmate."
Weber's catch allowed Notre Dame to run out the clock in one of college football's epics.
The catch was Weber's second of the season. The sophomore would be injured the next year and fade harmoniously into Notre Dame's scrapbook. He runs a real estate business in Dallas that has a website with a link to "The Catch."
The play almost never happened. Weber said he couldn't believe Notre Dame would call a play that might remotely involve him.
"Holy crap," Weber said he was thinking. "They want me to run a 40-yard flag route? I've run that in sandlot football, but other than that…"
Weber said he almost called time out, certain the Irish had the wrong personnel in the game.
"The unusual thing is, I had never caught a pass from Tom Clements," Weber said.
Not even in practice?
"Ever," he said.
