WE ARE MARSHALL
In what is still regarded as the worst tragedy in United States
athletics, at 7:37 p.m on Saturday, November 14, 1970, a chartered jet
carrying the Marshall University football team crashed just two miles
west of Huntington, West Virginia.
All 75 people aboard, including 37 players, 12 coaches and university
staff members, 5 flight crew members and 21 townspeople, were killed
instantly.
In what is still regarded as the worst tragedy in United States
athletics, at 7:37 p.m on Saturday, November 14, 1970, a chartered jet
carrying the Marshall University football team crashed just two miles
west of Huntington, West Virginia.
All 75 people aboard, including 37 players, 12 coaches and university
staff members, 5 flight crew members and 21 townspeople, were killed
instantly.
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Grapevine, TX 76051
The stars were out, a large crowd packed bleachers lining the street, the parties and
receptions were numerous, and the night was flashing bright with the cameras of the
paparazzi and gathered fans.
(Blake Smith) stood beneath the marquee at Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center
(Huntington, West Virginia), a guest inside the ropes, watching as the procession of stars
such as Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox and Kate Mara marched up a carpet of
green -- the color associated with the Marshall Thundering Herd football team.
"I stood outside a long time," Smith says, "just watching the people. There were parties
across the street in this wonderful-looking old hotel, people leaning out the windows
waving and shouting, so many people in the bleachers. It was a beautiful night. The
temperature was perfect, in the mid-60s...
The movie is about Marshall University, the town of Huntington and a football program that
rose from the ashes of a 1970 plane crash that wiped out most of the Marshall football
team, one of the worst air disasters in the history of college athletics.
Smith had never played organized football in his life until 1971. He didn't even know how to
put on pads, much less what went on in a football game. But he could kick a football, and
kick he did for the 1971 team, the team that gathered in Huntington last week to be feted
and honored for its part in keeping the tradition of Marshall football alive.
After spending time with his teammates who were also on hand, especially in the many
parties and receptions surrounding the premiere, Smith's focus wasn't really on the movie.
He was there to share a bond with the real-life members of the 1971 team, not the
forever-young players and coaches captured on the screen.
His thoughts rested on moments recalled from 35 years ago...Time has passed, but Smith
still recalls vividly the events surrounding the crash, and the way a devastated town found
solace in the resurrection of a football program that teetered on the brink of extinction.
Smith remembers when he was a freshman at Marshall and saw the doomed plane flying
down the Ohio River, the landing path planes used when coming into the local airport in
Huntington. He was walking home from freshman basketball practice, heading toward his
dorm on the Marshall campus, past the deserted field used for football practice.
"It was cloudy and overcast," he says. "Visibility was poor. But I really didn't think about it.
Coming down the Ohio River, the plane was still a good 8 miles from the airport."
The plane was bringing the Marshall football team home from a game against East
Carolina, flying through a foggy night, when it crashed into the side of a mountain while
approaching the Tri-City Airport early in the evening of Nov. 14, 1970, killing 75 people,
including 37 players associated with the school's football program.
"Everyone knew the football players," Smith says. "They were kings. They practiced right
outside the four main dorms on the campus, so everyone saw them all the time. I
remember talking to Art Harris (a football player who died in the crash) during the week,
and he said the players were more concerned about flying out on Nov. 13, a Friday.
Nobody was worried about the trip back. It was that Friday the 13th thing that had people
spooked. It was a sad day."
THE CEMETARY
"We Are Marshall" is the story of the rebuilding that took place, not only with the football
program, but also within the town that embraced the fledgling group of young men. The
team was led by an enthusiastic young head coach, Jack Lengyel.
"Nobody expected anything out of that year," Smith says. "They were just happy to have a
team."
Smith's character is a small part in the movie. McConaughey plays Lengyel. Fox portrays
assistant coach Red Dawson, and Anthony Mackie tackles the role of player Nate Ruffin,
who Smith says was the heart and soul of the 1971 squad.
Dawson was on the plane trip to East Carolina but didn't fly back with the team because he
was going on a recruiting trip after the game. Ruffin was one of several players who hadn't
made the trip in 1970. He was hurt at the time and wasn't with the traveling squad.
