HUNTINGTON, W.Va – The Marshall University community gathers this weekend to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the Southern Airway Flight 932 crash that killed 75 people in the Thundering Herd football team’s traveling party.
Sons and Daughters of Marshall of all generations are expected Saturday morning for the annual Memorial Fountain Ceremony to remember the lives lost on November 14, 1970.
“When we were in school, sometimes we don’t really take advantage and understand what the significance of it is, so this gives us an opportunity to go back and look and see what the community experienced and those that lost their lives and then what the university has now become,” Marshall University Kanawha Valley Alumni Chapter President Melanie Pagliaro said Friday on 580 Live with Dave Allen.
This year’s fountain ceremony begins at 10 am at the Memorial Student Center Plaza.
Jeff Heath, this year’s keynote speaker, was a 19-year-old Marshall sophomore on that day in 1970 and lost both of his parents, Emmett O. Heath and Elaine Lois Heath, as well as his godparents, Dr. Herbert Proctor and Courtney Proctor, in the crash.
He plans to share the story of how the Marshall community rallied around him and his siblings following their loss.
Marshall Director of Athletics Gerald Harrison participated in his first fountain ceremony last year and said it moved him to tears.
“When I got up, actually, and had to speak at the fountain ceremony, and I looked across the massive crowd that was there and the fountain’s going, and I see the white roses, and I look in these families’ faces, and you see the town coming together. It’s a different feeling,” he said.
The Thundering Herd football team will participate in the ceremony before going to Joan C. Edwards Stadium for Saturday evening’s game against Appalachian State. Pagliaro is always inspired to see the current players participating.
“Hopefully it’s part of why they’re at Marshall. They carry on what others were not able to do. It is very moving and touching,” she said
Marshall will wear new throwback uniforms on Saturday that are designed to replicate those worn by the 1970 team in its final game at East Carolina. Harrison said the impact of the 75 touches the entire Marshall athletic department.
“We actually take it on to educate all of our student athletes, not just the football student athletes, on what that moment meant, what the tragedy meant, and how this school came through that,” he said.
Saturday marks the eighth time since 1970 that the Marshall football team will have played on the anniversary of the crash, and additional commemoration of the 75 is planned at the stadium before the game kicks off.
Harrison encourages all Marshall supporters to come be a part of something special.
“It’s a great day to come to the Joan, to be a part of the 75 game day, which is one of the most magical moments in college sports, really,” he said.
Marshall kicks off against Appalachian State on Saturday at 6 pm.