AP file photo by John Raby / This memorial plaque is the site of the plane crash that killed 75 people, including 36 Marshall University football players, on Nov. 14, 1970, in Huntington, W.Va. It remains the worst sports disaster in U.S. history.HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – After a plane crash killed most of Marshall University’s football team in 1970, school administrators could have resorted to the simplest choice for a losing program with little history of success: drop the sport altogether.
They didn’t. They couldn’t bring themselves to do it.
From the 75 lives lost in the worst sports disaster in United States history, the program slowly rebuilt and eventually triumphed. A half-century later, those who lived through the tragedy – some by happenstance, others by fateful decisions that seemed mundane at the time – marvel as they recall the feeling that they had to keep playing.
“We felt the guys would want us to go on,” said Ed Carter, a sophomore offensive lineman at the time who was supposed to be on the team plane but wasn’t. “We just felt we needed to continue the program.”
The team’s long, determined crawl back to success was chronicled in the 2006 movie “We Are Marshall ” – a title borrowed from the chants that resonate at Thundering Herd games. In the first season after the crash, Marshall won just two games. The first winning season didn’t come for another 13 years. Then success occurred in streaks.