"He died of cancer in 2001," Smith says. "He's buried in the cemetery where there are the
unidentified remains of six players from the (1970) plane crash. He said he wanted to be
buried with his boys. He (Ruffin) was captain of the team in 1971 and '72. He, like
everyone else left from the 1970 team, never talked about the crash. I never asked him
about it. There were things you wanted to know but you didn't ask."
There was a Sunday service last weekend at the church across from the cemetery, the
first of many events surrounding the three-day buildup to the premiere of the movie.
A scene in that cemetery plays a central part in the movie, Smith says.
'CAN YOU KICK?'
One thing the 1971 team was missing was a placekicker. After the first game of the
season, the team's kicker quit, and an open tryout was announced.
Smith, who had played soccer in Europe with the American International Sports Exchange
team as a teenager, had never kicked a football in his life, but he "had kicked plenty of
soccer balls."
Hearing about the tryout, Smith went to the field, only to find nobody there but one other
player. He ran around a while to loosen up, and finally was spotted by an assistant coach.
"Can you kick?" the coach asked.
The coach put a ball on a tee.
"I just took off running at it, no steps, just running, and I drove the ball right through the
uprights," Smith says. "The coach went and got Coach Lengyel. So I kicked one, and he
went, 'Hmmm.' He told me later that the first time I hit the ball he knew -- that he could tell
by the sound."
After several booming kicks from various spots on the field, Lengyel had seen enough.
"I had long hair down my neck and a full thick beard," Smith says. "Coach says, 'Son, you
get a haircut and a shave, and you've got a job.' I came back the next day with a haircut
and no beard. They start handing me practice gear, piling stuff on me as I'm going through
a line. I grab a locker right next to Dan Canaday, one of the linemen and a nice guy. He
says, 'You don't know how to put those pads on, do you? He showed me where the pads
went.
"I had never been around football. I had no idea how to even put pads on." But come
Saturday, he was slated to handle the kicking chores for the Herd.
EMOTIONAL LIFT
What a Saturday, Sept. 25, 1971, turned out to be. With Xavier in town, the place was
packed for the first home game of the 1971 season.
"It was crazy," Smith says. "It was the largest crowd in Marshall history at that time. They
were wild. Someone streaked the field. He got tossed out of the game, but he had had his
moment. The crowd went into a frenzy."
The two teams battled to a scoreless tie until three seconds remained in the first half.
Then Lengyel called a timeout.
"He had said to me, 'I want you right next to me during the game.' So I stayed right beside
him. After he calls time, he turns and bumps right into me, I'm standing that close to him.
He says, 'You're on. You're on.' So I run out on the field, measure seven yards back from
the line of scrimmage like they had told me to, and I look over and the team is in a huddle.
I'm standing out there all alone, so I start toward the huddle, and they break. The players
are just sort of shaking their heads at me.
"Reggie (Oliver, the team's quarterback) says to me, 'Are you ready?' I tell him just get it
on the tee, and I'll drill it through. The ball was tipped, but it still went through. One of
those angels grabbed that ball and put it through."
Smith's field goal gave Marshall a 3-0 halftime lead and provided the team with an
emotional lift.
"We're in the locker room and it dawns on us," Smith says. "This is reality. They (Xavier)
were bigger, faster and more experienced. But we knew we could win, and we decided we
were going to win."
'THEY MOBBED US'
But things didn't go so well in the second half. Oliver scored a touchdown on a run, but
Smith's extra point was blocked by a lineman who came through the middle. Eventually,
Xavier would go up 13-9.
Marshall got the ball back near its own 30 with around a minute left in the game. Oliver
moved the team down field, completing three fourth-down passes for first downs to keep
the drive alive.
Then, on the final play of the game, as the clock ticked toward triple zeros, Oliver delivered
the game-winning touchdown pass to running back Terry Gardner. Don't be surprised if
the finish plays a major part in the film, Smith says.
