On a rainy hill side in Wayne County, West Virginia in 1970, the lives of 75 people were lost and the fabric of the city of Huntington, W.Va., was forever changed.
On Nov. 14, 1970 a chartered jet carrying most of the Marshall University football team clipped a stand of trees and crashed into a hillside just two miles from the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, W.Va., killing all 75 people onboard.
The football team was returning from that day’s game, a 17-14 loss to East Carolina University. A total of 37 members of the Thunder Herd were aboard the plane as well as five coaches, seven staff members, 21 boosters, two pilots, two flight attendants and a charter co-ordinator.
Among the boosters, joining the team on their lone flight of the season, were some of Huntington’s most prominent citizens, including a city councilman, a state legislator and four physicians. Seventy children had at least one parent die in the crash, with 18 of them left orphaned.
The event marked a boundary of time in Huntington, a moment the community could measure the times of their life either before or after the crash.
The accident is the deadliest tragedy for any sports team in U.S. history. The National Transportation Safety Board issued its final report in 1972, concluding, “The probable cause of this accident was the descent below Minimum Descent Altitude during a non-precision approach under adverse operating conditions, without visual contact with the runway environment.”
A 1986 Marshall graduate, school president Brad Smith, told WV Public Broadcasting that the legacy of the 75 victims fuels a growing fire of university progress.
“I think with every year, the meaning grows stronger,” Smith said. “It reminds us, not only of those that we lost, but reminds us of how much we’ve advanced together. I think it reinforces the most important word in our rally cry, ‘We are Marshall,’ and so each and every year, it just makes our bond that much stronger. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Their sacrifice became our reason.”
The News is looking back at notable events in history as we celebrated our 140th publishing year on Oct. 29.
On Nov. 15, 1970, a memorial service was held at Marshall’s 8,500-seat Veterans Memorial indoor Fieldhouse with moments of silence, remembrances and prayers.
The University considered indefinitely suspending the football program, ultimately retuning to the field with 18 returning players and incoming freshmen. The NCAA granted Marshall permission to use freshmen on the varsity squad, a rule that was eventually repealed in 1972.
Head coach Jack Lengyel was hired to take over for Rick Tolley, who died in the crash. Receiver coach Red Dawson was not on the flight, opting to drive back to Huntington that night. He was one of two serving members of the previous coaching staff helping rebuild the team.
Marshall won just two games during the 1971 season, beating Xavier and Bowling Green. Their first winning season after the crash came in 1984. Three seasons later they lost in the Division I-AA National Championship, losing in the same final in 1991 before capturing the title in ’92 and ’96.
The plane crash was dramatized in a 2006 film ‘We Are Marshall’, named after the school’s battle cry, starring Matthew McConaughey as Lengyel and Matthew Fox as Dawson.
Every Nov. 14 since the crash, Marshall University and the Huntington community have remembered and honoured the 1970 football team. Each year, on the anniversary of the crash, the Marshall University Memorial Fountain is shut during a commemorative ceremony and not activated again until the following spring.
A number of the victims are buried in a grave site in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington, six unidentified members of the flight were buried in adjoining graves that overlook the school’s campus.
“Now we came here today to remember six young men and 69 others who will not be on the field with you today, but they will be watching,” McConaughey said in the film. “You can bet your (butt) that they’ll be gritting their teeth with every snap of that football.
“How you play today, from this moment on is how you will be remembered. This is your opportunity to rise from these ashes and grab glory.”
