Marshall's Emotional First Win After the 1970 Plane Crash

[00:00:00] On September 25, 1971, following the devastating loss of over 70 football players, coaches and administrators

[00:00:09] doing a play in crash, the Marshall football team comes back and brings hope to the Huntington area in the team

[00:00:17] In the school, honoring those they lost by winning just their second game back. It's Xavier showing that Marshall may have been down, but they certainly were not out.

[00:00:29] We're diving to how Marshall came back today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:40] Welcome to Daily Sports History, I'm Ethan Reese, your Daily Guide at Sports History as you daily increase your sports knowledge.

[00:00:48] And today's trivia question is what NCAA rule was changed following the 1971 Marshall season.

[00:00:59] Now Marshall had been around for a long time. Their first football season was in 1895, and 1915 they actually gained no variety running the tower play, which is a very unique play where one receiver lists another one on his shoulders to complete a pass.

[00:01:17] It sounds like something out of a globe trotters game, but though they've been around they haven't always been the best team. They're overall winning percentage is above 50% and they want a total of 629 games. In a 1992 they actually won the 1 double-aid National Championship, and did the same thing in 1996.

[00:01:38] And this was the pinnacle of the team. As the 1996 team included future NFL players in Wade and John Wade Chris Hansen, Eric Cesser, Doug Champion, Pro Bull or Chad Pinnington and Hall of Famer, possible greatest receiver of all time Randy Moss.

[00:01:58] But they've since got to the football ball division and struggled at times, but it had been adequate in their pursuit of greatness. In 1960s and 70s the team was a lot different.

[00:02:10] In 1969 Marshall hired Rick Tolley coming in from Wake Forest. His first season was a struggle as they went 3-7, and the following year they were struggling as he went 3-6.

[00:02:22] But he didn't get to finish that year after our game against Eastern Carolina, the team took an airplane back to West Virginia. The plane would crash on the way home, in all 75 passengers would pass away, including Rick and four other coaches in 37 players.

[00:02:38] As well as administrators, family, friends, and the whole flight crew. It was a devastating moment for Marshall. And really the nation, seeing how easy it is for a team to just be lost in a moment was tough.

[00:02:51] And it was the single worst air tragedy in NCAA sports history. And despite the thought of just disbanding the team and no longer having football at the university, but the team lost their athletic director and head coach.

[00:03:05] So the first thing they had to do was hire a new reflector, and they hired Joe McClullin.

[00:03:11] Who was actually a head football coach before taking over the AD role at Marshall. And see it struggled previously at San Diego State with the record of 3-10.

[00:03:22] And the first thing he had to do was figure out how to bring back this team. And he actually initially hired Georgia Tech assistant coach Dick and bestwik to take over the role.

[00:03:32] But two days after he actually returned back to Georgia Tech and they actually named Will Red Dawson as the acting head coach. Now if you've ever seen we are Marshall, this was the coach that did not go on to the plane.

[00:03:44] And that part is true. He was one of the few members not on the plane as he had a recruiting trip to go on to. And that's where he really helped as he will go on to sign 21 prospects from five different states just this season alone.

[00:03:57] But he didn't want to coach the team. He just was filling in till they found a new replacement. And that replacement was Jack Lingiel, who started coaching as assistant in 1979 at Akron University with Joe McClullin, the new AD at Marshall.

[00:04:14] And he went on to coach at Hingoberg, Cornell and Wardchester. And would also coach baseball and lacrosse during his coaching tenures before coming to Marshall.

[00:04:26] Where his former colleague was now the AD. And he part of his agreement he had to help recruit for baseball and basketball.

[00:04:34] Well, he was at Marshall. But one thing they had going is they had fought for that season to be allowed to allow freshman to play, which up until 1972 the NCAA did not allow freshman to play varsity sports.

[00:04:49] So you had at least be a sophomore to participate in the NCAA granted in the chance to allow freshman to play in order to fill their team.

