75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. A fireman on Nov. 15, 1970, looks over the wreckage of a DC-9 jet that crashed the day before on approach near a mountaintop airport a few miles from Huntington, W.Va. (Associated Press). It was a rainy night. Private. "I didn't do anything except for fishing, hunting and construction work," he said. At 7:36pm on November 14, 1970, the aircraft crashed into a hill just short of the Tri-State Airport, killing all 75 people on board in what has been recognized as "the worst sports-related air tragedy in U.S. Marshall football plane crash was 50 years ago, but victim's friend can't forget that day. He was taken away way too soon.". To this day, she isn't satisfied. "I'm sure you can pretty much figure that one out," said Mary Jane Tolley, wife of head coach Rick Tolley, who died in the crash. 00:00 / 00:00. "We'd always rode buses.". He had to rent a car to get to the game,then asked if there were seats on the plane to get back to Marshall. Wichita Falls is 1,100 miles from Huntington. Holliday wants to make a date to come out and hunt turkeys on Dawson's 400 acres outside of town. To make matters worse, Marshall was placed on probation by the NCAA because of recruiting violations and alleged payments to its players, the Daily News reported at the time. Artwork by Eugene Payne, Staff Artist, The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C. She would just listen to the game on the radio. It really sort of shapes the fiber in you, of what you are.. That's why, when a vet recommended Mary Jane stay home that weekend of Nov. 14 because a tumor had developed in Sturmisch's toe, there was no hesitation. Instead, the descent continued for another 300ft (91m) for unknown reasons, apparently without either crew member actually seeing the airport lights or runway. [25], The events of the crash are documented in an episode of Aircrash Confidential titled "Disastrous Descents".[27]. The bronze 1723 ft (57 m) statue was created by artist Burl Jones of Sissonville, West Virginia, and cost $150,000. "'The phrase is about respect, and it makes you realize you can't take anything for granted. "Couldn't keep the tears out of my eyes. Later in the season, Marshall also upset Bowling Green State, 12-10. Rosanna Blake Library of Confederate History, Jim "Shorty" Moss (Offensive Coordinator), Ed Starling (Assistant Director of Athletics), Mark J. Smaha (Assistant Athletic Trainer), Louis A. Peake (Assistant Athletic Trainer), James H. Wilson (Assistant Athletic Trainer), Mervin G. Black (Assistant Equipment Manager), Eugene Jones (Assistant Football Manager), Gerald Sieber (Assistant Football Manager), David W. Byrd (Student Equipment Manager), Special Collections, Morrow Library, After the crash, Red Dawson helped bring together a group of players who were on the junior varsity football team during the 1970 season, as well as students and athletes from other sports, to form a 1971 football team.[12]. That included 37 Marshall football players, 25 team boosters, multiple coaches and team doctors, and Marshalls athletic director. 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. The movie details the tragic deaths of nearly the entire football program in 1970 and the rebuilding of a school and town all at once. Lyndhurst's Tom Shoebridge, brother of crash victim Ted Shoebridge, and Elmwood Park's Keith Karl, a freshman on the 1970 Marshall team, join the show. MU plane crash historical marker, Wayne County, W.Va., col. (low-res digital image only). Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing. FAQ He was also the offensive line coach. The return became the subject of the film, "We Are Marshall". history.[6]. Frank Hall Abbott Jr. 18 Mar 1923 - 14 Nov 1970. It all began with a three-year long losing streak from season 1966-69. Nobody went anywhere.". The crash took the lives of everyone on board -- the pilot, the first officer, two flight attendants, the charter coordinator, 24 Marshall University football fans, nine coaches and 37 players. As part of an annual rite, the fountain was turned off at the end of the service and will be turned back on in the spring. Lucianne Call hasn't lost much of her cheerleading enthusiasm. Officials at the site of the Nov. 14, 1970, Marshall University plane crash at Tri-State Airport in Kenova, W.Va., secure a charred engine for removal to an airport hangar. [2], The original proposal to charter the flight was refused because it would exceed "the takeoff limitations of their aircraft". I knew as soon as I saw the police car. Art could have played professional baseball or professional football.. The Tolleys loved their German Shepherd. (Bettmann/Bettmann Archive), "'We Are Marshall' just stuck," Smith said. "When the 14th of November comes around every year, all the worms and stuff start getting in your head," Dawson said. "I got a call from our operations guy. Cemetery Visibility: Public. Offering Aviation History & Adventure First-Hand! On Nov. 14, 1970, the chartered jet crashed in fog and rain into a hillside upon approach to an airport near Huntington as the team was returning from a game at East Carolina, killing all 75 on board. Another plaque memorializing the 1970 Marshall