Dunkirk native Dave Graf, second from right, is pictured with fellow Penn State football alums, from left, Ki-Jana Carter, Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell in 2013. Submitted Photo

Shane and Caroline Conlan were sitting down to eat at Andora Restaurant in Sewickley, Pennsylvania early Monday afternoon when Franco Harris walked by.

The former Penn State University and Pittsburgh Steelers great stopped to chat with the Conlans, and before the conversation ended he offered Shane, also an ex-Nittany Lion and a former NFL Pro Bowl linebacker, some advice.

“We’ve got to take care of ourselves,” the Frewsburg native recalled Harris telling him, “because we’re not getting any younger.”

Less than 48 hours later, Conlan was awakened by a text from his oldest son, Patrick.

Harris, the Hall-of-Fame running back, had died. He was 72.

“He was a great man,” Conlan said Wednesday evening. “I’m shocked. … He’s always been so nice and so nice to my daughter (Mary Katherine who is a server at Andora Restaurant). He always asks to be seated in her section.”

Conlan’s interaction with Harris was one of several the two men had in the last month, including at a Penn State basketball game where Shane and Caroline’s youngest son, Daniel, is a walk-on on the team.

Conlan noted that during his time at Penn State in the 1980s, Harris would visit the campus about once a year. After Conlan retired from the NFL in the mid-1990s and moved to Sewickley, he saw Harris more frequently.

“That Pittsburgh crowd loved him,” the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Famer said.

It wasn’t surprising then that people were lined up to greet Harris at the restaurant on Monday.

“He was a great guy,” Conlan said. “He’d talk to anyone.”

Dunkirk native Dave Graf, another CSHOF inductee, also knew and appreciated Harris.

“I was a freshman when Franco was a senior (at Penn State),” Graf said. “I didn’t have a ton of interactions with him. When I first got there … we were in a dorm for training camp and I went to go down the elevator alone. When I pushed the button for the elevator, the door opened and Franco was in there. He was the first person I met.”

It wasn’t the last time Harris “introduced” himself to Graf in his first year as a Nittany Lion.

“They put us against the first team and I had a chance to tackle Franco,” the 1971 Dunkirk High School graduate recalled. “I hit him as hard as I could and then he was about 10 yards down the field behind me. That’s when I said to myself, ‘This isn’t high school.'”

Graf, a linebacker, went on to play in the NFL with Cleveland and Washington. While with the Browns, he said “Franco would just kill us.”

“He would have some pretty great games against us.”

Many players in Harris’ era would confirm that.

And just as many would confirm that his passing leaves a huge void.

“When I saw him this past year, I saw him with my grand-nephew,” Graf said. “(Harris) signed a football for him and some other things. He had no problem doing any of that.

“He was a real good representative of Penn State.”