Topic: Where were you the night of Nov 14, 1970?

[marcbuff]

I was home for the weekend back in the Wheeling area. It was hard to get the game even on the radio back then away from Huntington. When I saw the final score , I was mad because we had beaten ECU 38-7 the year before. We were going out the door to see a movie when the bulletin came on Channel 7 . We stopped and said NO WAY, lets see what this is about. They came back on and said there were no survivors. Shock and disbelief was the only reaction. We stayed home and watched the rest of the night for more information. I had my ticket from the Kent St. game in my wallet the week before. We won 20-17. I put it in with the pictures and it is still there today. Hard to believe it was 47 years ago. Never Forget.

[Herdmeister]

I was a sports writer in Wheeling at the time. I usually covered most Herd football games but since it was an away game, I had the weekend off and was visiting friends in Canton, Ohio. We had gone to the drive in theater. My mom told me the news when I came back in from the night.
We packed up first thing Sunday morning. I dropped her off in New Martinsville and I headed straight to Huntington.

[bighat]

I was the night manager of the McDonald's next to the stadium and was there.  My wife was in the hospital and our son was born two days before the crash.

[parshall2marshall]

I was a senior in HS near Tacoma Washington. I had been home from school not very long. Trying to let it all sink in, couldn't call friends in Huntington - the circuits were all busy. All I remember was I was sitting by the raised fireplace and heard a burning log roll toward my backside and I instinctively pulled my hand away.

p2m

[mxman870]

We had won the OVC and the coaches had us over in town for steak dinners. After the meal a few of us headed up to The Pub. If you remember back then, there was an emergency lane in the middle of 5th Ave. that had yellow flashing lights that were flashing but no emergency vehicles were in sight. When we got to The Pub and were ready to have some fun a guy came up to us and told us what happened. It crushed us because we had gotten to know several players by going to watch them practice. Sad sad times.

[marshallmark]

10 years old - my parents were out to a Faculty Wives' sponsored dinner.  My dad ran into the house, grabbed a change of clothes and a toothbrush, and I didn't see him for the next 2 weeks. 

Found out later that Pres. Dedmon had asked dad to be the liaison between the University and the families and he was the point person to tell about 20 families their first news of the crash.  He told me that Red Dawson sat in a chair by his desk for days just to be able to be a 'known' voice for those families after dad had broken the news.

The stories from that time are horrific -- and underscore the affect the crash had on people/families beyond the obvious.  Dad still has trouble talking about that time, although he's gotten better in the past few years.  He cannot watch the movie. 

[bluewaterpirate]

Good Morning .....

I remember that fateful day all to well I was traveling back to Norfolk  from the game when I heard the terrible news. It just made me sick to think I had just watched Marshall play and all the families & friends that were affected by this horrible event. Moving forward to November 14, 2007 to Greenville, NC at DF Stadium to the pregame ceremony attended by Marshall & ECU fans for the unveiling of the Marshall Plaque to honor their memory and ensure their spirits lived on. I've always felt that Marshall and ECU would be ever connected because of this horrific event.

Here are a few pictures I took of the ceremony. Thank you for letting me honor the memory of these young men and their extended Marshall family.

[The Right Stuff]

At the time I was play by play man for WMUL.  I had listened to the game that afternoon and was disappointed when we lost.  I was in my room studying for a Physic exam.  MY parents were down stairs watching All In The Family when my mom came up and said there had been an accident at the air port.  As I looked at the time it was about the same time that Gene Morehouse had said the team would be arriving.  The rest of the evening was a blur, but I do remember my Father and I ended up going to the Christian Center.

TRS
MU 71

[herdorbust]

At my Buffalo midget league football banquet.

[Thundering In MD]

I was a three year old living on Walnut Street in Kenova.  My dad left the house to go out to check on his uncle who lived on Rt. 75 close to the airport.  After being at the crash site, Dad didn't fly until 1984 when he went with me to Europe for AAU basketball.

[breckjimison]

In my mother’s belly. She was 5 months pregnant with me at that time.

[svherd]

I was 8 years old and visiting my grandmother on Collis Ave. The news came over WSAZ and she started to cry. I knew something bad had happened. She lived just a few doors down from Jim Grobe's parents.

