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November 14, 1970: Marshall University Plane Crash

On board were nearly the entire Marshall University football team along with the head coach, athletic director, and 36 other fans, coaches, announcers, and crew members. It is still the deadliest sports-related air disaster in U.S. history.
Marshall University
On board were nearly the entire Marshall University football team along with the head coach, athletic director, and 36 other fans, coaches, announcers, and crew members. It is still the deadliest sports-related air disaster in U.S. history.

On the night of November 14, 1970, a Southern Airways DC-9 approached a foggy and rainy Tri-State Airport in Wayne County. The airliner slammed into a hillside just short of the runway and burst into flames. All 75 passengers were killed.

On board were nearly the entire Marshall University football team along with the head coach, athletic director, and 36 other fans, coaches, announcers, and crew members. It is still the deadliest sports-related air disaster in U.S. history.
Credit Marshall University
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Marshall University
On board were nearly the entire Marshall University football team along with the head coach, athletic director, and 36 other fans, coaches, announcers, and crew members. It is still the deadliest sports-related air disaster in U.S. history.

On board were nearly the entire Marshall University football team along with the head coach, athletic director, and 36 other fans, coaches, announcers, and crew members. It is still the deadliest sports-related air disaster in U.S. history.

The tragedy affected all of Huntington. Everyone seemingly knew someone on board the flight. A local doctor served as a pallbearer at six funerals, and others attended a funeral a day for a week.

The event remains an important part of Huntington’s collective memory. Every year on November 14, community members gather at the Marshall University student center to commemorate the crash. At the center, a memorial fountain with 75 jets of water honors the 75 who died.

In 2006, the movie We Are Marshall brought the tragedy back into the national spotlight. It recounted how the community rallied around the new football team after the crash.

Copyright 2017 West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Bob Powell
Bob is West Virginia Public Radio's Morning Edition host and the interim Director of Radio. He first worked for WV Public Radio in 1986 as a part-time announcer, and later returned to host jazz music programs and manage on-air operations in the 1990's. A graduate of Alderson-Broaddus and Marshall Universities; he taught Speech, Broadcasting, and Rhetoric at Alderson-Broaddus University, West Virginia State University, and WV Institute of Technology of WVU. Bob served 21 years in the Army National Guard, and served oversea in Bosnia and Iraq.
G Thornhill