HUNTINGTON, W.Va.— Some 70 members of the Thundering Herd football team won’t be in attendance Thursday afternoon when the Marshall University family will come together at the Memorial Student Center to turn off the fountain and honor the 75 people killed in the 1970 plane crash.
The Herd will be on the road playing Tulsa Thursday night. It’s the first time Marshall has played a road game on the on the anniversary of that fateful day.
Marshall has come up with way to honor those lost and share the tribute with the TV audience on Fox Sports 1. The Herd’s helmets will have the traditional block “M” on the left side of the helmet but on the other will be the number “75.”
“My goodness, that’s the history of this program,” Holliday told Herdzone.com columnist Jack Bogaczyk. “It’s a fitting tribute. I’ve said many times – and I’ll say many more times, I’m sure – that there’s not a program in America where their football team means more to their fan base, more to the community, more to the state, more to the university than what this one does because of what happened that one night, the crash in 1970.
“There’s just a special bond, a special relationship among the football program and the university and the community and fan base because of that. And any way we can honor those people, those victims of that crash, in any way, shape or form, we should do it … and we’re going to do it.”