"It took us a while to get off the field," Smith says. "There was just waves and waves of
people coming over the wall surrounding the field. They mobbed us. We finally get back to
the locker room, and we're in there a good hour or more, celebrating, dousing each other
with whatever we can find. We shower and change, and head back out of the locker room.
"There must have been 5,000 people still there. It caught us off guard. Some of them were
on the field, and others were in the stands with tears in their eyes."
AT THE GALA
After Tuesday's premiere, Smith joined the horde that crammed into the gala following the
movie.
"I've never seen anything like that gala," Smith says. "It was the biggest single thing to ever
hit Huntington. I was told it was the largest premiere outside Hollywood or New York. It was
a first-class operation. Warner Brothers (the film's producers) and Marshall outdid
themselves. There was a lot of excitement in there."
Wandering around in the VIP section of the gala, Smith spotted his good friend Oliver
sitting with McConaughey at a table. People asked to have their pictures taken with the
star of the film.
"McConaughey was cool," Smith says. "He couldn't have been any nicer. He spoke with
everyone and signed autographs. If someone wanted a picture taken with him, he would
stand and wrap his arms around them."
But Smith focused in on a bigger star -- his former teammate Oliver, a man who had
shared the real-life moments of a time when both were young, and the world swirled
around a football field.
"You know, Oliver and Ruffin were the spirit of that 1971 team. The best thing I brought
back from the premiere was a football card featuring Oliver that he signed for me."
On the card are three simple words: "Friends for Life."
receptions were numerous, and the night was flashing bright with the cameras of the
paparazzi and gathered fans.
(Blake Smith) stood beneath the marquee at Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center
(Huntington, West Virginia), a guest inside the ropes, watching as the procession of stars
such as Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox and Kate Mara marched up a carpet of
green -- the color associated with the Marshall Thundering Herd football team.
"I stood outside a long time," Smith says, "just watching the people. There were parties
across the street in this wonderful-looking old hotel, people leaning out the windows
waving and shouting, so many people in the bleachers. It was a beautiful night. The
temperature was perfect, in the mid-60s...
The movie is about Marshall University, the town of Huntington and a football program that
rose from the ashes of a 1970 plane crash that wiped out most of the Marshall football
team, one of the worst air disasters in the history of college athletics.
Smith had never played organized football in his life until 1971. He didn't even know how to
put on pads, much less what went on in a football game. But he could kick a football, and
kick he did for the 1971 team, the team that gathered in Huntington last week to be feted
and honored for its part in keeping the tradition of Marshall football alive.
After spending time with his teammates who were also on hand, especially in the many
parties and receptions surrounding the premiere, Smith's focus wasn't really on the movie.
He was there to share a bond with the real-life members of the 1971 team, not the
forever-young players and coaches captured on the screen.
His thoughts rested on moments recalled from 35 years ago...Time has passed, but Smith
still recalls vividly the events surrounding the crash, and the way a devastated town found
solace in the resurrection of a football program that teetered on the brink of extinction.
Smith remembers when he was a freshman at Marshall and saw the doomed plane flying
down the Ohio River, the landing path planes used when coming into the local airport in
Huntington. He was walking home from freshman basketball practice, heading toward his
dorm on the Marshall campus, past the deserted field used for football practice.
"It was cloudy and overcast," he says. "Visibility was poor. But I really didn't think about it.
Coming down the Ohio River, the plane was still a good 8 miles from the airport."
The plane was bringing the Marshall football team home from a game against East
Carolina, flying through a foggy night, when it crashed into the side of a mountain while
approaching the Tri-City Airport early in the evening of Nov. 14, 1970, killing 75 people,
including 37 players associated with the school's football program.
"Everyone knew the football players," Smith says. "They were kings. They practiced right
outside the four main dorms on the campus, so everyone saw them all the time. I
remember talking to Art Harris (a football player who died in the crash) during the week,
and he said the players were more concerned about flying out on Nov. 13, a Friday.
Nobody was worried about the trip back. It was that Friday the 13th thing that had people
spooked. It was a sad day."
THE CEMETARY
"We Are Marshall" is the story of the rebuilding that took place, not only with the football
program, but also within the town that embraced the fledgling group of young men. The
team was led by an enthusiastic young head coach, Jack Lengyel.
