Marshall
The 1970’s were a time of great sports along with great athletes like Muhammad Ali, OJ Simpson, and Bruce Jenner (Napoli 2). But for Marshall its sports suffered greatly. How could they bounce back?
Marshall’s origins trace all the way back to 1837. Marshall’s founders were John Laidley, James Holder by, William Buffington . The school was named for supreme court justice John Marshall(“Marshall University History”). The school finally got it’s start. On March 30th 1838 the Virginia general assembly formally incorporated Marshall Academy. It’s first full term was from 1838-1839. However the civil war forced it to close for several years(“Marshall University History”). Marshall is still around today. It is one of the bigger colleges in the United States. But tragedy can happen to the biggest.
Saturday November 14th 1970 the plane carrying Marshall’s football team crashed. The team was on it’s way back home from a 17-14 loss against East Carolina. The weather was terrible with heavy rain with broken clouds at five hundred feet. The plane crashed into a hillside full of trees two miles from the airport in Kenova West Virginia(“Plane crash devastates Marshall”). The plane and it’s fuel caught fire on impact. Anyone would have been very lucky to survive something like that. Thirty-seven of Marshall’s football players suffered and died in the plane crash. Marshall’s coaches, doctors, and their athletic director. Also twenty-five team boosters died. Seventy-five people in all. Their were six players who’s remains could not be identified. Their remains are buried at the Springhill cemetery over looking Marshall University(“Plane crash devastates Marshall”). The crash is probably one of the worse in history. Other than 9-11.
For Huntington West Virginia the crash was “like the Kennedy assassination” One citizen recounted. Marshall held a memorial service in the stadium the day after the fatal crash. Monday classes were canceled. Shops and government offices were closed(“plane crash devastates Marshall”). Huntington West Virginia was in a state of mourning for weeks even months. the parents of the players are probably still mourning today. There were so many funerals they had to be spread out over weeks(“plane crash devastates Marshall”).
Rebuilding Marshall’s football program would be a very long and difficult task starting with the stadium. The stadium had not been renovated since before world war two. It had been condemned in 1962. Along with that the school was suspended by the NCAA for over one hundred recruiting violations(“plane crash devastates Marshall”). The team and the school were having a tuff time. The suspension just made it all worse. Marshall University was looking for an answer so, they turned to Jack Lengyel. Jack was hired from Wooster college(“Marshall university history”). Wooster