HUNTINGTON — Marshall University football fans heard rolling thunder before the spring football game Saturday afternoon.
HUNTINGTON — As a drizzle of rain started Saturday afternoon, the Marshall University Memorial Fountain’s water restarted to honor the rebirth of the Marshall football program in the 1970s.
HUNTINGTON — Suddenly in the 7:30 a.m. of a cold, calm Saturday, the departed reappeared. They reappeared on banners, two to a lamppost, through a stirring turn of thinking and of art. They appeared as they have in recent months along these winding sidewalks and autumn trees of the Marshall …
Editor’s Note: The Herald-Dispatch asked people what they remembered about the devastating plane crash that claimed the lives of 75 Marshall University football players, coaches, community members and others 50 years ago. Here are some of the responses:
HUNTINGTON — On Saturday, hundreds gathered in Huntington in socially distanced fashion for the Memorial Fountain Ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Marshall University plane crash that killed all 75 people aboard Southern Airways Flight 932.
HUNTINGTON — Lucianne Kautz-Call lifted a Marshall University football helmet in the air and directed the crowd to join her in shouting an all-too-familiar phrase.
HUNTINGTON — The daughter of the man who created one of Huntington’s best-known memorials is visiting the city this week, and on Friday she viewed an exhibit dedicated to his work.
HUNTINGTON — Quaking aspen trees, easily found in Canaan Valley in West Virginia, are unique in that they produce new trees from a shared root system. An infection of one tree could destroy an entire forest, but the trees live and breathe as one unit, striving to grow stronger as one.
Marshall University awarded 39 posthumous degrees Friday to the students who died in the Nov. 14 plane crash 50 years ago.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, Lucianne Kautz Call will speak about what the crash and the past 50 years have meant for her: getting the most out of life, remembering and reflecting on the past and finding new family among others who share her pain.
In light of the ongoing pandemic, strict safety precautions have been put in place for commemorative events to honor the lives lost in the Nov. 14, 1970, plane crash.
HUNTINGTON — Danny D’Antoni never will forget the moment.
Kyle Powers, student body vice president at Marshall and Wayne County native, said he created an interactive display in the Memorial Student Center so those who lost people in the crash know the victims have not been forgotten.
HUNTINGTON — A Marshall University football memorial erected in memory of five fraternity brothers who perished in the 1970 plane crash now has a permanent home on the university’s Huntington campus.
HUNTINGTON — One of the area’s best-kept secrets can be found at a funeral home on East Pea Ridge Road.
The memorial at Spring Hill Cemetery was almost a 20-foot-tall bronze statue of a football player “passing the football back to Marshall.” It was nixed after the art department said it would be in poor taste. A memorial fund was started two days after the crash to benefit the surviving famil…
Football coaches often talk of overcoming adversity — they tell their players to “get back up when you get knocked down.” That’s not just a pep talk around Huntington, West Virginia. That’s a metaphor for life, which rings truer at Marshall University than it does in most any other college t…
What I hope people remember the most about our tragedy is how we rebounded and were so resilient in the years that followed. It was devastating to lose so many who were part of the fabric of our community, university and athletics department. However, the people in and around this program pu…
"Personally, the '70s were indescribable to a lot of people. They proved how families really had to care about each other — especially the ones who lost both parents. Looking back on how so many people out of the community were so supportive of us. They were close to the people that were los…
The plane crash dropped a veil of grief and sadness that was both palpable and paralyzing over Marshall, Huntington and the families near and far who were impacted by the tragedy.
For a while, I thought it just affected me. I thought it was just me, but I grew to realize that everybody was involved. If you want to call that survivor’s guilt, then I guess I did suffer from it. It’s as emotional a thing as you can ever be a part of.