"Nobody expected anything out of that year," Smith says. "They were just happy to have a
team."
Smith's character is a small part in the movie. McConaughey plays Lengyel. Fox portrays
assistant coach Red Dawson, and Anthony Mackie tackles the role of player Nate Ruffin,
who Smith says was the heart and soul of the 1971 squad.
Dawson was on the plane trip to East Carolina but didn't fly back with the team because he
was going on a recruiting trip after the game. Ruffin was one of several players who hadn't
made the trip in 1970. He was hurt at the time and wasn't with the traveling squad.
"He died of cancer in 2001," Smith says. "He's buried in the cemetery where there are the
unidentified remains of six players from the (1970) plane crash. He said he wanted to be
buried with his boys. He (Ruffin) was captain of the team in 1971 and '72. He, like
everyone else left from the 1970 team, never talked about the crash. I never asked him
about it. There were things you wanted to know but you didn't ask."
There was a Sunday service last weekend at the church across from the cemetery, the
first of many events surrounding the three-day buildup to the premiere of the movie.
A scene in that cemetery plays a central part in the movie, Smith says.
'CAN YOU KICK?'
One thing the 1971 team was missing was a placekicker. After the first game of the
season, the team's kicker quit, and an open tryout was announced.
Smith, who had played soccer in Europe with the American International Sports Exchange
team as a teenager, had never kicked a football in his life, but he "had kicked plenty of
soccer balls."
Hearing about the tryout, Smith went to the field, only to find nobody there but one other
player. He ran around a while to loosen up, and finally was spotted by an assistant coach.
"Can you kick?" the coach asked.
The coach put a ball on a tee.
"I just took off running at it, no steps, just running, and I drove the ball right through the
uprights," Smith says. "The coach went and got Coach Lengyel. So I kicked one, and he
went, 'Hmmm.' He told me later that the first time I hit the ball he knew -- that he could tell
by the sound."
After several booming kicks from various spots on the field, Lengyel had seen enough.
"I had long hair down my neck and a full thick beard," Smith says. "Coach says, 'Son, you
get a haircut and a shave, and you've got a job.' I came back the next day with a haircut
and no beard. They start handing me practice gear, piling stuff on me as I'm going through
a line. I grab a locker right next to Dan Canaday, one of the linemen and a nice guy. He
says, 'You don't know how to put those pads on, do you? He showed me where the pads
went.
"I had never been around football. I had no idea how to even put pads on." But come
Saturday, he was slated to handle the kicking chores for the Herd.
EMOTIONAL LIFT
What a Saturday, Sept. 25, 1971, turned out to be. With Xavier in town, the place was
packed for the first home game of the 1971 season.
"It was crazy," Smith says. "It was the largest crowd in Marshall history at that time. They
were wild. Someone streaked the field. He got tossed out of the game, but he had had his
moment. The crowd went into a frenzy."
The two teams battled to a scoreless tie until three seconds remained in the first half.
Then Lengyel called a timeout.
"He had said to me, 'I want you right next to me during the game.' So I stayed right beside
him. After he calls time, he turns and bumps right into me, I'm standing that close to him.
He says, 'You're on. You're on.' So I run out on the field, measure seven yards back from
the line of scrimmage like they had told me to, and I look over and the team is in a huddle.
I'm standing out there all alone, so I start toward the huddle, and they break. The players
are just sort of shaking their heads at me.
"Reggie (Oliver, the team's quarterback) says to me, 'Are you ready?' I tell him just get it
on the tee, and I'll drill it through. The ball was tipped, but it still went through. One of
those angels grabbed that ball and put it through."
Smith's field goal gave Marshall a 3-0 halftime lead and provided the team with an
emotional lift.
"We're in the locker room and it dawns on us," Smith says. "This is reality. They (Xavier)
were bigger, faster and more experienced. But we knew we could win, and we decided we
were going to win."
