Tom Shoebridge will address the annual ceremony at Marshall

HUNTINGTON, W.Va.– Before there was Rakeem Cato, Byron Leftwich or Chad Pennington, Marshall had Ted Shoebridge. The quarterback had NFL potential and had been drafted by the Angels organization coming out of high school.

“We always thought, had he had the opportunity, he would have made it in the majors or maybe the NFL,” recalls Ted’s brother Tom Shoebridge. “That was our hope at the time.”

Ted Shoebridge never got that opportunity.

He was among the 75 players, coaches, fans and crew killed on Nov. 14 when the plane carrying Marshall’s football back from a game with East Carolina crashed as it approach Huntington Tri-State Airport. The plane, flying in light rain with poor visibility, clipped a tree 66 feet above the ground on a ridge just west of West Virginia Route 75, tumbled while cutting a 95-foot swath across the hillside and slammed into the hillside on the east side of the highway at a speed of 160 miles per hour. Everyone aboard the Southern Airways DC-9 died instantly.

For Tom Shoebridge, his family and the Marshall community things would never be the same. Shoebridge says his parents never got over the tragic death of their son.

“They had two more boys to raise and as I got older I really admired their toughness,” says Shoebridge who was 17 at the time. “They were two of the strongest people I ever met in my life.”

Shoebridge had just lost a high school football game and was attending a local dance when the news broke that something had gone terribly wrong with Marshall’s flight.

“A local fireman, who was a rec coach in town, came to the dance and told me I had to go home. He said there’s been a problem and an accident with your brother and your parents need you at home. So I went home, which was only a few blocks away and that’s how I found out.”

Tom Shoebridge is the keynote speaker for Friday’s annual memorial services outside the student center on Marshall’s campus marking the 44th anniversary of the plane crash.

“I’m a bit nervous,” admits Shoebridge. “This is something that is very near and dear to my family’s hearts. It is very important to me and my family. I want to do a representative job.”
Although Shoebridge has been to some of the annual memorial services and attended Marshall’s football victories over the University of Rhode Island and Ohio University this season, most of his family has not. However, a number of family members will attend the service this year, including his wife, a brother and a niece.

Tom Shoebridge has since donated his brother’s green jersey to The Union Pub & Grill in downtown Huntington and the white jersey the one he wore against East Carolina to Marshall to be placed in the university’s new athletic hall of fame, located inside the indoor athletic facility. Ted Shoebridge wore No. 14.

Friday’s ceremony begins at noon at the Memorial Fountain.

No. 21 Marshall plays host to Rice Saturday. Kickoff at Joan C. Edwards Stadium is set for 2:30.





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