football team was unveiled at East Carolina University on the same day and can be seen at the guest team entrance of DowdyFicklen Stadium. "That's something I've never been able to get over because it was so wrong.". The NCAA repealed that prohibition at its annual convention in January 1972. As a memorial to the 75 victims, the Marshall players wore the number 75 on their helmets. Every one of the 75 people on board died in the crash. On the way down, he realized -- only by the light of a fire -- that the log was actually a body. On November 14, Southern Airways Flight 932, which was chartered by the school to fly the Thundering Herd football team, coaches, and fans to Kinston, North Carolina for a game against the East Carolina Pirates and back to Huntington, crashed on approach to Tri-State Airport after clipping trees just west of the runway and impacting nose-first into a hollow. Inscription. Never defeated. It went beyond physical damage. We Are Marshall starred Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel, the head coach who took over the program in 1971. Among those in the fountain audience were four football players from East Carolina who played in that 1970 game. The next day, Mary Jane was gone. The weather conditions were poor, mist and light rain with broken clouds at 500 feet. Carter maintains he was spared because of God's providence. According to the official National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report, the accident was "unsurvivable". Her recollections of the crash's aftermath are split. "I can remember the hurt in my stomach like it was yesterday," Beamer said. "At 21, you haven't been familiar with death. All were qualified for the flight. Southern Airways DC-9, similiar to plane that crashed with MU footballt team, col. (low-res digital image only). A memorial fountain will be turned off the same time it is every year only to be turned back on in the spring. I told him, 'I'm afraid those guys are going to hate you because you're so hard on them.' Plymale said his mother was a professor at Marshall. They did care a lot about him. Two-and-a-half months ago, Dawson remarried. Among those who were not on the Marshall plane were Red Dawson, an assistant coach who was driving on a recruiting trip and was heading home when he learned about the crash. The solemn ceremony was held around a fountain dedicated to the crash victims on Marshall's Huntington campus. "It made you wretch," Brunner said, "and I did several times.". That begins to describe some of that enduring guilt. "The Young Herd" that carried on in 1971 had a new coach, Jack Lengyel. The Mid-American Conference also expelled the team for similar offenses. ". 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. Back then, Bowden was the wide receivers coach. Memorial newspaper page from The Herald-Advertiser. While Wichita State ended its football program in 1986, Marshall carried on. It signified the teams unity as not just a football team, but one family. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A bill has won final legislative approval in West Virginia that would establish an annual day of recognition for the worst sports disaster in U.S . Not surprisingly, Call will be the keynote speaker at Saturday's memorial. Former Marshall cheerleader Lucianne Kautz Call lost her father, Charlie E. Kautz, who was the universitys athletic director. Lengyel, who came from a coaching job at the College of Wooster, was hired by the recently hired athletic director Joe McMullen, under whom he had previously worked at the University of Akron in the 1950s. HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) Marshall University commemorated the 50th anniversary of one of the worst sports disasters in U.S. history Saturday, a plane crash that killed most of the football team. Its still considered the worst air disaster in American sports history. A memorial bell tower is being planned for a location on WV 75 near exit 1 along Interstate 64. "It was losing faith in these ministers. He has followed Marshall football all his lifeand makes a video tribute for his friend every year. He was well-liked by his teammates not a rah-rah kid, but one who led by example.". Dawson's brother had been recruited by Bryant, so there was a relationship. The late Jack Hardin, then a Huntington Herald-Dispatch reporter, once recalled stepping over a log on his way up the hill to cover the story. The victims included 36 football players and 39 school administrators, coaches, fans, spouses and flight crew. We each lost one or more family members, said Call, the ceremonys keynote speaker. The opponent was scheduled to be East Carolinathe same team that defeated Marshall before the disaster took place. "For years, it was just a total devastating thing," Call said. He went to work one day and didn't come home.". Harris' father, Art Sr., was one of the fans on the plane. Dawson and Parker were buying boiled peanuts at a country store in rural Virginia when they heard the news over the radio. That's the unseen damage left a half century later after a Southern Airways DC- 9 carrying the Thundering Herd back from a game at East Carolina crashed into a hill a mile short of