HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Marshall University is putting up new memorial banners to mark the 50 years since a plane crash killed all 75 football players, coaches and others aboard a flight home from a college matchup.
The Herald-Dispatch reports the banners were the product of campus discussions over how to recognize the Nov. 14, 1970, tragedy. The team had been returning to Huntington, West Virginia, on a chartered plane after a game at East Carolina University when it crashed into a hill, unable to safely land at an airport.
The 75 banners installed on flag poles include photos of the dead — everyone on the plane perished — and the names and numbers of players. The campus marks the deaths every fall.
“I went to the fountain ceremonies. I saw the impact, but didn’t truly feel it,” Megan Archer, university spokeswoman and alumna, told the Herald-Dispatch.
“When you really delve into a project like this and learn (the victims’) stories, it’s hard not to feel it.”
The events were featured in the 2000 documentary “Marshall University: Ashes to Glory” and the 2006 film drama “We Are Marshall.”
The banners will stay up through the spring. Additional events and an exhibits are scheduled in the coming weeks to remember the crash.
