During the service, Chancellor Leo Jenkins delivered an emotional speech, expressing compassion and sympathy on behalf of the ECU community. In honor of those who lost their lives, ECU lowered the flag on campus to half-staff and held a memorial service on Sunday, November 15 that a large portion of the student body and campus administrators, faculty, and staff attended in order to pay their respects. At ECU, students and administration were at a loss for words upon receiving news of the crash and the loss of those who had just spent a Saturday afternoon with them in Ficklen Stadium. The crash proved fatal to all 75 passengers and crew members aboard.įollowing the crash, Marshall University, the community of Huntington, West Virginia, and the rest of the nation grieved the unimaginable tragedy together. However, poor weather conditions and visibility plagued the flight as it approached its landing and the plane descended below the Minimum Descent Altitude, striking the hillside roughly 1 mile from the runway at approximately 7:36 p.m. According to the official aircraft accident report filed by the National Transportation Safety Board, the flight crew contacted the Huntington Airport tower and received clearance for a landing on runway 11 at 7:23 p.m. en route to the Tri-State Airport outside Kenova, West Virginia. Kautz, and some 25 team fans and boosters boarded Southern Airway Flight 932 and departed from Kinston, North Carolina at 6:38 p.m. University Archives, East Carolina University, Greenville, NCĪfter the game, 37 members of the Marshall football team, its coaching staff, team doctors, University Athletic Director Charles E. The loss proved to be another tough game in a season which saw Marshall post a 3-6 record.ġ970 East Carolina vs. Marshall had a chance to at least tie the game, but quarterback Ted Shoebridge was flagged for a controversial intentional grounding call with 30 seconds left. ECU’s Tony Gurso scored what would be the game’s deciding points on a 24-yard field goal with 12:27 left in the game. The Marshall University Thundering Herd football team had lost a hard-fought game against the East Carolina University Pirates by a score of 17-14. Directly following the game, on the return flight to West Virginia, tragedy befell the Marshall team as their plane crashed while attempting to land at the airport. Novemmarks the 50th anniversary of the Novemfootball game between the Marshall University Thundering Herd and the East Carolina University Pirates. University Archives, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC Image Source: The Buccaneer, Volume 49, 1971. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.1970 Marshall University Thundering Herd Football team. He went on to positively influence not only this and other newspapers but also the greater cause of journalistic progress and freedom. Later, Ruffin worked for The Herald-Dispatch as human resources director. The Herald-Dispatch is pleased to donate a portion of the proceeds from sales of this book to the scholarship at Marshall University that bears the name of Nate Ruffin, who missed the tragic flight because of an injury and who was a leader and captain of the Young Herd. The Herald-Dispatch offers this collection of the true happenings, people and images of this story of real tragedy and real triumph. The Huntington, W.Va., newspapers have borne witness to the tragedy of the plane crash that claimed the lives of most of the 1970 Marshall University football team and many coaches and supporters, and to the triumphant rebirth of the football team through the next year's "Young Herd." The Herald-Dispatch and its former sister papers, the afternoon Huntington Advertiser and Sunday Herald-Advertiser, chronicled the shock and devastation of a community and its coming together to mourn, heal and remember.
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