Oct 20, 2002 By Jim Wexell For The 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – The Indianapolis Colts haven’t won a game in Pittsburgh since 1968, and that 41-7 win at Pitt Stadium was the only one in the Colts’ 13 visits to the city. The last loss – 24-22 in 1997 – was the most narrow of the 12 Colts losses, but there was one even closer. The difference between winning and losing, going to the Super Bowl or staying home, was a mere inches in the 1995 AFC Championship game.

Uniontown native Gene Huey, the only Colts coach from the game still with the team, tried his best to put it into perspective.

“You certainly reflect back on some of those moments,” Huey told the Indianapolis Star. “It just wasn’t our time to do it. But that just keeps you coming back for more. It’s just like that great golf shot you hit.”

Had Jim Harbaugh’s Hail Mary pass stuck to the hands of Aaron Bailey, who was on his back in the end zone, the Colts would’ve scored a hole-in-one. Instead, the Pittsburgh Steelers held on for a 20-16 win.

“That one play sent us to the Super Bowl,” said Steelers safety Lee Flowers.

“Harbaugh threw that Hail Mary and it was knocked down by Randy Fuller. You could hear Myron Cope, ‘The Steelers win! The Steelers win!’ It was a great opportunity. My rookie year, I didn’t know what to expect in the NFL and here it is, I’m going to the Super Bowl. That was a great moment.”

Flowers is one of four Steelers remaining from that game. Each took a different memory:

– “Ernie Mills’ (37-yard) catch on the sideline by our locker room that Neil (O’Donnell) threw,” said tight end Mark Bruener. “That’s something that really stands out in my mind. We were down, the momentum was not in our favor and that really helped us recapture the momentum. We scored and went up.”

– “I remember the dropped interception by Quentin Coryatt that could’ve lost the game for us. That’s what I remember most,” said linebacker Jason Gildon. “You watched the game and it was, ‘OK, we’ve got it going.’ Then you see that pass and see him break and it was that sudden thought that the game was over. But he dropped it and there was a big sigh of relief. Then you had to live through the Hail Mary, but that pass, if Coryatt would’ve caught it, there wouldn’t have even been a pass to Ernie Mills or a Hail Mary.”

– “Me stepping out of bounds and catching a touchdown pass,” said quarterback Kordell Stewart. “Jason Belser was covering me and when Neil scrambled to the right, I stopped, gave a stutter move and tippy-toed down the line and the referee was getting out of the way and he didn’t see it. I went up and caught it for a touchdown. I didn’t know I was out of bounds until I looked at the film and I was thankful we hurried up and made the kick after.

“Nobody knew I stepped out until they showed it on the Jumbotron. Everybody was like, ‘Whoa.’ But we’d already kicked the extra point.”

As Huey pointed out, the game was so dramatic, so exciting, that like a golfer, those involved are still looking to relive some of those magic moments.

“The emotion we felt,” said Bruener, “the excitement, the celebration after that game when they brought the stage up and Coach (Bill) Cowher was holding the AFC Championship trophy, the hats being passed out. That’s a feeling I know I’ll never forget. We work every day – during the season and the off-season – to get that feeling back.”

“I’ve been chasing that ever since,” said Flowers. “It keeps me hongry.”