HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Just four days before the 1970 Marshall University football team took its first flight of the season to a game at East Carolina, 18-year old equipment manager Eugene Jones received a phone call about a family emergency.
Jones, a freshman from Hilldale, then left the team to go home for his grandmother’s funeral. While hanging out with family and friends on Nov. 14, 1970, he found out the plane he was scheduled to be on with the team, crashed near Huntington Tri-State Airport, killing all 75 onboard and devastating the Marshall community.
Jones spoke with MetroNews and said he still feels guilty about not being on Southern Airways Flight 932, as Saturday marks the 50th anniversary. He said after around 30 years, it became easier to talk about.
“I knew I was very blessed. It wasn’t luck that had kept me off the flight. I wrestled with guilt for many, many years. I just couldn’t understand why I wasn’t on there,” Jones said.
According to the Marshall archives, Jones had been on two of the season’s previous three away games and was originally slated not to go to the East Carolina game. He had never flown and pleaded with Jerry Sieber, another assistant equipment manager, to let him make the flight. Sieber decided to let Jones go in his place.
But Jones ultimately missed the flight when he told the coaching staff that he had decided to stay through the weekend with his family and would not make back to Huntington in time for the game.
VIEW: Marshall plane crash archive
Jones said he arrived at Marshall in the summer of 1970 after graduating from Talcott High School and quickly fit in with the team, calling many ‘family.’ He noted his favorite player to work with was Bobby Harris, a backup quarterback from Cincinnati, Ohio. Harris, a junior, was killed in the crash.
He said he is going back to Huntington this weekend to participate in the memorial ceremonies and attend Saturday’s game at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Jones noted the first 10 years or so after the crash, he did not go back to Marshall but now he attends regularly.
Jones, who currently lives in Jumping Branch and works as a real estate broker, said he has tried to figure out his purpose in life after the crash. He said the Lord had a plan for him.
“I have always been in church and every year during the anniversary they would recognize the Marshall crash in our church. It dawned on me that I need to be doing more. I got more involved in my church and activities in my community and town,” Jones said.
“I felt like the Lord had done something very special for me and I needed to pay him back in some way.”
No. 16 Marshall’s game on Saturday against Middle Tennessee State kicks off at Noon.