The Marshall University Plane Crash: A Tragedy Remembered
On November 14, 1970, a tragedy struck the heart of Huntington, West Virginia, and the Marshall University community. A chartered Southern Airways DC-9 jet, en route from Kinston, North Carolina, to Huntington Tri-State Airport, crashed just a mile and a half short of the runway, claiming the lives of all 75 people on board. The devastating event wiped out most of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, along with coaches, staff, boosters, and crew. The crash remains one of the deadliest air disasters in U.S. sports history, leaving an indelible scar on the university and the surrounding region.
A Community's Unfathomable Loss
The Southern Airways Flight 932 carried 37 Marshall football players, along with the team’s coach, its doctors, the university athletic director and 25 team boosters-some of Huntington, West Virginia’s most prominent citizens-who had traveled to North Carolina to cheer on the Thundering Herd. The team was returning from a 17-14 loss to East Carolina University. The impact of the crash extended far beyond the university, as the boosters and prominent citizens on board included a city councilman, a state legislator, and four physicians.
The loss was particularly acute because, as one citizen of Huntington wrote, “the whole fabric… the whole heart of the town was aboard.” For Huntington, the plane crash was “like the Kennedy assassination,” one citizen remembers. “Everybody knows where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.” The town immediately went into mourning. Shops and government offices closed; businesses on the town’s main street draped their windows in black bunting. The university held a memorial service in the stadium the next day and cancelled Monday’s classes. There were so many funerals that they had to be spread out over several weeks.
Factors Leading to the Crash
At the time, Marshall's athletic teams rarely traveled by plane, since most away games were within easy driving distance of the campus. In light of the crash of the Wichita State football team just over a month earlier, school officials originally planned to cancel the flight. Instead, they opted to fly on a different plane than the one which crashed in Colorado (a Martin 4-0-4), and chartered the Southern Airways DC-9. The original proposal to charter the flight was refused because it would exceed the takeoff limitations of their aircraft. The subsequent negotiations resulted in a reduction of the weight of passengers and baggage and the charter flight was scheduled.
The controllers advised the crew that "rain, fog, smoke and a ragged ceiling" were at the airport, making landing more difficult, but possible. At 7:34 pm, the airliner's crew reported passing Tri-State Airport's outer marker. The controller gave them clearance to land. The aircraft began its normal descent after passing the outer marker, but did not arrest its descent and hold altitude at 1,240 ft (380 m), as required by the assigned instrument approach procedure. Instead, the descent continued for another 300 ft (91 m) for unknown reasons, apparently without either crew member actually seeing the airport lights or runway. In the transcript of their cockpit communications in the final minutes, the pilots briefly debated that their autopilot had captured the glide slope, although the airport was not equipped with a glide slope. The report also noted that the aircraft approached the Catlettsburg Refinery in the final 30 seconds before impact, which "could have … affected … a visual illusion produced by the difference in the elevation of the refinery and the airport," which was nearly 300 ft (91 m) higher than the refinery, with hills in between.
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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 [approach minimums]," and the charter coordinator, present in the cockpit, replied, "Bet it'll be a missed approach." The flight data recorder shows that the aircraft descended another 220 ft (67 m) within 12 seconds, and the co-pilot calls out "four hundred" and agrees with the pilot they are on the correct approach. In the next second, though, the co-pilot quickly calls out "hundred and twenty-six."
NTSB Investigation and Findings
The NTSB investigated the accident and its final report was issued on April 14, 1972. According to the official National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report, the accident was "unsurvivable". The aircraft "dipped to the right, almost inverted, and had crashed into a hollow 'nose-first' ". The airliner collided with the tops of trees on a hillside 5,543 ft (1,690 m) short of runway 11 (now runway 12). By the time the plane came to a stop, it was 4,219 ft (1,286 m) short of the runway and 275 ft (84 m) south of the middle marker. 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.
Rebuilding a Program and a Community
In the aftermath of the crash, Marshall University faced the daunting task of rebuilding its football program and healing its devastated community. Marshall got a new football coach-Jack Lengyel, from the College of Wooster in Ohio-and set about rebuilding the team. On St. Patrick's Day, 1971, College of Wooster football coach Jack Lengyel was introduced as Marshall's new head coach. Lengyel said he immediately felt a connection to Marshall when he heard about the crash.
The NCAA gave the Thundering Herd special permission to let freshmen play on the varsity squad, and Lengyel cobbled together a ragtag group of first-years, walk-ons and the nine veteran players who hadn’t been on the plane that night. The NCAA granted Marshall permission to use freshmen on the varsity squad, something which was not normally allowed at the time (the NCAA repealed that prohibition at its annual convention in January 1972). Head coach Rick Tolley was among the crash victims. Lengyel was hired to take Tolley's place on March 11, 1971, after Dick Bestwick, the first choice for the job, backed out after just one week and returned to Georgia Tech.
