Marshall coach Doc Holliday invited him to speak to the team. This is not what you wanted to hear. 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. The next day, Mary Jane was gone. [4] The controllers advised the crew that "rain, fog, smoke and a ragged ceiling" were at the airport, making landing more difficult, but possible. December 10, 2006 Herald-Dispatch [Huntington]. It has been so long that the tragedy has been memorialized that Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick has calculated that the date falls on a Saturday every seven years. He was like a sounding board.". All 75 passengers on the team plane were killed in the crash, including 37 members of the Marshall University football team, eight football coaches, including head coach Rick Tolley, athletic director Charlie Kautz, 25 boosters and five flight crew members. Because it was the Herd's only charter flight of the season, boosters and prominent citizens were on the plane, including a city councilman, a state legislator, and four physicians. The rebuilding was the subject of the 2006 movie We are Marshall starring Matthew McConaughey as Lengyel. He hid because they met once a year at the Spring Hill Cemetery memorial that honors the 75 souls who perished in the crash of the Marshall University football team plane 50 years ago this Saturday. [11] Dawson was a coach from the previous staff who had driven back from the East Carolina game along with Gail Parker, a freshman coach. Druid High School football players sign grants-in-aid with Marshall in the spring of 1969. Carelli was killed in the Mu plane crash. On the 50th anniversary, they're both still around. It was the second college football team plane crash in a little over a month, after the October 2 crash that killed 31 (head coach, 14 Wichita State players, and 16 others). "Couldn't keep the tears out of my eyes. Across the nation, many expressed their condolences. Her life had become unhinged. Slezak originally agreedbut said it would mean breaking a date. Huntington, WV 25755. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Marshall coach Rick Tolley demonstrating a move to team captain Dave Griffith, Mike Blake and Dave DeBord (left to right) in 1970. Largemouth bass were Tolley's favorite. She traveled to Washington, D.C. for the hearings that were supposed to explain the crash. They couldn't see. The solemn ceremony was held around a fountain dedicated to the crash victims on Marshalls Huntington campus. But as a freshman in 1970, Oliver didn't travel. 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. Dawson came out of the shadows long ago to embrace Nov. 14. Allen Gene Skeens, #59, 1970 MU Football team, b&w. Skeens was killed in the plane crash. Marshall captured Division I-AA national championships in 1992 and 1996 and amassed the most wins of any team in the nation in the 1990s, many of them during a step up to Division I-A, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision. Rick played football at nearby Virginia Tech. Southern Airways Flight 932 was a chartered Southern Airways Douglas DC-9 domestic United States commercial jet flight from Stallings Field (ISO) in Kinston, North Carolina, to Huntington Tri-State Airport/Milton J. Ferguson Field (HTS) near Kenova and Ceredo, West Virginia. The town died. After suffering the loss to East Carolina on Nov. 14, 1970, a majority of the Marshall team boarded Southern Airlines Flight 932. My Account Holliday wants to make a date to come out and hunt turkeys on Dawson's 400 acres outside of town. He said,'Mrs. 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. Southern Airways DC-9, similiar to plane that crashed with MU footballt team, col. (low-res digital image only). "For a long time, he couldn't handle it," Call said. Marshall fans and residents of Huntington, W.V. Just before 8 pm, the plane crashed into a hill two miles from the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, W.V., where everyone on aboard were killed on impact. Classes at Marshall, along with numerous events and shows by the Marshall Artists Series (and the football team's game against the Ohio Bobcats), were cancelled and government offices were closed. The plane descended below the Minimum Descent Altitude, striking trees on a hillside about one mile from the runway. "It was something the Lord gave her to tell me," Carter said. I try to think about all the good times and the memories we made, Slezak said. The decision had already been made regarding cheerleaders for that trip. I didn't know what to do. New coach Jack Lengyel, Marshall University students, and Thundering Herd football fans convinced acting Marshall president, Donald N. Dedmon, to reconsider cancelling the program in late 1970. W.Va. State historical marker 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. ", "I just generally felt we lost a great Hokie that day," Beamer said. We Are Marshall starred Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel, the head coach who took over the program in 1971. longitude." Featured speakers were Chancellor Steve Ballard, Athletic Director Terry Holland, Pirates' broadcaster Jeff Charles, and Marshall president, Stephen Kopp. 