"In Huntington, West Virginia, there is a river..."

On November 14th, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed on a hill just short of the runway at Huntington Tri-State Airport in Huntington, WV.  On board were 75 members of the Marshall Thundering Herd football team, coaches, staff, and fans.  The team had just lost 17-14 against the Pirates of Eastern Carolina University.  After the crash, the president of Marshall University, Donald Dedmon, almost shut down the football program until students and fans rallied to keep it alive. Dedmon hired Jack Lengyel as the new head coach and the rest of the story has gone into cinematic history as the movie We Are Marshall. 

My family has several friends that lost loved ones to that hillside on Flight 932. Most of them won't talk about the crash, or the surrounding time. People just seem to think that 42 years later, enough time has passed and it's time to move on. People in these parts, Appalachians, just don't up and forget their folk no matter how long ago they passed over. Ever year, on November 14th at noon, there's a ceremony on Marshall's campus behind the student center where Memorial Fountain stands (as seen in the picture above). There's a brief ceremony and the fountain is turned off. Many students make it a point to be there, it's part of the Marshall experience. You can see them stop and say a quick prayer on their way to class. Most 20 year olds don't give much thought to the past, but there's something powerful in seeing them remember their fellow schoolmates who never got to finish their journey between the East End and Downtown Huntington.

For more information, I can't recommend enough the documentary Marshall University: From Ashes to Glory. 






*It should be noted the Ohio River doesn't flow through the middle of Huntington. If it did, Southern Ohio would wake up to find itself annexed which I doubt they'd enjoy.