Always been a Herd fan. Most of my family and friends all attended and graduated from MU.

[Flat Tire 2]

I was 8 years old and visiting my grandmother on Collis Ave. The news came over WSAZ and she started to cry. I knew something bad had happened. She lived just a few doors down from Jim Grobe's parents.

Always been a Herd fan. Most of my family and friends all attended and graduated from MU.

Do you mean Mike Blake? Jim Grobe went to Ferrum JR and then played at UVA for Sonny.

[Herdmeister]

Good Morning .....

I remember that fateful day all to well I was traveling back to Norfolk  from the game when I heard the terrible news. It just made me sick to think I had just watched Marshall play and all the families & friends that were affected by this horrible event. Moving forward to November 14, 2007 to Greenville, NC at DF Stadium to the pregame ceremony attended by Marshall & ECU fans for the unveiling of the Marshall Plaque to honor their memory and ensure their spirits lived on. I've always felt that Marshall and ECU would be ever connected because of this horrific event.

Here are a few pictures I took of the ceremony. Thank you for letting me honor the memory of these young men and their extended Marshall family.

I was at that ceremony in 2007. ECU is first class!

[whf]

My wife and I had just gotten engaged the week before and were slouching on her parents couch in their family room, watching TV.  The weather was just plain ugly, drizzly and foggy.  I remember the "cut in" on the TV and it was as if everyone knew right away that it was the team's plane.  Those next few weeks at MU were surreal. We attended many of the community services; I had just started school that summer after my US Army service, so not involved with the players.  My wife knew a couple of them, had classes with them, and also a couple of the girl students who's parents died as well.  She was in her first semester of her senior year.

By the way SVHerd, my grand parents also lived on Collis Avenue, until 1966 or 67.

[carolinaherdfan]

I was at Johnny’s Club Canteen...one tough evening!

[JEP3rd]

I was at home in Huntington. I was a sophomore at Huntington High then for the 1970-71 school year. My sister and I went to pick up dinner for the family at the Washington Ave. McDonald's, and after eating dinner, I played a little ping-pong with my brother. I still have a good recall of how foggy and drizzly-dark that night was then, en route to the McDonald's

My father was a Huntington urological surgeon, and was also either that year in 1970, or in 1969, the chief of the medical staff at St. Mary's Hospital in Huntington. He kept a police radio scanner he listened to in his bedroom, because he was a physician/surgeon to many of the police officers in the Huntington Police Dept. back then, so he liked to keep track of any possible needs the police would have in case of a shooting or injury.

I've pieced together over the years what happened with my father from conversations with my mom concerning the crash, and I think my recall is pretty accurate. Within about 10-15 minutes of the plane crash, my father knew what was up at Tri-State Airport by listening to the police scanners. Within another few minutes, he got a call from the hospital to be on standby for trauma surgery at St. Mary's while the rest of the hospital was doing the same.

And then a short while later (either according to my mom or dad, can't remember which), he received another call...this one from Dr. Gerry Vanston, a very close friend of my father who was then involved with the Cabell County Coroner and Medical Examiner's office - he asked my dad to come out to the crash site to help identify bodies.

My father didn't go. He at one time said he had too many friends on that plane - doctors, their wives, other business people he knew - to be involved with identifying as he would say, 'pieces of people' he knew.

Of course like anyone else around at that time, the crash affected all of us deeply.  I knew many of the Huntington High and other students who lost one or both parents on the plane. For me, it was the catalyst of a life-changing faith moment, and I'm now involved in ministry here in New York City.

[HERDFAN1999]

I was 14 months old and I'm sure was at our little home in Milton.  The personal stories in this thread are amazing.

[Surbadger]

I was at home in Huntington. I was a sophomore at Huntington High then for the 1970-71 school year. My sister and I went to pick up dinner for the family at the Washington Ave. McDonald's, and after eating dinner, I played a little ping-pong with my brother.

My father was a Huntington urological surgeon, and was also either that year in 1970, or in 1969, the chief of the medical staff at St. Mary's in Huntington. He kept police scanner he listened to in his bedroom, because he was a physician/surgeon to many of the police officers in the Huntington Police Dept. back then, so he liked to keep track of any possible needs the police would have in case of a shooting or injury.