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. Harris Sr. told Slezak he had to keep his promises. Harris' father, Art Sr., was one of the fans on the plane. 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. The dog's name was Sturmisch. ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; He has followed Marshall football all his lifeand makes a video tribute for his friend every year. The victims included 36 football players and 39 school administrators, coaches, fans, spouses and flight crew. "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. He was a defensive end for Marshall in 1970, and was on the chartered plane when it crashed at Tri-State Airport on November 14, 1970. He and the sycamore have aged well. The event marked a boundary by which an entire community would forever measure time before or after The Crash. He became acting head coach in 1971, and formed the "Young Thundering Herd". The weather conditions were poor, mist and light rain with broken clouds at 500 feet. Without an official designation, she has become the best historian of the events of 50 years ago. Two years ago, Oliver, the personable quarterback, leaned back in a chair. A mass funeral was held at the field house and many of the dead were buried at the Spring Hill Cemetery, some together because bodies were not identifiable. Carter hardly knew anyone on the team who carried on. In 2006, Hollywood turned that inspiring slogan into one of the greatest sports movies ever made. This is believed to be a duplicate of the plane that crashed Nov. 14, 1970 carrying MU football team. On Nov. 14, 1970, the chartered jet crashed in fog and . 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. Cemetery Visibility: Public. Nobody went anywhere.". 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. [23] The tribute was repeated for the rest of the season, including when Marshall met Rice in the 2013 Conference USA Football Championship game. If you play football at Marshall University, you have a role to make sure that's never forgotten.". "At 1 o'clock in the morning, a detective came to the door. Woelfel, who had a speaking part in the movie, said it brought a lot of people back together to deal with the loss and they did it collectively. In the days before instant news, the fog of tragedy took time to lift. In 1968, Dawson was hired by new Marshall coach Perry Moss as defensive coordinator. He was taken away way too soon.". Eventually, Rick won over their hearts and minds. They arrived shortly before sunrise. They became friends and fished together. "The town immediately went into mourning. One John Marshall Drive, Among them were Dr. Ray Hagley, who was a Marshall team physician, and his wife. 6-keys: media/spln/collegefootball/reg/free/stories, at The report also noted that the craft approached the Catlettsburg Refinery in the final 30 seconds before impact, which "could haveaffecteda visual illusion produced by the difference in the elevation of the refinery and the airport," which was nearly 300ft (91m) higher than the refinery, with hills in between. Slezak went to visit Marshall in 2011, saying it was on his bucket list. Suddenly, then-Lucianne Kautz was without a father. Her flight made it safely back to that same Tri-State Airport the Marshall plane never reached. The NCAA repealed that prohibition at its annual convention in January 1972. "Kenova to dedicate crash memorial Monday." Dawson was retained by Tolley. The team and residents of the town still gather together every year in memorial of the fallen fellows. Back then, Bowden was the wide receivers coach. That day nine years ago, "Frank Beamer became a very special person in my mind," Hamrick said. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. Before the trip, they were scheduled to go on a recruiting mission to Ferrum College after the ECUMarshall game, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to recruit junior college linebacker Billy Joe Mantooth. [4][9], The effects of the crash on Huntington went far beyond the Marshall campus. Tragedy struck Marshall University more than a half-century ago, when most of the school's football program was involved in a plane crash . Digitized University Archives Collections. In the teams first home game since the plane crash, Marshall put together one of the most inspiring performances in sports history. They left behind six children who were being babysat by Dan DAntoni, a 23-year-old assistant with the Marshall basketball program in 1970. At age 69, the former Marshall defender calls himself a "traveling preacher." Unprepared, Dawson was named acting coach. From that moment, we became one family.. Vast amounts of funerals took place in the weeks and months following the tragedy, which had to be planned in accordance with each other so services wouldn't overlap. Mary Jane eventually moved to Richmond, Virginia. 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.