[00:04:59] And this gave them a huge advantage as no other team in the country could allow freshman to play. So they had a unique recruiting pitch that no other team could offer.

[00:05:09] And that really did help them as they would get players who turned down Notre Dame in West Virginia and other major colleges to come play as they could play as freshman.

[00:05:18] But the problem was even though they could get more talented players, they still weren't as big as juniors and seniors in college.

[00:05:25] And it's especially hard on the offensive and defensive linemen where you need big bodies to have success in college football.

[00:05:32] But they didn't just only have freshman on the team, they actually were able to have three players on the previous varsity team come back to do the players missing the Eastern Carolina game due to injuries.

[00:05:44] And they also had the freshman group from the 1970 season there as well as they weren't allowed to play so they didn't go to the Eastern Carolina game.

[00:05:52] But they did feature a lot of walk-ons, former military men, three basketball players who used their fifth year of eligibility to play on the football team and 50 players would end up trying out for the team.

[00:06:02] And 35 of them would be accepted as walk-ons.

[00:06:05] And Coach Jack would label them as the young thuttering herd, which to this day is still used from the alumni from this team as many of them are still in contact with friends across the world.

[00:06:16] And they even received a letter from President Richard Nixon saying, friends across the land are rooting for you.

[00:06:22] But whatever the season brings, you have already won the greatest victory by putting a team on the field.

[00:06:29] And this was red the first day of practice.

[00:06:32] And the team was a difficult team to put together as they only had five coaches, two on the defense, two on the offense and head coach.

[00:06:40] And as you can imagine having such a young team made up of sophomores and freshman, there was a lot of growing pains.

[00:06:47] And they changed the offense and the defense to make it more simplified.

[00:06:50] And they had their first game on September 18th against Morehead State, which is known as the oxyphore rivalry.

[00:06:56] And they struggled in this game as Morehead State dominated through majority of the game.

[00:07:02] But late in the game, the herd was able to finally score their first touchdown, which prompted a standing ovation even though they were at Morehead State.

[00:07:12] As even though they were competing, President Nixon was right, as everyone was rooting for them.

[00:07:17] The following game was their first home game since the loss of their teammates and coaches facing Xavier on their home field.

[00:07:26] It truly makes sense why this was the pivotal moment in the movie we are Marshall because it was one of those moments where it goes like it was written for the movies.

[00:07:35] As Marshall was down, nine to 13 against Xavier on the final drive and they had time for one more play and just and they were just 13 yards away from the in zone.

[00:07:47] And their quarterback Reggie Oliver, toss a 13 yard touchdown pass to full back Terry Gardner at time right out, giving him the lead and the win 15 to 13 as the crowd of 13,000 rush the field.

[00:08:02] This really showed that Marshall was back and truly one of the most resilient stories in football history.

[00:08:09] But sadly, they could not continue the success and they would only win one more game that year finishing two in nine.

[00:08:17] And they would struggle for the next couple of years under under coach Jack as he would have a record of nine in 33 and it wouldn't be to the late 80s early 90s when they would finally start to turn things around.

[00:08:28] When he knows two double eight championships and joining the FBS Marshall truly showed you can go from the bottom of the barrel and still work your way back to the top.

[00:08:39] But it's not a quick fix and it takes time and heard fans know this and if you want to learn more about Marshall and the thundering herd, you can listen to the thunder cast a great podcast hosted by Katie and Russ to huge heard fans there to give you all the information you want to know about the thundering.

[00:09:03] And if you enjoyed this episode of Daily Sports History, please share this with a friend or share on your social media say, hey, check out Daily Sports History so we can continue to grow and give you more great sports history every day.

[00:09:21] And the answer to today's trivia question, what NCAA rule was change following the 1971 Marshall season.

[00:09:30] The rule to allow freshman the chance to play which changed in 1972 following the success in the previous year of Marshall allowing freshman to play on their team.

[00:09:41] They now would allow all NCAA teams to allow freshman to play.