Marshall Plane Research Paper

Marshall Plane crash
Introduction
“Vince Lombardi once said that winning isn't everything but the will to win is everything”, and for this team and town all they wanted to do was win but they did not for a couple of years. On November 14, 1970 a terrible plane crash killed the Marshall university football team and staff on the plane, then getting NCAA permission to play freshmen, the team needed to be rebuild.
Marshall University
Marshall University is a nice college in Huntington, West Virginia overlooking the Ohio river, but they had a hard start to make the football team and the school better. Marshall was founded in 1837 by a guy named John Marshall (Marshall University, 2006). The college was named by chief justice John Marshall, the school was then officially started in 1861. The team have had a tough time from where they are today, having their
football field being condemned in 1962, which had not been changed since world war 2 (“Plane crash devastates Marshall University”, 2016). At the of the end of the 1966 to 1969 was not good years for the Thundering Herd not winning a game though the seasons. Marshall had got into some trouble, The NCAA had suspended Marshall for more than 100 recruiting violations, they had been kicked out of the Mid-American conference for the same reason. They had fired the coaches on the staff after the incident (“Plane crash devastates Marshall University”, 2016).
Signifies of the crash The crash was one of the worst in sports history. The crash was absolutely terrible, some of the fans remember the plane crash some what like the Kennedy assassination. They was so devastated, everything in town had closed (Plane crash devastates Marshall University). The plane had flown to low and had hit some trees, it is just too bad that they were only a mile away from the runway (Sturkey,2005). They had ran into rain, fog and smoke by the trees. Flight 932 was supposed to be a routine flight but the plane was below maximum descent and was not a good condition to be flying in, and was no visual contact. No one knows what actually had happened, but they have some ideas; it could have been the pilots had failed to read the their altimeter right or it could have been just an altimeter problem (Miller, 2016). Remembrance. The football players coming into the program today may or may not know about the terrible plane crash. When the players come in the football program they do not know a lot about the crash but then the coaches tell them about the crash, but its history (“Tragic event ‘defines’ Marshall University,2010). Every player on the football team is very respectful of the crash and the players who died in it (Walters,2000). They are getting even more players then they have ever had before. The school lays a wreath every year for the ones that have lost there life in the crash (Marshall University, 2006). Another thing the school does is turn off the water to the fountain until the next spring (Marshall University, 2006). Rebuild. Since all of the players on the plane had died, they needed to rebuild the team. In autumn of 1971 they had started a new football team, but some of them were not cut out for the football team (Sturkey,2005). They had hired Coach Dawson and coach Lengyel, which had the job of recruiting(“Tragic Event ‘defines’ Marshall University, 2010). The university had the job of getting the NCAA approval to play freshman. They had hired new coaches and they had brought in freshman and they had to bring in walk-ons (Sturkey,2005). The program had 4 straight losing seasons and was not good, but they were making progress (Wilson,2006). They had went 2-8 the first year after the crash, they had beat Xavier in the first home game after the crash which was emotional for everyone (Tragic Event ‘defines’ Marshall University). In 1996, Marshall went 15-0 and won the Division I-AA championship (Sahadi,2003). That year they had got Randy Moss which no one wanted, and the football program was back on track (Sahadi,2003). Family and friends. Friends, family, and the coaches were a huge part of the player's life, and they were crushed after the crash. It had been the scariest thing for them and they knew it was one of the worst crashes in sports history (Walters,2000). The assistant coach was not on the plane that day because he was on a recruiting trip, it still hurt him (Sahadi,2003). He was driving home when he heard the crash come over the radio and he was devastated. The coach will always remember the day of the crash and when he left it was so hard for him to leave he said. He even turned down an 8.9 million dollar coaching job at Houston (Sahadi, 2003). Tragedies.All of the players lives that were lost was just a tragedy. There was 70 players and coaches on the plane, and 5 crewmembers, and the the captain had flown for 21 years (Sturkey, 2005). There were also 25 boosters on the plane with the players and coaches (“Tragic Event ‘defines’ Marshall University,2010). Nate Ruffin a cornerback for Marshall was not on the plane due to a hurt shoulder (Walters, 2000). The spot of the crash had not had not grass for three years but it grew back, it is even Marshalls colors “green” (“Tragic Event ‘defines’ Marshall University, 2010). They had put a bronze statue there but you can barely even read their names on it (“Tragic Event ‘defines’ Marshall University, 2010). Changes.
They had made some changes before and after the crash, to the school and the football program. The university had put a fountain on compass to commemorate the living rather than the death, the water is going at an upward motion (Marshall University, 2006). The bronze and copper fountain has 75 jets in it for everyone that lost their lives in the crash (Miller, 2016). Marshall had put astroturf on the field for the first time (Marshall University, 2006). They had done reconstruction on the field so they could hold up to 16,000 fans, it was complete in 1970 (Marshall University, 2006).
Team spirit. The fans had a lot to do with the team that year, they followed the team through good and bad. After the crash 7,000 people were at the fieldhouse praying, The fans didn't care about the losing season anymore (Sahadi, 2003). The last week of the season the crash happened, after the first game of the season they played and won, they thought they were going to have a winning season, but they had a losing season. It was a long time since they have played and everyone was happy to see them (Wilson, 2006).
Conclusion The football program is back on track now, a lot of people don’t know how hard it was for the friends and family, just think the school had put all of that work in for the football program to be where it is today. The 1970 Thundering Herd will always be remembered.