Lengyel's effort to rebuild the team was aided by receivers' coach Red Dawson. Dawson was a coach from the previous staff who had driven back from the East Carolina game along with Gail Parker, a freshman coach. Parker flew to the game, but did not fly back, having switched places with Deke Brackett, another coach. Dawson and Parker were buying boiled peanuts at a country store in rural Virginia when they heard the news over the radio. Before the trip, they were scheduled to go on a recruiting mission to Ferrum College after the ECU-Marshall game, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to recruit junior college linebacker Billy Joe Mantooth.
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The team lost its first game of the 1971 season but-with a last-second touchdown that seemed almost too good to be true-defeated Ohio’s Xavier University 15-13 in its first home game since the crash.
Memorials and Remembrance
The memory of the 75 lives lost in the Marshall University plane crash has been honored in numerous ways.
- Memorial Fountain: On November 12, 1972, the Marshall University Memorial Fountain was dedicated at the entrance of the Memorial Student Center. The sculpture's designer, Harry Bertoia, created the $25,000 memorial using bronze, copper tubing, and welding rods. The 6,500 lb, 13 ft-high (2,900 kg, 4 m-high) sculpture was completed within a year and a half. Every year, on the anniversary of the crash, the fountain is shut during a commemorative ceremony and not activated again until the following spring. Each year on Nov. 14, the victims of the Marshall University plane crash are remembered. Hundreds of people gather around the Memorial Fountain on campus to pause and reflect while the water is silenced and the names of all 75 are read aloud.
- Spring Hill Cemetery: A number of the victims are buried in a grave site in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington. Between the cemetery and Marshall's Joan C.
- "We Are Marshall" Memorial Bronze: On November 11, 2000, the "We Are Marshall" Memorial Bronze was dedicated. The $150,000 bronze 17×23 ft (5×7 m) statue was created by artist Burl Jones of Sissonville, West Virginia, based upon ideas by John and Ann Krieger of Huntington. It was funded by Marshall fans and is attached to Joan C. Edwards Stadium on the west façade.
- Crash Site Memorial: On December 11, 2006, a memorial plaque was dedicated at the plane crash site. The ceremony featured Dawson and Hardin as guest speakers. On Nov. history, when a Southern Airways DC-9 crashed into the hillside nearby. The victims included 36 Marshall University football players, 9 coaches and administrators, 25 fans and air crew of 5. 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 Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Featured speakers were Chancellor Steve Ballard, Athletic Director Terry Holland, Pirates' broadcaster Jeff Charles, and Marshall president Stephen J.
- Helmet Decals: November 14, 2013, marked the first time that Marshall played a road game on an anniversary of the disaster. As a memorial to the 75 victims, the Marshall players wore the number 75 on their helmets. Marshall was scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the air disaster in their football season opener on August 29, 2020. The opponent was scheduled to be East Carolina, the same team that defeated Marshall before the disaster took place.
- "We Are Marshall": The story of the crash and the subsequent rebuilding of the football program was immortalized in the 2006 film "We Are Marshall," starring Matthew McConaughey.
A Lasting Legacy of Remembrance and Resilience
The Marshall University plane crash remains a poignant reminder of the fragility of life and the enduring power of community. The annual memorial ceremonies, the monuments, and the stories passed down through generations ensure that the 75 lives lost on that fateful night in 1970 will never be forgotten. The tragedy also serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, as Marshall University and the city of Huntington emerged from the depths of despair to rebuild and honor the memory of those who were lost.
Craig T. Greenlee, who will serve as this year’s keynote speaker for the ceremony, would have been on that fateful DC-9 flight had he not made the decision to step away from football to focus on his education as a sophomore in October 1969. “I made the mistake of focusing strictly on the sadness and sorrow of the night Marshall’s plane went down,” Craig said. “I believe it’s important to look back and understand what was happening on the Marshall campus and other college campuses around the country. - Craig T. “I believe it’s important to look back and understand what was happening on the Marshall campus and other college campuses around the country. This was a time of unrest in America. The civil rights movement was still going strong. That unrest hit a fever pitch on Nov. “The prime concern was all about protecting yourself from harm and danger,” Craig said. “The following night, emotions were vastly different. The sheer shock of losing so many people that you knew personally was mind-boggling. Deep sorrow and devastation was the order of the day. At that juncture, those feelings of anger and apprehension were replaced by an overwhelming sadness that totally engulfed a campus and its surrounding communities. Racial differences didn’t matter anymore. Grief grabbed hold of every heart and soul connected to Marshall University. - Craig T. “The situation was just that volatile, but the crash was so shocking, any beef between Blacks and whites became meaningless. The hurt and devastation was all-encompassing. Now, 53 years later, Craig will experience his own full-circle Marshall moment.
“You come to understand that life is truly a gift and that nothing is guaranteed. Even so, there’s every reason to enjoy the life you have-embrace it-and make the most of your skills and abilities. You learn that it’s important to continue moving forward, even in the face of adversity.
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