November Ever After gets high 5s from Amazon

Feedback: Book offers fascinating look at crash

BY ED LANE

Editor’s Note: I’m always interested in what people think after they’ve read the book I wrote about the 1970 Marshall University plane crash – “November Ever After.” A few months back, I met Ed Lane and several other media people at a book signing event in North Carolina during the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Awards Weekend. Ed recently contacted me and shared his thoughts about my memoir (read below).

       Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It’s a quick read, concise, and to the point. It offers a fascinating look at the plane crash and its aftermath. So often when news stories of tragedy occur, people tend to focus on the immediate impact. They don't examine the after-effects. The book does a thorough job in covering that aspect of the disaster.

       In my opinion, the most memorable part of this book was reading about the trips that survivors went on as they attended the funerals of their schoolmates. There were countless examples how people showed their genuine care and compassion for one another. The writer’s decision to address the chilly racial atmosphere on campus serves as a sobering reminder about the ills of racial bigotry.

       I recommend this book because it delivers an accurate account of a historical event. It also introduces a side of the plane crash story that has generally been overlooked by the mainstream media. While the book’s author makes it clear that he’s not too thrilled with the movie “We Are Marshall,” I feel he was fairly accurate in his assessment of the film.

       The book did surprise me in one area in particular. Mr. Greenlee went the distance to explain and illustrate how this tragedy affected the crash victims’ significant others, friends and family members for many years after the crash.

Ed Lane is the host of the afternoon drive sports talk show “Southside Connection,” which airs Monday-Friday at 5 p.m.  on ESPN Southside 1160-AM in Martinsville, Virginia.

Paranormal happenings at Marshall crash site?

       Any reports of paranormal activity at the Marshall plane crash site? The question was posted in the Huntington, WVa. forum of the Topix.com website.

     On the night of November 14, 1970, a jetliner carrying most of Marshall University’s football team, coaching staff, school administrators and boosters, slammed into the side of a mountain as it attempted to land at Tri-State Airport. There were no survivors among the 75 passengers on board.

       You may or may not believe in the existence of the paranormal. Even so, the forum has some thought-provoking comments. A former airport employee – “A Witness” of Scott Depot, WVa. –  shared the following recollection on the forum in late October 2010: 

       Must have been 20 or so years back as far as I can remember. I was mowing the grass around the Tri-State Airport when I heard a loud roar and saw a large passenger jet slam into the hillside over the edge of where I was working.

       I thought I had lost my mind. But instinctively, I ran toward the site where I saw the plane crash. What did I find when I finally made it to what I later found out was the exact spot where the Marshall flight crashed?

       Nothing.

       It wasn't what I saw, but what I heard that sent shivers down my spine.

       I heard a faint chant, as if the 75 passengers of the doomed flight were speaking in unison, “we are, Marshall, we are, Marshall.” I didn't bother telling anyone for some time as I knew I would be labeled “psychotic.”

       To this day I know what I heard and no one will ever tell me otherwise.
       I always felt a presence in the air while I worked at the airport and that day was just far more bizarre than usual. People don't appreciate the great number of lives lost in the immediate area surrounding the airport. There's bound to be a lot of paranormal activity there. 
       “A Witness” isn’t the only person who weighed in on this topic. On this same Topix.com forum, “I Know” of South Point, Ohio wrote:
       There were some very strange occurrences that happened on campus while the crew for “We Are Marshall” was filming … especially during the filming of the fountain scene. I was there.
       The almost palpable presence of “something” is always there at the ceremony when MU celebrates the anniversary of the crash.

Photography: agrannysplaceisinthecockpit.blogspot.com

Writer asks: Why tinker with a marvelous story?

Editor’s Note: Here’s a partial reprint of a news column that ran in a North Carolina daily paper about Craig T. Greenlee -- the author of the memoir “November Ever After.” The book focuses on the aftermath of the Marshall plane crash that killed most of the school’s football team. As a former teammate of the players who perished nearly forty-two years ago, Greenlee has a unique perspective about the tragedy.

BY SCOTT SEXTON

Winston-Salem Journal (NC)

       Like millions of others, Craig Greenlee saw "We Are Marshall," the 2006 film that depicted the rebuilding of the Marshall University football program after a plane crash Nov. 14, 1970 that killed 75 players, coaches and others.
       Unlike most moviegoers who were captivated by the film's can-do message, he didn't leave the theater feeling particularly upbeat.
       Greenlee knew most of those killed that day. He was on the team the previous two seasons — he walked away for personal reasons — and would come back to play the following season to help rebuild the program.
       And because of that, he knew that what was shown on the big screen wasn't what really happened.
       "So many things about what really happened were just … lost," said Greenlee. "The story is such a marvelous story. Why tinker with it?"

Click on the link below to read the rest of the column.

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/oct/23/wsmet01-setting-the-marshall-story-straight-ar-1528776/

August 1971: excitement, anticipation filled the air

        In the first season after the Marshall plane crash that killed most of the school’s football team, nobody had any idea of what to expect. Ten months earlier, on November 14, 1970, the unthinkable happened. A team that had showed so much promise was no longer around. Yet, there was an air of excitement and anticipation that engulfed the school and the city of Huntington, West Virginia when preseason practice started in August of 1971.

       Most of the players on ’70 freshman team came back, as well as the few varsity players who for one reason or another, didn’t go on the fatal trip. Marshall football, however, still was in desperate need of able and willing bodies. The NCAA helped out by allowing MU to play freshmen in varsity games, an unprecedented move at that time. That year, Marshall was the only place in America where freshmen could play varsity football for an NCAA-sanctioned program.

       Charles Henry, a 17-year old linebacker from South Carolina, was among that cast of college rookie hopefuls who were eager to take full advantage of the new freshman rule. Henry proved to be a mainstay during his days with the Thundering Herd (’71-’74). As a freshman, he became the youngest player to start in an NCAA varsity college football game. In 2006, Henry was inducted into the Marshall University Sports Hall of Fame.

       Henry recently shared his experiences and recollections during an interview on the “Lawson Brooks Show” on blog talk radio. Click on the link below to listen to this half-hour interview.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lawson3/2012/06/16/the-lawson-brooks-show

Real story, real people

Bookwatch: Former jock’s memoir is a worthy read

       Editor’s Note: Here’s a summary note about the 2011 memoir regarding the Marshall plane crash that appeared in the Midwest Book Review.

       Dozens of young lives lost is a tragedy that should not be forgotten. November Ever After is a memoir from Craig T. Greenlee as he reflects on a terrible accident that claimed many lives in 1970, when a plane carrying Marshall University's football team tragically crashed.

       Greenlee writes he left the football team a year earlier for personal reasons, and in wake of the tragedy, he worked to rebuild the team. This is a story of recovery for the school and those who lost that day.

       November Ever After is very much worth considering for sports memoir collections.

-Helen’s Bookshelf

Midwest Book Review