It hit me real hard. That’s why I take a little bit different view on how to remember the plane crash. No. 1, I’m always going to remember. I don’t need any reminders. I don’t need the fountain being turned on. I don’t need to go back. That, to me, is the hardest day of my life … when that d…
The No. 1 thing is, people need to remember how hard and how much adversity the university went through and how hard it was to get here, and where we’ve been. I’ve said many times, there is not a program in America that has gone through what Marshall went through. To get back to where we are…
Despite the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent campus shutdown, Marshall University celebrated the rebirth of the Thundering Herd’s football program during the annual spring fountain ceremony Saturday.
HUNTINGTON — What happened on the night of Nov. 14, 1970, is no secret to those who call Huntington home. But a memorial erected to honor a group of fraternity brothers who died in a plane crash that night — something that could be easily overlooked — was taken down Friday in order to restore it to its original state.
The following is a synopsis of the Putnam Rotary meeting of Tuesday, June 11. The Putnam Rotary meets at noon Tuesdays at Area 34. "It was the greatest disaster — ever — in any sports event," Dr. Bob Alexander told Putnam Rotarians today.
HUNTINGTON - Marshall offensive line coach Greg Adkins has run the gamut of experiences with the Thundering Herd football program.
Cheers erupted as water sprung from the Marshall Memorial Fountain toward the blue sky on a warm, sunny day.
ASHLAND — It was Nov. 14, 1970, and for Dr. Paul Lett a day off from his stressful job as director of the emergency room at Cabell Huntington Hospital. A carefree Saturday afternoon that the doctor used to paint a room in his house in Huntington's Greenbrier Heights neighborhood, wound up being a day he would never forget.
HUNTINGTON — Leslie Deese Garvis was only 6 months old when her father, Danny Deese, charter coordinator for Southern Airways Flight 932, perished among the 75 Thundering Herd teammates, coaches, staff, supporters and flight crew on Nov. 14, 1970. At noon Wednesday, Nov. 14, Garvis will take the stage as keynote speaker for the 48th Memorial Fountain Ceremony on Marshall University's Huntington campus.
HUNTINGTON - Reggie Oliver joked, sang and preached, but mostly, the starting quarterback of the Young Thundering Herd remembered.
HUNTINGTON - Through speeches and song Tuesday, the pattering of water against the copper tubing of the Marshall University Memorial Fountain could be heard until the last drop fell, signifying the end of 75 lives the copper represents.
For the first time, a person born after the Nov. 14, 1970, plane crash that claimed 75 lives has been chosen to speak at the annual memorial of the tragic accident.
HUNTINGTON - Everywhere else, the turning of a knob to release the flow of water is routine. At Marshall University, it's recognition of the miraculous.
For almost 30 years, Dennis Foley had a hard time talking about his experience as a football player during the 1970 season at Marshall University.
We come every year.
Not from any feeling of obligation, duty or responsibility.
And, certainly, not because it's the social thing to do annually on November 14.
HUNTINGTON - Marshall University running back Anthony Anderson had several big carries Saturday for the Thundering Herd in Saturday's 42-17 win over Middle Tennessee.
HUNTINGTON - Not many people can say they were the last to see someone alive.
Tom Raymond is one who can.
In November, 1970, Raymond was working on a Master's of Science degree at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. He told the school's sports information director about the photography skills he'd acquired while at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The SID asked him if he'd be interested in shooting East Carolina's home football games. He said yes.
For Dennis Foley, a compounding injury suffered while playing linebacker for Marshall University was the saving grace.
Danny D'Antoni doesn't talk much about "the crash."
He hasn't watched the "We Are Marshall" movie. He avoided the annual Nov. 14 fountain ceremony for more than 40 years. He bears his grief in silence like men were taught to do in his day.
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON - Marshall University officially brought the Memorial Fountain back to life Saturday during the annual spring fountain ceremony on campus.
Memorial speakers say even 45 years later, it is important to remember those who died in the 1970 Marshall plane crash.
