This
is one of the saddest moments to have ever happened in the country, let alone
the world of Collegiate Athletics. Yesterday on November 14 1970, a plane crashed
that was carrying the entire Marshall University football team. The crash
occurred at 7:35 p.m. Southern Airways Flight 932 was returning to Ceredo, West
Virginia after leaving Kinston, North Carolina. The team was returning home
after a 17-14 loss to the East Carolina Pirates at Ficklen Stadium in
Greenville, North Carolina. The crash occurred during the flight’s final
approach into the Tri-State Airport when it collided with the tops of some
trees.
The cause for this could be due to the heavy fog and rain in the local
area, but nothing will be know for sure until the NTSB concludes their
investigation into the crash, which could take a year or more to complete. It
could have also been the fact that neither pilot had flown into the Tri-State
Airport before. Just a combination of unfortunate circumstances could have led
to this accident. Tragically, everyone on board was killed on impact. A total
of 75 people were on board the flight including 37 players from the Marshall
University Thundering Herd football team, 8 members of the coaching staff, 25
boosters who supported the team, 4 members of the flight crew, and one employee
of the chartering company for the team.
This is coming out late on the 15th, so I would be
able to tell everyone what kind of memorial services were held and how the
nation reacted to the tragedy. Earlier today, a memorial service was held in
the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse that included moments of silence for those
that we lost and prayers. An early report of how many people attended the
service reaches nearly 7,000. For those of you who do not know, the Veterans
Memorial Fieldhouse is an arena in Huntington, West Virginia. It holds its
place as the home of the Marshall University basketball teams. It is able to
hold around 8,500 people at once.
Classes on campus at Marshall University were
cancelled out of respect for those we lost. Shops and government buildings in
Huntington were also closed, a sign that the whole town is grieving over this
loss. A question that no one wants to ask is what about the future of football
at Marshall? This is certainly not the time to be asking such a question, but
it makes you wonder. Hopefully the community will be able to pull through this tragedy
and move on. My condolences go out to those affected by this tragedy and my
prayers are with you and the families of those deceased.
What a truly unfortunate accident this was. From what I gather it was a mixture of unfortunate coincidences that affected the flight the team was on; the pilots being inexperienced in that area, the weather, etc. It is amazing, however, how many people came out to their funeral to show their respect for all of the deceased. The unity of a community after such an event is somewhat of a silver lining. I cannot imagine a college having to go through that tragedy. And, I can only recall a couple of moments in history when a college has had to deal with such an ordeal but those have mainly dealt with sudden shootings at the school or the loss of only one of its players/students. - Adriana Garcia
ReplyDeleteIt really was a shocking event. It happened so suddenly and no one was prepared for it. The thing that shows how unified the community was was that the town shut down shops and government buildings like the post office. I can't imagine something like this happening today. Hopefully this kind of tragedy won't happen to any colleges again.
DeleteHow tragic for all the parents, as well as the school. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for the recruiters of the school to have to replace the entire team. It also must have been extremely difficult for the students to go out and support the new team at the games. I think it must have been equally hard for the new football players the following years to represent this team as they were associated with the crash, and had to practice on the same field, and use the same locker rooms. The school spirit for the football team at Marshall University must have suffered greatly. This incidence is very devastating.
ReplyDeleteThis tragedy must have been so shocking for the nation because in a million years no one would ever expect a whole football team plus coaches and boosters to die in a plane crash. I remember watching the movie called we are marshall and knew it was based on this event but I never knew the full facts about how many died and how tragic it really. I am really glad to hear that 7,000 people went to the funeral though and that the school, and shops were closed down in memory. One could only imagine being a parent or good friend with anyone who went down in that plane.
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