I don’t recall how the subject came up a couple weeks ago but Brady and I were discussing Marshall University and their football team’s terrible plane crash in 1970. I told Brady how I once knew a lady who talked of how she was a cheerleader for the Marshall football team but for some reason or other did not make that fateful trip with the players. I remember her discussing the incident and saying how it was something that she would never forget. I concluded my recollection of this conversation by noting that it took place several years before they made the We Are Marshall movie about the crash and events following it.
Brady then told me his Marshall-related story about a husband and wife couple whom he had done some work for when he was part of A&A (the Adams brothers) Construction crew. Turns out that the husband was also a Marshall alum who was a student there when the plane crashed. Brady noted how when the film came out in 2006, the man’s daughter leased out the entire movie theater so that her Dad could view it privately on his own.
I mention these two Marshall stories because this past 14 November marked the 50th anniversary of the plane crash. Check out this excellent article on it from the Washington Post (click here.)
As for a follow up to our Marshall connectedness, a few hours after Brady and I had discussed all of this, the same lady that he and A&A had done work for years ago called him about doing some additional work. Her husband has recently passed away. She is now in the process of putting the house on the market and needs some repair work done and someone referred her to Brady. Brady couldn’t believe that she called him only a few hours after he and I had just talked about her husband and Marshall.
As for my Marshall connection, I did manage to locate on Facebook the lady who told me her story. I may just have to try and contact her to let her know I still think of her and our conversation every time I hear something about Marshall.
As for Buzzy’s Country Store and its Marshall connection here, my friend Pat Stover is an alum who was also there in 1970. He told me how he knew and hung out with several of the players on the team and what an awful time it was following the plane crash.
Music-wise and to try and end on an upbeat note, this America tune played at the end of the movie We Are Marshall.