Southern Airlines Flight 932
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On the evening of November 14, 1970, a chartered Southern Airways DC-9 commercial jet crashed into a hill near the Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia. All seventy-five people on the flight were killed. The plane was carrying the thirty-seven members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football squad, eight members of the coaching staff, and twenty-five boosters home after a 17-14 loss against the East Carolina University Pirates in Greenville, NC. Five crew members also lost their lives.
The plane crashed into a hillside about a mile from the runway as it approached the Tri-State airport. The exact cause of the crash was never fully determined by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash almost led to the school's football program being discontinued. However, coach Jack Lengyel, students, and Thundering Herd football fans convinced Marshall's dean, Dr. Donald N. Dedmon, to reconsider. In the weeks afterward, Lengyel, with the aid of receivers coach William "Red" Dawson, a coach on the old staff who had recruiting duties in the area and had driven back from the East Carolina game and thus was not on Flight 932, brought together a group of players who were on the junior varsity during the 1970 season and other students and athletes in other sports (some who had never played football before), and fielded a team. The team only won two games in 1971, but arguably, it was their first win against the Xavier Musketeers by the score of 15-13, on September 25, 1971 on their home field, Fairfield Stadium, that was the most uplifiting. They also defeated Bowling Green State University.
Ultimately, Jack Lengyel would lead the Thundering Herd to a 9-33 record during his tenure, which ended after the 1974 season.
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[edit] Memorial
Each year on the anniversary of the crash, those who died are still mourned in a ceremony on the Marshall University campus in Huntington, West Virginia. A number of the victims of the plane crash are buried in a grave site in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington; 20th Street, the road that leads from the cemetery to the campus, was renamed to Marshall Memorial Boulevard in their honor.
On December 11, 2006, a memorial plaque was dedicated at the plane crash site [1]. The ceremony featured guest speakers Red Dawson and Jack Hardin. The Ceredo and Kenova fire departments were recognized at the event. A memorial bell tower is being planned for a location on WV 75 near exit 1 along Interstate 64.
On December 11, 2006, a plaque memorializing the 1970 Marshall football team was unveiled at East Carolina University 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 Kopp.
[edit] Film
We Are Marshall, a film dramatizing the crash and its repercussions, will Premiere on December 12, 2006 in Huntington, WV. (General release will be December 22, 2006.) It stars Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel and Matthew Fox as Red Dawson.
[edit] References
- ^ Pinkston, Antwon. "Kenova to dedicate crash memorial Monday." 10 Dec. 2006 Herald-Dispatch [Huntington]. 11 Dec. 2006 [1].
