55 years later: Plane crash devastates Marshall's football team

Jeff Hauser

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55 years later: Plane crash devastates Marshall's football team image

55 years after the darkest day in Marshall University’s history, the city of Huntington paused Friday to honor the 75 lives lost in the 1970 plane crash that forever reshaped the school, its football program and the community around it.

On Nov. 14, 1970, a chartered Southern Airways DC-9 carrying the Marshall football team, coaches, medical staff, athletic director and dozens of prominent supporters crashed into a hillside short of the Huntington Tri-State Airport.

The plane clipped a stand of trees in heavy fog while returning from a 17-14 loss at East Carolina. All 75 people aboard died in what remains the deadliest sports tragedy in U.S. History.

In 1970, the crash devastated a program that had already endured years of hardship. The university’s old stadium had been condemned in the 1960s, and the football team struggled through winless stretches and NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations. Yet by 1970, optimism had returned. The Herd had installed new facilities, cleaned up the program and believed better days were ahead.

How the community of Huntington dealt with the loss

Instead came a loss so staggering that residents compared its impact to the Kennedy assassination. Businesses closed the following day. Black bunting lined downtown storefronts. Funerals stretched across weeks, including a heartbreaking ceremony at Spring Hill Cemetery where six unidentified players were buried together.

Marshall faced an impossible rebuild. Jack Lengyel was hired from Wooster College and took over in wake of the tragedy. He relied on freshmen, walk-ons and the nine varsity players who had not traveled that night.

In 1971, the rebuilt team delivered one of the most emotional wins in college football history. A last-second 15-13 victory over Xavier in its first home game since the crash. The events were later chronicled in the 2006 film "We are Marshall," starring Matthew McConaughey, who played Lengyel. 

Rebuilding after tragedy 

The program eventually rose again, producing championships, NFL players and national recognition. But each year, the city returns to remember those lost. 

Now over a half-century later, the names of the 75 remain etched into the university’s identity and a reminder of a community that refused to let tragedy define it.

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