'THEY MOBBED US'
But things didn't go so well in the second half. Oliver scored a touchdown on a run, but
Smith's extra point was blocked by a lineman who came through the middle. Eventually,
Xavier would go up 13-9.
Marshall got the ball back near its own 30 with around a minute left in the game. Oliver
moved the team down field, completing three fourth-down passes for first downs to keep
the drive alive.
Then, on the final play of the game, as the clock ticked toward triple zeros, Oliver delivered
the game-winning touchdown pass to running back Terry Gardner. Don't be surprised if
the finish plays a major part in the film, Smith says.
"It took us a while to get off the field," Smith says. "There was just waves and waves of
people coming over the wall surrounding the field. They mobbed us. We finally get back to
the locker room, and we're in there a good hour or more, celebrating, dousing each other
with whatever we can find. We shower and change, and head back out of the locker room.
"There must have been 5,000 people still there. It caught us off guard. Some of them were
on the field, and others were in the stands with tears in their eyes."
AT THE GALA
After Tuesday's premiere, Smith joined the horde that crammed into the gala following the
movie.
"I've never seen anything like that gala," Smith says. "It was the biggest single thing to ever
hit Huntington. I was told it was the largest premiere outside Hollywood or New York. It was
a first-class operation. Warner Brothers (the film's producers) and Marshall outdid
themselves. There was a lot of excitement in there."
Wandering around in the VIP section of the gala, Smith spotted his good friend Oliver
sitting with McConaughey at a table. People asked to have their pictures taken with the
star of the film.
"McConaughey was cool," Smith says. "He couldn't have been any nicer. He spoke with
everyone and signed autographs. If someone wanted a picture taken with him, he would
stand and wrap his arms around them."
But Smith focused in on a bigger star -- his former teammate Oliver, a man who had
shared the real-life moments of a time when both were young, and the world swirled
around a football field.
"You know, Oliver and Ruffin were the spirit of that 1971 team. The best thing I brought
back from the premiere was a football card featuring Oliver that he signed for me."
On the card are three simple words: "Friends for Life."
| MyBestYears.com proudly features writer and reporter Jake DeRusso as exclusive international sports eColumnist. |
| HOME FAQs SHOPPING CENTER ADVERTISE TERMS OF USE All contents © 2007 by MyBestYears.com. No portion may be used in print, for broadcast or on the Internet without prior permission. Contact: admin@MyBestYears.com |
Actor Matthew McConaughey
(second from left) with former
Marshall players Reggie Oliver (left),
Charlie Henry, Roy Tabb and Blake
Smith at the gala after the movie
premiere in Huntington, West Virginia
(second from left) with former
Marshall players Reggie Oliver (left),
Charlie Henry, Roy Tabb and Blake
Smith at the gala after the movie
premiere in Huntington, West Virginia
| 1970 Marshall University Team Photo |
What happened that night will long be remembered. What happened afterward is
a testament to a university and region that found a way to overcome the
unspeakable tragedy that has now been turned into a major motion picture, WE
ARE MARSHALL, featuring Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox and Kate Mara.
In the midst of the hoopla surrounding the movie, some very human stories
have re-surfaced of those who were part of the rebuilding process. One of the
best I have read was Hunter Chase's feature about Blake Smith, then a kicker on
the freshman football team, who lives now in North Carolina. His story was first
featured in The Pilot (Southern Pines, North Carolina), where Hunter is the
Sports Editor.
Featured are excerpts from this exceptionally candid story.
a testament to a university and region that found a way to overcome the
unspeakable tragedy that has now been turned into a major motion picture, WE
ARE MARSHALL, featuring Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox and Kate Mara.
In the midst of the hoopla surrounding the movie, some very human stories
have re-surfaced of those who were part of the rebuilding process. One of the
best I have read was Hunter Chase's feature about Blake Smith, then a kicker on
the freshman football team, who lives now in North Carolina. His story was first
featured in The Pilot (Southern Pines, North Carolina), where Hunter is the
Sports Editor.
Featured are excerpts from this exceptionally candid story.
| Excerpts reprinted by permission from Hunter Chase and The Pilot. Photos Copyright © Dark Futures Pty. Limited. |
