HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The stillness in the cool air of the autumn morning is deafening on the Marshall University campus. Like so many times before, the Memorial Fountain outside the student center on was turned off Saturday. It’s often noted during the moments which follow this emotional annual event, time stood still.
The silence of the fountain is one of the images, both visually and audibly, many remember from the ceremony which is held every year on the anniversary of the tragic crash. The Southern Airways charter plane which carried the Marshall football team back to Huntington from a game at East Carolina on November 14, 1970 went down short of the runway and crashed into a hillside in Wayne County in heavy rain and fog near Tri-State Airport. Saturday marked the 50th Anniversary of the tragedy.
“I was 13 years old and living in Clendenin, West Virginia. I looked at the Marshall players as heroes,” said Athletic Director Mike Hamrick. “The only time I ever saw my dad cry, was when he got the call about the news.”
Hamrick’s father, Jim Hamrick, was a high school football coach and lost former players and former coaching colleagues in the disaster.
Grammy winning artist Michael W. Smith, a native of Kenova, W.Va. performed at Saturday’s ceremony. After he played and sang Amazing Grace he shared his memory of that horrible night, which he says he’s carried his entire life.
“I was 13 years old on that horrific day when that plane crashed eight minutes from my house. I remember my dad took me out to see what was going on. The chaos and looking at the fire over that hill forever changed my life,” he said.
Smith recalled how he and his dad sat in the car after witnessing the scene and contemplated together it was the Marshall team plane. Smith talked about the pain and agony everybody in the region endured. He performed a song which he wrote, inspired by the emotions the crash evoked in his life.
Also on hand for the 50th anniversary ceremony, four members of the 1970 East Carolina football team. Rusty Scales, Richard Peeler, Grover Truslow, Chuck Zednick are forever linked to the tragedy as well.
“Those four gentlemen played in that football game. Those four gentlemen shook hands and wished our Marshall football team ‘Good luck.’ Only two hours later to get the news,” said Hamrick.
The four were among those who placed roses along the edge of the Memorial Fountain as the names of all 75 were read aloud.
The 50th Anniversary included a new experience for those tied to the tragedy. Across the Marshall campus, banners with the pictures of all 75 crash victims have been on display for several months. It was the idea of Lucianne Krautz Call who was a cheerleader in 1970 and lost her dad, Athletic Director Charlie Krautz, in the crash.
Lucianne’s dedication was noted by those who spoke and she was asked to deliver the keynote address for the 50th Anniversary ceremony. She used the opportunity to document the history of Marshall football since that terrible night and ended her remarks by leading the socially distant crowd in three chants of “We Are…..Marshall.”
The fountain now sits silent for another winter, and again at Marshall time stands still.