In the next second, though, the co-pilot quickly calls out new readings, "hundred and twenty-six hundred", and the sounds of impact immediately follow. This flight was the only flight that year for the Marshall University football team. Patricia Smith was adopted and eventually, after exhaustive research, tracked down the identity of her father at age 30. Sturmisch lived to be 13. I don't think I believed it.. Page 1. One day, the wife of the head coach was in class. Mom and her intuition won. (function() { Its not an anniversary, but its a day to remember. The Tolleys were ingrained in the community. It all began with a three-year long losing streak from season 1966-69. "You couldn't count on it," Dawson said. Offering Aviation History & Adventure First-Hand! W.Va. State historical marker 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. "For years, it was just a total devastating thing," Call said. She spoke of her husband's early days as an assistant at Ferrum Junior College in Virginia. "Happy" Heath, of Huntington, West Virginia, Elaine Lois Heath, of Huntington, West Virginia, James Jarrell, of Huntington, West Virginia, Cynthia Scott Leslie Jarrell, of Huntington, West Virginia, Kenneth Jones, of Huntington, West Virginia - WHTN-TV sports director, Charles E. Kautz - Athletic director of Marshall University, Eugene J. Morehouse - sports information director, Jeffrey P. Nathan, of Parksburg, West Virginia - sports editor of MU's student newspaper, Dr. Brian R. O'Connor, of Huntington, West Virginia - admissions director of Marshall University, Michael R. Prestera, delegate-elect to the West Virginia Legislature, Dr. Glenn Preston, of Huntington, West Virginia - Local dentist, Phyllis Jean Charles Preston, of Huntington, West Virginia, Dr. Herbert D. Proctor, of Huntington, West Virginia, Courtney Phillips Proctor, of Huntington, West Virginia, Murrill Ralsten, of Huntington, West Virginia - City councilman, Helen Ralsten, of Huntington, West Virginia, Parker Ward, of Huntington, West Virginia, Danny Deese, of Atlanta, Georgia - Charter coordinator, Copyright 2002 Check SixThis page last updated Saturday, August 25, 2018. with questions or comments about this web site. "I asked her many, many times [why she urged him to stay] before she passed," Carter said. Her flight made it safely back to that same Tri-State Airport the Marshall plane never reached. Anniversaries are supposed to be happy, Slezak said from his home in New Mexico. That was an overwhelming responsibility.". What they witnessed was dystopian. The event marked a boundary by which an entire community would forever measure time before or after The Crash. They couldn't see. Yolanda Shoebridge, the mother ofTed Shoebridge, called the Harris home on Linden Street. In its second season under head coach Rick Tolley . If her husband was too hard-nosed or too tough, those notions were dispelled in the days after her world was turned upside down. He was the Athletic Director for MU. "I got a call from our operations guy. "'The phrase is about respect, and it makes you realize you can't take anything for granted. Following its plane crash, Wichita State was granted similar permission to use freshmen on the varsity to resume its 1970 season. briefly mourned after the 17-14 defeat, but what happened after the game shook the school and the town to its core. Dawson goes to games again. [21], November 14, 2013, marked the first time that Marshall had played a road game on an anniversary of the disaster. December 10, 2006 Herald-Dispatch [Huntington]. It was donated to the university by Marshall fans and is attached to Joan C. Edwards Stadium on the west faade. Among the losses were nearly the entire Marshall University football team, coaches, flight crew, numerous fans, and supporters. The next day, Mary Jane was gone. 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. 16 and undefeated at 6-0. But for the university and the entire community, it left a huge void. 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. 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. New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina, USA . During the 1970 college football season, Marshall suffered a devastating loss to East Carolina in week 9 to drop the Thundering Herd to 3-6 on the year. [4], The NTSB investigated the accident and its final report was issued on April 14, 1972. It was impossible for the remaining Marshall players to forget about their fallen teammates, but they had to when the 1971 season approached. That was the era before the color barrier had been broken in the SEC. The victims included 36 football players and 39 school administrators, coaches, fans, spouses and flight crew. Plymales mother attended a funeral in North Carolina, and her family became close friends with the victims family. The plane descended below the Minimum Descent Altitude, striking trees on a hillside about one mile from the runway. Kautz died in the 1970 plane crash. Private. ". "It was losing faith in these ministers. They stayed in Marshall for a fundraising event. All 75 people on board died. New Bern National Cemetery. > There are gravesites at Spring Hill Cemetery bearing the remains of six Marshall players from the crash who could never be identified. There's no evidence any of those left behind were ever formally diagnosed with survivor's guilt, but you can hear it directly or indirectly when the incident is spoken about. 