Before becoming a sports reporter, I played football for four years at Marshall University. In August 1970, one young man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, named Reggie Oliver, met me, a youngster from Suffolk, Virginia. We both played quarterback. We were roommates and classmates.
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON - Former Marshall University assistant football coach Carl Kokor, 85, died Wednesday at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Boardman, Ohio, after an extended illness.
HUNTINGTON — Marshall University's football community is mourning the loss of one of its favorite sons. Reggie Oliver, who played quarterback for the Young Thundering Herd in the seasons following the Nov. 14, 1970, plane crash (1971-73), passed away Tuesday at age 66.
HUNTINGTON - Lester Hicks didn't experience much success on the football field while at Marshall University. Remember, though, Hicks suited up for the Young Thundering Herd in 1972-73.
HUNTINGTON - Right after Red Dawson got his first college coaching job at Marshall University, the program went on NCAA probation and was expelled from the Mid-American Conference.
HUNTINGTON -- When The Rev. Robert Scott celebrates Mass today at St. Austin Catholic Parish in Austin, Texas, he'll offer up a special prayer to people touched in any way by the Marshall University plane crash on Nov. 14, 1970.
1928: Fairfield Stadium construction is finished. Its original capacity is 10,000. Marshall College shares the stadium with Huntington High School.
Members of the Young Thundering Herd attend practices in August and September 1971.
Marshall coach Red Dawson coached for Marshall from 1968-1971.
Marshall University (white jerseys) lost to Morehead State (dark jerseys) 6-29 in the season opener Sept. 18, 1971, at Morehead. The 1971 team had a 2-8 record under coach Jack Lengyel. Team captain was Nate Ruffin.
The Young Thundering Herd of Marshall University (dark jerseys) beat Xavier University (white jerseys) 15-13 on Sept. 25, 1971, at Fairfield Stadium.
Jack Lengyel took over as the new coach for the Young Thundering Herd on March 17, 1971.
Members of the 1971 Young Thundering Herd football team in town for the movie premiere gather Monday, Dec. 11, 2006, to have a group photograph taken at Gino's Pub, where the old Fairfield Stadium scoreboard was erected in the parking lot. The scoreboard shows the score of the Xavier game th…
August 24, 1971: The Young Thundering Herd's first day of practice in pads -- three weeks before its season opener at Morehead State. Because the young squad was undermanned, contact drills were conducted lightly to avoid injury.
1971 Game Stories and Photos
- The Long Road Back: Marshall Bows, 29-6: Morehead Wins '71 Opener (Sept. 18, 1971)
- Lengyel Unbowed; Hallum Pleased (Sept. 19, 1971)
- Young Herd Does It: MU 15, Xavier 13: Scores Touchdown On Final Play (Sept. 25, 1971)
- MU Cool Like Lengyel (Sept. 26, 1971)
- Redskins Massacre Herd, 66-6 (Oct. 3, 1971)
- NIU Downs Marshall, 37-18 (Oct. 9, 1971)
- Young Herd Runs Out Of Miracles, 13-0 (Oct. 16, 1971)
- Western Wallops Young Herd, 37-0: Scores 31 In Last Half (Oct. 23, 1971)
- Young Herd Stuns Bowling Green, 12-10 (Oct. 30, 1971)
- Kent Blanks Sputtering Herd, 21-0 (Nov. 6, 1971)
- Rockets Close Fast, Rip MU, 43-0 (Nov. 13, 1971)
- Error-Plagued Herd Bows To OU (Nov. 20, 1971)
- MU Coach Looks To The Future; Lengyel: We'll Be Better (Nov. 20, 1971)
- Gallery: Young Thundering Herd practices, August-September 1971
- Gallery: Marshall vs. Morehead, Sept. 18, 1971
- Gallery: Marshall's Young Thundering Herd victory against Xavier, Sept. 25, 1971
- Gallery: Young Thundering Herd practice, Aug. 24, 1971
Videos
- Video: Coach Lengyel talks about Spring Hill Cemetery (12/22/2006)
- Video: Film from the Young Herd 1971
- Video: Coach Andy Nameth on Young Herd games (11/21/2006)
- Video: Jack Lengyel recalls his real-life relationships (12/22/2006)
- Video: Jack Lengyel on why he took the 1971 coaching job (12/22/2006)
- Video: Jack Lengyel on Dedmon's lasting role (12/22/2006)
- Video: Coach Andy Nameth on coming to Huntington (11/21/2006)
- Video: Coach Andy Nameth on "We Are Marshall" (11/21/2006)
HUNTINGTON -- Coach Jack Lengyel had returned home from a successful day at the office. Lengyel, head football coach at the College of Wooster in 1970, directed the Fighting Scots to a 9-6 win at Oberlin College on the afternoon of Nov. 14. At home that evening with his wife, Sandy, they saw a bulletin on TV about the plane bringing the Marshall football team back from its game at East Carolina crashing.
Nate Ruffin was a last-minute scratch from the Marshall football team chartered jet to the Nov. 14, 1970, game at East Carolina.
Red Dawson was somewhere around Greensboro, N.C., when he heard the news.
HUNTINGTON -- Sharon Ruffin can hear her late husband's voice as if he's right next to her, expressing his feelings about the Marshall University movie.
Call it closure. Call it running out of tears. Regardless, the Young Thundering Herd officially is in a good place.