the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, West Virginia. Joe Hood, Larry Sanders, Robert Van Horn and Freddy Wilson had come from Druid High School. _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); The Tolleys were ingrained in the community. [24], Marshall was scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the air disaster in their football season opener on August 29, 2020. Dawson was retained by Tolley. A plaque was placed on the base on August 10, 1973, reading: They shall live on in the hearts of their families and friends forever and this memorial records their loss to the university and the community. "I asked her many, many times [why she urged him to stay] before she passed," Carter said. Varsity Aces Live: Marshall Football Plane Crash 50th Anniversary. He hid behind that sycamore each Nov. 14 for 20 years or so afterward because it hid him from the speeches, the families, the orphans, maybe his own remorse. [16] The committee decided upon one major memorial within the campus, a plaque and memorial garden at Fairfield Stadium, and a granite cenotaph at the Spring Hill Cemetery; the Memorial Student Center was designated a memorial as well.[17]. The pair were listening to country music when the bulletin came across that a plane had crashed in Huntington. [12] Lengyel led the Thundering Herd to a 933 record during his tenure, which ended after the 1974 season. Marshall coach Rick Tolley demonstrating a move to team captain Dave Griffith, Mike Blake and Dave DeBord (left to right) in 1970. "Al" Saylor, #88,1970 MU Football team, b&w. This flight was the only flight that year for the Marshall University football team. That day nine years ago, "Frank Beamer became a very special person in my mind," Hamrick said. Some who were left off the flight and did not make the trip or lost loved ones spent the next five decades with crippling questions that had no answers. Aircraft and crew. We'll look at what happened to the Marshall University football program as a . Saylor was killed in the plane crash. > The rebuilding of the football program was the subject of the 2006 movie We are Marshall starting Matthew McConaughey. At age 78, there's a part of Dawson that questions whether fate is the lone reason he is not among those being memorialized rather than those observing it. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Rick, he ran them off. The aircraft "dipped to the right, almost inverted, and had crashed into a hollow 'nose-first'". Slezak believes Harris Sr. flew to the wrong city Greenville, South Carolina, instead of Greenville, North Carolina, where East Carolina is located. Call is giddy talking about Marshall president Jerome Gilbert's initiative to award all 36 players their diplomas at a Friday afternoon ceremony. The inspiring story even made it to the big screen in 2006. [19], On November 11, 2000, the We Are Marshall Memorial Bronze was dedicated. 6-keys: media/spln/collegefootball/reg/free/stories, at ", "This was a city, the largest in the state, that literally went into a four-day state of shock," Brunner said. After the game, 37 members of the Marshall football team, its coaching staff, team doctors, University Athletic Director Charles E. Kautz, and some 25 team fans and boosters boarded Southern Airway Flight 932 and departed from Kinston, North Carolina at 6:38 p.m. en route to the Tri-State Airport outside Kenova, West Virginia. From that moment, we became one family.. Dedication of Memorial Fountain to MU plane crash victims, Nov. 12, 1972. In the days before instant news, the fog of tragedy took time to lift. Marshall is ranked No. He went recruiting. To be honest, when she told me, I didn't believe her because we had never had a plane trip.". "The Lord has been good to me," he concluded. February 15, 2023, 10:43 AM. 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. He has accomplished that goal. The rebuilding was the subject of the 2006 movie We are Marshall starring Matthew McConaughey as Lengyel. Druid High School football players sign grants-in-aid with Marshall in the spring of 1969. In the transcript of their cockpit communications in the final minutes, the pilots briefly debated that their autopilot had "captured" for a glide slope descent, although the airport was only equipped with a localizer. "You have to realize he had to tell several, several players' families, all the ones that he recruited. Although the airport runway has since been lengthened past its original threshold, making historical measurements more difficult, the NTSB official report provides, "the accident occurred during hours of darkness at 38 22' 27" N. latitude and 82 34' 42" W. Featured speakers were Chancellor Steve Ballard, Athletic Director Terry Holland, Pirates' broadcaster Jeff Charles, and Marshall president, Stephen Kopp. The 1970 Marshall Thundering Herd football team was an American football team that represented Marshall University as an independent during the 1970 NCAA University Division football season. Those were diplomas they never had a chance to receive. That game did not occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina, USA . Digital Collections (aka "The Marshall University Football Team Crash") November 14th, 1970. This