I've pieced together over the years what happened with my father from conversations with my mom concerning the crash, and I think my recall is pretty accurate. Within about 10-15 minutes of the plane crash, my father knew what was up at Tri-State Airport by listening to the police scanners. Within another few minutes, he got a call from the hospital to be on standby for trauma surgery at St. Mary's while the rest of the hospital was doing the same.

And then a short while later (either according to my mom or dad, can't remember which), he received anther call...this one from Dr. Gerry Vanston, a very close friend of my father who was then involved with the Cabell County Coroner and Medical Examiner's office - he asked my dad to come out to the crash site to help identify bodies.

My father didn't go. He at one time said he had too many friends on that plane - doctors, their wives, other business people he knew - to be involved with identifying as he would say, 'pieces of people' he knew.

Of course like anyone else around at that time, the crash affected all of us deeply.  I knew many of the Huntington High and other students who lost one or both parents on the plane. For me, it was the catalyst of a life-changing faith moment, and I'm now involved in ministry here in New York City.

That was very moving.  Thank you for sharing and I good job with keeping up the good work in NYC.

[Gaylen]

I was standing guard duty in Fort Sill, Okla., when the sergeant of the guard, a captain and another soldier drove up.
The captain asked "you're from West Virginia aren't you?"
It was all downhill from there.
I mustered out about a month later and came back and got a job at the HD. Still after all these years so much is surreal even today.

[The E-Man]

I was a 9yr old kid at the time and my mother called us kids back into the house. Normally our house was full of energy, I knew something was terribly wrong when all the adults were glued to the T.V. and not saying anything. Then WHTN-TV Channel 13 news came on and it was a very traumatic emotional experience for the whole family.

[go1970herd]

  I was sitting with my grandmother at a whopping 2 years and 10 months old and she had the newlywed game on and my Dad came running in from dropping my mom off at Colonial Lanes for her bowling night and even at such a young age I can still remember him saying come on lets go to me, of coarse at that age I had no idea what was going on but we left and all I can remember though is seeing fire and it raining ! He told me years later all about that night and said that we actually drove right up on the crash site and had made it there before a lot of the emergency vehicles did, which is how I was able to see the fire that evening because we were that close to it !!!! Marshall is apart of my being and will always be !!! WE ARE MARSHALL means more to me than a lot of people and it always will !! May we never forget and GO HERD may they RIP

[DallasGreen]

At my Buffalo midget league football banquet.

I was there as well.

[coalherd]

Was back from Nam about a week.  My best friend was at MU then.  He wanted to go to Morgantown to watch WVU's game because it was their last home game and his high school friend and neighbor was a senior on the team.  They beat Syracuse on a chilly, damp afternoon.  I was freezing my you know what off after 13 months in SE Asia.  We went into the EERS dressing room after the game, met several of the players, coaches, etc., including Coach Bowden.

Later, my MU friend and his neighbor/WVU player went out to the Tower Dorms at Evansdale Campus.  We were riding up on one of the elevators and when we met some other WVU players, we were introduced to them as some back home guys who were from Marshall.  At one floor, the door opened, and when the EER player introduced us to another WVU player he asked if we heard about the Marshall plane crash.  We didn't know what he was talking about.  As we went to the player's room, several other WVU players came by and the word had spread pretty quickly about the crash.  In all honesty, a lot of the players, many state natives, were generally shaken and subdued, even though they had had a big win over Syracuse.  Several of them offered us condolences. 

Later, much later, I found out that Coach Bowden had been willing to help the new Herd staff as they prepared for HERD football in 1971.

[hookem herd]

I was 8 years old and we were on way home from the old Tradewell store in Kenova. As we came across the old rt. 75 hill there was a lot of tree limbs in the road. Then we saw the fire. The plane had crashed in friend of my dad's side yard. At the time we still didn't realize the it was a plane that had crashed. Fearing that his friends house was on fire dad went to see if he could help. This was when we found out what had happened. Dad came back to the car with his friends wife and baby daughter and told my mother to take them to our house. I didn't see my did again for a week. My dad did not discuss what he witnessed until 1990 after their birth of my first child. That when we had the discussion about how fragile life is. But the thing I remember the most is hearing my father cry many nights after I went to bed. It forever changed him.