A memorial service was conducted Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006, by the Norway Avenue Church of Christ at Spring Hill Cemetery for the members of the 1971 Young Thundering Herd.
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 -- Rick Meckstroth craned his neck a little, looking out at the Marshall University students who had paused in the middle of their busy day and gathered around the Memorial Fountain in the student center plaza.
There's something about anniversaries when a zero is attached. You know, 10th, 20th, 50th, etc. It makes the occasion that much more special. That's the case this weekend for the Young Thundering Herd's 40th Anniversary Reunion.
HUNTINGTON -- Shortly before noon Saturday, water began flowing again from the Memorial Fountain at the Marshall Memorial Student Center.
SOUTH POINT, Ohio -- Dr. Ed Carter, a member of the 1970 Marshall football team, will be the special speaker at a Men and Young Men's Meeting at 6 p.m., Saturday, at Tri-State Baptist Temple, 1300 County Road 60 in South Point.
HUNTINGTON — Eric Samuel Gessler, 56, a member of Marshall’s Young Thundering Herd football team, died Monday at his home in the Big Flint community of Doddridge County, W.Va., after a long battle with cancer.
Gail Parker's reprieve lasted 38 years, 6 months.
FRANKLIN, Va. -- Gail Parker, Marshall University's freshman football coach in 1970, died Saturday in Southampton Memorial Hospital. He was 66 years old.
A view from the other side: Young Herd's first win a feel-good story for everyone but Xavier players
HUNTINGTON -- Be it real life or a movie, what Paul Smith experienced hurt.
HUNTINGTON -- The hoopla surrounding "We Are Marshall" has disappeared. The notoriety Young Thundering Herd coaches and players gained from the Warner Bros. movie has not. Actually, it continues to build.
HUNTINGTON -- Some members of Marshall's Young Thundering Herd football team admit life has changed because of the movie "We Are Marshall." It's been a year and few days since the Warner Bros. Pictures production hit the big screen. It has since come out on DVD.
HUNTINGTON — Red Dawson clearly is not a doctor.
Thank goodness for the diversion.
HUNTINGTON -- It was a solemn day in 1971, sometime before Marshall University's football team traveled to Morehead State to start a new chapter in the school's football history.
What could he do? The questioned gnawed at Jack Lengyel's soul. A news crawl at the bottom of his television screen reported a plane crash involving the Marshall University football team and Lengyel felt a powerful pull to do something.
HUNTINGTON -- Tim Collins' eyes said it all. Collins, a Young Thundering Herd player in 1971, still had red eyes that glistened after seeing a special showing of "We Are Marshall" on Tuesday afternoon for the Young Thundering Herd and family members at Marquee Cinemas.
ATLANTA -- Mike Bankston had an academic conflict that prevented him from being one of the victims of the Nov. 14, 1970, Marshall University plane crash.
ATLANTA -- Neither scorching heat nor a rash of recent surgeries would keep Reggie Oliver away from a reunion with Marshall University football teammates and alumni.
ATLANTA -- Joe Gillette's association with Marshall University first began in 1969. A first-team All-Ohio defensive end at Johnstown High School near Columbus where he also played wide receiver, he started his college football career with the Thundering Herd as a wide out.
HUNTINGTON -- Actor Matthew McConaughey approaches a 6-foot-9 basketball center, sizes him up and asks the giant if would like to play football for Marshall. At a distance, Jack Lengyel, the man McConaughey is playing in the movie "We Are Marshall," nods his head to show his approval.
HUNTINGTON -- When Allen Meadows was a Scott High School senior in Madison, W.Va., he performed well enough on the football field to draw a look from college coaches. One school hoping to land the then 195-pounder lineman was West Virginia and coach Bobby Bowden.
MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Marshall University's Young Thundering Herd started that long trail back Saturday night and the biggest disappointment was the score.
MOREHEAD -- One game doesn't make a season, but this one Saturday night between Marshall University and Morehead State was a big one.
Marshall University's Young Thundering Herd stunned Xavier, 15-13, here Saturday and it's doubtful any Marshall team ever won a bigger game or a more dramatic one.
A football team nearly always reflects the personality of the head coach.
OXFORD, Ohio -- The final whistle had just sounded when Marshall University head coach Jack Lengyel lined his club up on the field and made them take a long look at the scoreboard.
DEKALB, Ill. -- Opportunistic Northern Illinois converted a penalty, a fumble and two pass interceptions into 23 points in the third quarter here Saturday night and rode the explosion to a 37-18 victory over Marshall University.
There were no miracles at Fairfield Stadium Saturday afternoon.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Slumbering Western Michigan woke up in the second half and stormed to a 37-0 football victory over Marshall University's Young Thundering Herd Saturday afternoon at Waldo Stadium.
Marshall University's Young Thundering Herd, doing exactly what Bowling Green coaches said it couldn't do, ran around and through the Falcons' defense Saturday en route to a 12-10 upset victory at Fairfield Stadium.
KENT, Ohio -- It was a bitter, disappointing "homecoming" for Marshall coach Jack Lengyel here Saturday as his Thundering Herd sputtered time after time and lost to Kent State 21-0.
Toledo scored one for the bookies Saturday afternoon.
Opportunistic Ohio University scored 20 points in the second period and went on to post a 30-0 win over Marshall University Saturday afternoon at Fairfield Stadium.
Jack Lengyel closed out the first season as Marshall University football coach -- the greatest challenge ever in collegiate athletics -- looking to the future.