site is a memorial to the lives that were lost on that evening; to honor those men and women who made a mark in the hearts of a school, a community and a nation. (East Carolina is located nearby in Greenville.) Bobby East, driver of the #21 Ford during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, died Wednesday, July 13, 2022, after being fatally stabbed at a gas station in Westminster, Calif. All six players would later be put to rest underground at the Spring Hill Cemetery just near Marshall University. var _gaq = _gaq || []; Report: Big 12 in recent contact with Pac-12 schools, Rules committee proposes change to speed up games, Saban unhappy over proposed permanent rivals, USC coach Lincoln Riley builds the perfect QB. Marshall coach Doc Holliday invited him to speak to the team. The flight shouldve been nothing more than a formality, but the team would never reach their destination back in Huntington. That is certainly what was going to happen.". Marshall's Plane Crash Happened 52 Years Ago, But the Memory Still Remains. 1970 Marshall Thundering Herd football team, 1970 NCAA University Division independents football records, 1970 NCAA University Division football season, "Memories of Marshall; ex-player says shock of crash never ends", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1970_Marshall_Thundering_Herd_football_team&oldid=1109112752, 1970 NCAA University Division independents football season, Marshall Thundering Herd football seasons, Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using CFB schedule with named parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 8 September 2022, at 01:19. They even won a couple of games. The controller gave them clearance to land. He said,'Mrs. Shortly thereafter, he surrendered his life to Christ. "My mom got on the phone, and then she just passed out, said Carolyn Harris, the youngest daughter. When Lengyel was hired as Tolley's replacement, Dawson stayed but only for a while. Sketch is matted and framed. Libraries In its second season under head coach Rick Tolley, the team compiled a 36 record and was outscored by a total of 202 to 138. Slezak, who lived in Passaic, New Jersey,at the time,could have been on the plane that, on Nov. 14, 1970, crashed and took the lives of 75 passengers including 44 Marshall University football players and coaches, 26 fans and a crew of five. Kautz died in the 1970 plane crash. "He was a tremendous athlete who could do it all. Marshall decided to continue the football program. This event taught me how to celebrate someones life. His life was spared that night a half century ago. Parker flew to the game, but did not fly back, having switched places with Deke Brackett, another coach. Rick Tolley is behind him. No one prepared her for what was next. The solemn ceremony was held around a fountain dedicated to the crash victims on Marshalls Huntington campus. Digitized University Archives Collections 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. Smith became the football team's spokesperson at the annual ceremony, where he delivers an annual message to parents, siblings, friends and coworkers of the victims who are still heartbroken by the tragedy that takes them back in time. Beamer had brought a special Hokie Stone inscribed with Loria's name. A number of the victims are buried in a grave site in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington; 20th Street between Joan C. Edwards Stadium, Marshall's current on-campus football stadium, and Spring Hill Cemetery was renamed Marshall Memorial Boulevard in honor of the crash victims. In fact, it was stronger than that. Once again, on Saturday, Dawson will speak at the fountain ceremony. The college town agreed with him. Insurance agents were annoying. The victims included 36 Marshall University football players, 9 coaches and administrators, 25 fans and air crew of 5. . [22], On Nov. 14, 1970, 75 people died in the worst sports-related air tragedy in U.S. history, when a Southern Airways DC-9 crashed into a hillside nearby.The victims included 36 Marshall University football players, 9 coaches and administrators, 25 fans and air crew of 5.No one survived this horrific disaster.[1]. "I believe I want to be buried up there with my boys," Dawson said. One day, the wife of the head coach was in class. Members of the current team also visited a nearby cemetery, where six players from the 1970 team whose bodies were never identified were buried. "For a long time, he couldn't handle it," Call said. Six weeks before the Marshall tragedy, a plane carrying members of the Wichita State football team crashed in Colorado, killing 31 people. MU plane crash historical marker, Wayne County, W.Va. Southern Airways DC-9, similiar to plane that crashed with MU football team, Dedication of Memorial Fountain to MU plane crash victims, Nov. 12, 1972, William Alfred "Red" Dawson, Asst. All Rights Reserved. In the report, the NTSB concluded, "[] the probable cause of this accident was the descent below Minimum Descent Altitude during a nonprecision approach under adverse operating conditions, without visual contact with the runway environment". Or would he have gotten on the plane himself? That was an overwhelming responsibility.".