HUNTINGTON - A change of plans will keep Katherine O'Connor Beiter from being in Huntington on Saturday during the 45th annual memorial service to remember the 75 victims of the 1970 Marshall University plane crash.
Stephen Ward was 5 years old when the Marshall plane crash occurred. Today, he's 50. His father, Parker Ward, died in the crash.
CHARLESTON -- At one point each nine weeks, teacher Melissa Case and her eighth-grade students at John Adams Middle School devote time to a sensitive subject.
The chill in the air was enough to form icicles that dangled from the Memorial Fountain on Marshall University's campus.
HUNTINGTON -- Had Ted Shoebridge lived, he would now be 64 years old, and long since retired from a playing career in the NFL or major league baseball.
HUNTINGTON — Got a twisted ankle, pulled hamstring or sore arm? Mark Smaha can help. The farm boy from Iowa was educated for that line of work.
HUNTINGTON — From 114 wins in the 90s to just 27 in the past six seasons. The slide from being the winningest program in college football to where the program rests today has been a major source of contention among Herd football fans, save at least one — Reggie Oliver.
Forty and four. For me, those two numbers really hit home this weekend.
What if? Every year during this particular week of November that eerie question echoes through the caverns of Dave Morris' mind.
I was on the next plane. The first time Marshall University athletics flew after the horrific plane crash in 1970, I was a passenger.
HUNTINGTON -- Even though it's been 38 years since the tragic Marshall plane crash, I still get a bit apprehensive each Nov. 14 as I approach the Memorial Student Center for the memorial service to remember the 75 people who lost their lives in the worst air disaster in sports history. This year, the apprehension was gone, replaced by anticipation. I, along with the Marshall community, would be reunited with a dear friend in a manner of speaking.
Nine-year-old Keith Morehouse didn't know his future was charted when his father died in the Marshall University plane crash 27 years ago today.
Something, as Reggie Oliver put it, told Jerome Hood now was his appointed time. Yes, tears would flow and pain would be felt. Those emotions always surface on a particular November day when Marshall University stops to remember the 75 people who lost their lives in what still ranks as the worst air tragedy in American sports history.
The caller's voice, Eugene Jones says, was not familiar. But his story was.
Editor's note: Cindy Arnold Pierce's parents, Charles Arnold and Rachel Baker, were among the 75 people killed in the Marshall plane crash Nov. 14, 1970. Her parents relocated their family to Huntington one year earlier in order for her father to run the office of Mutual of Omaha. He was the…
HUNTINGTON -- Listening to stories and looking at pictures. That's all Patty Smith can do to learn about the father she never knew.
IRONTON -- Charlie Kautz will be remembered here today.
Memories of Michael Prestera, Barry Nash, Mike Blake, Frank Loria, Charlie Kautz, Parker Ward, Dr. H.D. "Pete" and Courtney Proctor and Murrill and Helen Ralsten.
Read stories from former assistant Marshall coach Carl Kokor, former Herald-Dispatch sports writer Lowell Cade, WSAZ-TV news anchor Bos Johnson, community members Carolyn R. Barr, Gary Kline, Roger A. Hesson, Dave Marcum, Marshall teacher Elizabeth Hines Czompo, John and Elaine Whitfield, faculty wives, Kenova resident Jean Bailey, former acting Marshall University president Sam Clagg, mortuary owner Bob Carpenter and mortuary owner Lucy Rollins.
HUNTINGTON — Chris Jasperse looked around Friday morning and saw the faces of his younger Marshall University football teammates.
HUNTINGTON -- Sam Botek had a lot to smile about Saturday morning. The Toledo, Ohio, native found himself on the podium to serve as featured speaker at Marshall's Spring Fountain Ceremony where the Memorial Fountain at Memorial Student Center is turned on to signify the rebirth of Thundering…
HUNTINGTON — Turning on the fountain Saturday in the Memorial Student Plaza at Marshall University has a special memory for Margaret Topping of Parkersburg, W.Va.
