UNIVERSITY PARK — Did you ever get a photo taken with Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers legend Franco Harris?
Well, you aren’t alone — and the Penn State All-Sports Museum wants your photo.
As the one-year anniversary of Harris’ death approaches, the Penn State All-Sports Museum is working to honor one of the great Nittany Lions of all time with a photomosaic mural. The All-Sports Museum announced the launching of the project surrounding the making of the mural and is inviting people to submit photos of them taken with Harris over the years.
“Over the past year since Franco’s passing last December, we’ve had a number of visitors come through and ask, ‘Hey, are you doing anything for Franco? Is there anything you’re going to add to the museum?’ We spent some time thinking about what the best thing would be,” said Lew Lazarow, interim director of the Penn State All-Sports Museum. “We didn’t want to just throw something together. We wanted it to be meaningful.”
Once Lazarow and his staff started thinking about it, they came up with an idea relatively quickly.
“One of the hallmarks of who Franco was and what Franco loved to do was take photographs with people. Literally, anybody, anywhere would be able to (get a photo). If you saw Franco on the street or in the airport, on a cruise or at a game, he would absolutely stop whatever he was doing and would pose. He was the most gracious, kind and considerate soul there was,” Lazarow said.
And just like that, the idea was born.
“That’s the memorial. The memorial is the memory that every person who ever met him and got that photograph with him has,” Lazarow said. “We wanted to give people an opportunity to share those photos.”
The museum will use the photos of fans with Harris to turn it into a larger than life photomosaic.
“It will be entirely comprised of people’s photos with Franco over the years,” Lazarow said.
According to Lazarow, the photomosaic will be made of up to 7,500 total photos.
The response, Lazarow said, has been overwhelming.
“The result is exactly what we thought it would be. … People clearly want to share the memories of the time they got to spend with him,” Lazarow said.
Since the project has been announced, Lazarow said that more than 1,000 photos have been submitted.
“It’s been incredible. I lay eyes on every single photo and I approve it to go into the mosaic,” Lazarow said.
Thus far, photos have come from everywhere. And they are from every era of Franco’s life.
“We’ve gotten photos from friends of his from high school back in New Jersey, from Penn State days, from his days as a business owner. … Special Olympics gave us photos of him giving high fives at the end of the Special Olympics run in Beaver Stadium. It’s just been this amazing range of his entire life,” Lazarow said.
For Lazarow and his staff, it’s been an emotional journey.
“It’s been humbling, it’s been overwhelming, it’s been fantastic. Honestly, I can’t wait to see the rest (of the photos),” Lazarow said.
The rules for submitting a photo are simple. Harris simply needs to be in the photo with others.
“It has to be of people with Franco,” Lazarow said. “That’s really important. I’ve gotten photos of just Franco and I’ve gotten photos of just people. That’s not the point here.”
Lazarow said that the All-Sports Museum is giving fans a few weeks to submit images.
“We really haven’t put a deadline out there,” he said.
To upload your photos as part of the project, visit livemosaics.com/upload/M5372799/p0. There is no cost to upload images.
“This is entirely free,” Lazarow said. “There is absolutely no charge to submit photos. There is no cost involved for fans.”
Once complete, the photomosaic will go on display in the main lobby of the All-Sports Museum at Beaver Stadium.
Ideally, Lazarow said, he would like the display to be ready for fans to see for the final few games of the Penn State football season.
“As soon as we’re ready, we’ll have the reveal,” Lazarow said. “It will be a month of remembering Franco leading up to the anniversary of his passing.”
