Marshall Plane Crash Site
Wayne County, Wayne County, West Virginia
Marker Inscription
Historical marker commemorating the 1970 plane crash involving the Marshall University football team.
The Story
On the rainy night of November 14, 1970, a chartered jet carrying the Marshall University football team, coaches, boosters, and crew home from a game in North Carolina struck a hillside on its approach to the Tri-State Airport near Huntington, West Virginia. All 75 people aboard were killed, wiping out nearly the entire Thundering Herd program in an instant. The disaster shattered the surrounding community, and the university rebuilt its team almost from scratch the following season with a roster of freshmen and walk-ons known as the 'Young Thundering Herd.'
Why it matters
It remains the deadliest tragedy in American sports history, and the town's decision to rebuild became a lasting story of communal resilience — later reaching a national audience through memorials, an annual fountain ceremony, and film.
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Related events
- · Southern Airways Flight 932 crash (November 14, 1970)
Themes & tags
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