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. 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. "Kenova to dedicate crash memorial Monday." ". The team and residents of the town still gather together every year in memorial of the fallen fellows. [12] Lengyel led the Thundering Herd to a 933 record during his tenure, which ended after the 1974 season. The Thundering Herd upset Xavier, 15-13, in an emotional victory for the ages. To be honest, when she told me, I didn't believe her because we had never had a plane trip.". Never forget. Three-and-a-half years after the crash in 1974, Carter was working with Carl Hewlett, a former Marshall pitcher. After an uneventful flight, the crew contacted Huntington Airport tower at 7:23 p.m. and were cleared for a localizer approach on runway 11. "In my case, it became clear four years later. var _gaq = _gaq || []; The dog's name was Sturmisch. 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. This time, they decided if all couldn't go, none of them could go. Patient as an elementary school teacher but also unrelenting. Marshall University. 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. Allen Gene Skeens, #59, 1970 MU Football team, b&w. "The Lord has been good to me," he concluded. [23] The tribute was repeated for the rest of the season, including when Marshall met Rice in the 2013 Conference USA Football Championship game. "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. Huntington, West Virginia: The four remaining starters from the 1970 first string team of Marshall University take time out to pause at flower arrangement placed at Marshall Field following the devastating plane crash that killed all 75 aboard. The Hokies were in town to play the Herd. She never could explain it other than saying God had spoken to her. 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. Artwork by Eugene Payne, Staff Artist, The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C. Its still considered the worst air disaster in American sports history. Charlie Kautz was Marshall's athletic director in 1970. The House of Delegates passed the bill last month. They left behind six children who were being babysat by Dan DAntoni, a 23-year-old assistant with the Marshall basketball program in 1970. It forever changed my life, Smith said. We Are Marshall was the rallying cry for the Thundering Herds football program in 1970. The Ceredo and Kenova fire departments were recognized at the event. 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. The crew established radio contact with air traffic controllers at 7:23 pm with instructions to descend to 5,000ft (1,500m). Dawson was not on the plane when it crashed. I realized I had been wrong about that.". The NCAA made an exception for the Thundering Herd. 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. 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. Shannon died in the plane crash. Its an inspiring tribute to those fallen lives and the devoted men who led Marshall back to glory. Spring Hill Cemetery, site of the Marshall Memorial for the 75 plane crash victims. He will speak at the annual memorial on Saturday like he has now for years. We Are Marshall starred Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel, the head coach who took over the program in 1971. A week later, he died at age 66 as a result of the injury. ", "I just generally felt we lost a great Hokie that day," Beamer said. FAQ Most of his teammates were gone, forever. 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. " Carter said. Insurance agents were annoying. "We'd always rode buses.". Dawson noticed him wiping his eyes. It's categorized as a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The co-pilot, monitoring the altimeter, called out, "It's beginning to lighten up a little bit on the ground here at seven hundred feet We're two hundred above [the descent vector]," and the charter coordinator replied, "Bet it'll be a missed approach." Allen Gene Skeens, #59, 1970 MU Football team, b&w. Skeens was killed in the plane crash. 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. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images). Unprepared, Dawson was named acting coach. Slezak went to visit Marshall in 2011, saying it was on his bucket list. December 11, 2006, Huntington Tri-State Airport/Milton J. Ferguson Field, Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, 38 22' 27" N. latitude and 82 34' 42" W. longitude, 2013 Conference USA Football Championship game, 1970 Marshall Thundering Herd football team, List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft, Wichita State University football team plane crash, "Marshall crash still looms after 36 years", "Plane crash devastates Marshall University", "The story of the 1970 Marshall Plane Crash", "Tragedy litters the sports landscape: Marshall remains the worst sports-related air disaster", "Reporter recalls memories from worst sports- related air tragedy in US history", "NTSB Aircraft Accident Report Southern Airways Inc. DC-9, N97S, Tri-State Airport, Huntington, West Virginia, November 14, 1970", "People have not forgotten Marshall Crash 30 years ago", "Emotions of tragedy drew Lengyel to Marshall", "Marshall football, 50 years after plane crash, carries on, and remembers", "Akron Alum Jack Lengyel to Receive AFCA's McLaughry Award", "Memorial Fountain designed to represent 'upward growth, immortality, eternality', "Marshall Memorial Bronze unveiled to mix of emotions", "Marker placed at site of crash, Dec. 11, 2006", "43 years later, Marshall still honors memory of fallen players", "Marshall Football to Don '75' Helmets for Remainder of Season", "ECU, Marshall game postponed due to pandemic", Aviation history synopsis of Southern Airways Flight 932 (with photographs), List of victims of Southern Airways Flight 932, PlaneCrashInfo.Com Southern Airways Flight 932 entry, Marshall University Forensic Science Graduate Program, Marshall University South Charleston Campus, Arthur Weisberg Family Engineering Laboratories, Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center, Evergreen International Airlines Flight 17, 1990 Wayne County Airport runway collision, Capitol International Airways Flight C2C3/26, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Southern_Airways_Flight_932&oldid=1142434206, Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1970, Airliner accidents and incidents in West Virginia, Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain, Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, November 1970 events in the United States, Aviation accidents and incidents involving sports teams, Articles with dead external links from May 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 10:15. Trademarked and copyrighted images and insignia are the exclusive property of Marshall University. . An Equal Opportunity University. In the following weeks, Lengyel was aided in his attempts by receivers' coach Red Dawson. She has made it her responsibility to track down pictures of all 75 victims for Saturday's memorial. White roses are placed along the edge of the Memorial Fountain to honor the 75 lives lost in the 1970 plane crash during the 50th Annual Memorial Fountain Service Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020, at the Memorial Student Center in Huntington, W.Va. Marshall commemorated the 50th anniversary of the worst disaster in U.S. sports history, when 75 people, including most of the football team, were killed in a Nov. 14, 1970, plane crash. "At 21, you haven't been familiar with death. But that begs the very human question of why God spared him and not those on the plane? "It was horrible because it was a non-ending funeral. The solemn ceremony was held around a fountain dedicated to the crash victims on Marshalls Huntington campus. "He had a great future in front of him. Marshall Plane Crash Site Marker. 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. Former Marshall cheerleader Lucianne Kautz Call lost her father, Charlie E. Kautz, who was the universitys athletic director. After suffering the loss to East Carolina on Nov. 14, 1970, a majority of the Marshall team boarded Southern Airlines Flight 932. "God is your pilot. "I'm still wondering why.". But when the town got together, they decided to continue the team's tradition in remembrance of the loved ones lost on that 1970 night. 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. Im glad that were going to honor them for each year in this way from here on out.. But I already knew. The NCAA granted Marshall permission to use freshmen on the varsity squad, something which was not allowed at the time. One day, she rounded a corner in her house. Page of 4. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Forty years from the time they had last seen each other -- the day before the crash -- the teacher saw the student and asked, "Soletta, is that you?". They became friends and fished together. Digitized University Archives Collections. The NCAA repealed that prohibition at its annual convention in January 1972. Druid High School football players sign grants-in-aid with Marshall in the spring of 1969. Rick Tolley had helped him with the plane ticket to get back home. | Marshall coach Rick Tolley demonstrating a move to team captain Dave Griffith, Mike Blake and Dave DeBord (left to right) in 1970. Plymale said his mother was a professor at Marshall. And then, after the game, if Slezak had been there, would that have deterred Art Sr. from getting on the plane? Middle guard Ed Carter was back in Wichita Falls, Texas, that terrible day to bury his father. It's called survivor's guilt, the feeling of unfairly surviving an incident when others did not. The solemn ceremony was held around a fountain dedicated to the crash victims on Marshall's Huntington campus. [1] The team played its home games at Fairfield Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia. 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. Parker flew to the game, but did not fly back, having switched places with Deke Brackett, another coach. It was real big-time negligence. I dont know what to call it.. "Couldn't keep the tears out of my eyes. "We got her when she was 6 weeks old. All six players would later be put to rest underground at the Spring Hill Cemetery just near Marshall University. "It made you wretch," Brunner said, "and I did several times.". "At 1 o'clock in the morning, a detective came to the door. He has accomplished that goal. Cemetery Visibility: Public. There was room for only a few of them on the plane to Kinston, North Carolina. [15], Marshall University President John G. Barker and Vice President Dedmon appointed a memorial committee soon after the crash. "Nobody did anything. In 2000, at age 50, Call became a flight attendant with USAir Express. On a rainy hill side in Wayne County, West Virginia, the lives of 75 people were lost in the worst single air tragedy in NCAA sports history. Rescue teams search for victims at the site of the Yeti Airlines plane crash, in Pokhara on January 17, 2023. He never did try to preach to me. Digitized University Archives Collections Of course, she misses her husband. 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. [2][7] The plane burst into flames and created a swath of charred ground 95ft (29m) wide and 279ft (85m) long. section: | slug: they-are-marshall-50-years-after-the-plane-crash-those-closest-to-the-tragedy-are-still-healing | sport: collegefootball | route: article_single.us | Dave Griffith, #81, 1970 MU Football team, b&w. He was the center. "He didn't tell anyone what he was going to do until the last minute," Hamrick said. She would just listen to the game on the radio. "It was not a premonition. Al Carelli, Jr., Assistant coach, 1970 MU Football team, b&w. Marshall fans and residents of Huntington, W.V. Scott Jenkins. Without an official designation, she has become the best historian of the events of 50 years ago. A memorial fountain will be turned off the same time it is every year only to be turned back on in the spring. 37 of them were members of the football team. 75 members, coaches, and fans were killed in November 1970 plane crash. Near Huntington, West Virginia. If he had gone with Art Sr., would they have made the same mistake or would they have flown to the correct city? They had met in Roanoke, Virginia, where she taught. 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. The decision had been made long before the East Carolina game that Dawson would be out recruiting after the game. He was 37. His jersey hangs in Passaic High School. It's more than that, of course. The tragedy was depicted in the movie We Are Marshall (2006) and the documentary film Marshall University: Ashes to Glory (2000). Eventually, Rick won over their hearts and minds. "He was a tremendous athlete who could do it all. - The Yeti Airlines flight with 68. Libraries "All of them were fighting and arguing over each other about whose fault it was. 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. It signified the teams unity as not just a football team, but one family. I made a promise to Mrs. Harris that he would never be forgotten.. "I took the phone, but Mrs. Shoebridge was crying hysterically. Marshall's Plane Crash Happened 52 Years Ago, But the Memory Still Remains. This goes deep, Plymale said. Carter hardly knew anyone on the team who carried on. 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. 2023 Marshall University. Mary Jane Tolley didn't go because the local veterinarian recommended she stay because the couple's dog was sick. 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. Mary Jane was persistent. Harris died in the 1970 plane crash. On Saturday, it will be Middle Tennessee State. The two didn't get along, according to Dawson. Charles A. "When the 14th of November comes around every year, all the worms and stuff start getting in your head," Dawson said. Tolley's grave was moved up there a few years ago. On the 50th anniversary, they're both still around. Reggie Oliver was an outgoing quarterback who eventually made his way into the Marshall hall of fame. 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.