Marshall plane crash story has so many ironies

       The story of the tragic Marshall University plane crash is loaded with ironies. For today, I’ll just focus on one example.

       The 1970 edition of the Thundering Herd had three players – Bob Harris, Jack Repasy and Mark Andrews – who were teammates at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. When Marshall went on a road trip to play East Carolina, the parents of these three players drove south from Ohio to watch their sons play.

QB/WR Bob Harris

       The Cincinnati trio played reasonably well in a gut-wrenching 17-14 loss. Andrews was a key performer for MU as a defensive lineman. Harris split time between playing quarterback and wide receiver. Repasy was a proven commodity at receiver, who rarely dropped any ball thrown in his direction.

       After the game, Bob Harris Sr. and his wife asked the three players to ride back with them to Huntington, West Virginia. According to the senior Harris, the three players were reluctant to approach Thundering Herd head coach Ricky Tolley about it.

       As things turned out, it would be the last time these parents would see their sons. Harris, Repasy and Andrews were among the 75 passengers on the DC-9 jet that crashed into the side of a mountain and yielded no survivors.

       “They were afraid because the coach was enraged because they had lost the game,” said Harris Sr. during an interview on the ESPN Classic documentary Remembering Marshall (2000). “They just didn’t want to ask him.

       “And that haunts me to this day that I didn’t persist in getting them to ride back with us instead of going on the plane.”

       Right after making his comments, tears start to well up in the eyes of the elder Harris. It’s plain for everyone to see that the events from that horrific November night weighed heavily on his mind.

   

O happy day ... Marshall finally stops the streak

        It’s late October in 1969 and the monkey is riding heavy on Marshall’s back. With another loss, the Thundering Herd will set a record for the nation’s longest winless streak. Nobody wants to see MU go down in football infamy.

Ted Shoebridge threw for 202 yards vs. Falcons.

       The odds for Marshall ending a 27-game winless streak were not favorable. The Herd would be revved up for its Homecoming game, but it’s doubtful that anyone believed the home team had any chance to upset Bowling Green, a team it hadn’t beaten since the mid-1950s. It didn’t help matters that the Falcons were 27-point favorites and prime contenders in the Mid-American Conference.

       The conditions at Fairfield Stadium were far from ideal. It had rained on and off on the morning of the game. The field was a muddy mess and it would only get worse as the game progressed. Nevertheless, the two teams went at it and the surprising Herd more than held its own.

       Quarterback Ted Shoebridge skillfully guided the Marshall on three scoring drives, which included touchdown tosses to Dickie Carter and Jack Repasy. Kevin Gilmore scored the game-winner on a one-yard plunge.

       Trailing by 15 points in the fourth quarter, Bowling Green responded with an impressive drive to trim Marshall’s lead to 21-14. On their next possession, the Falcons put together another long drive. But this time the Herd’s defense put BG’s offense on lock-down. Cornerback Larry Sanders intercepted a pass at the 5-yard line to squash the Falcons threat and end all hopes for a stirring comeback.

       Marshall then took a safety and the Falcons got the ball back on a free kick. BG had three chances to reach the end zone, but the Herd prevailed to earn a miraculous win in the mud as the rain-drenched crowd swarmed the field after the final gun sounded to end the game.

       Final score: Marshall 21, Bowling Green 16.

       Shoebridge didn’t throw a lot in these swampy conditions, but he was effective enough. He connected on 8 of 16 throws for 202 yards.

       While the offense delivered what was needed, it was the play of the defense provided the final margin of victory. The Herd gave up a whopping 415 yards, but compensated by forcing five fumbles to go with a pair of drive-killing interceptions. Defensive line Mike Bankston finished with 15 tackles, three recovered fumbles and one forced fumble.

       This victory proved to be a sign of better things to come for the remainder of the ’69 season. During that stretch, Marshall won three of its last four games and outscored opponents 120-79.

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NC weekly: Greenlee takes fresh look at MU tragedy

Craig T. Greenlee

        Editor’s Note: The following article ran in the Arts & Lifestyle section of The Chronicle weekly newspaper in Winston-Salem, NC on November 3.

       Local resident Craig T. Greenlee has released November Ever After, a memoir that tells little-known facts about the tragic 1970 plane crash that killed most of the Marshall University Football Team.

       Greenlee played football at Marshall for two seasons, but left the team for one year. He knew most of the players who died and rejoined the team after the crash to help rebuild the school’s football program.

       There have been other books penned about the tragedy and even a 2006 film We Are Marshall, but Greenlee said other accounts have missed or glossed over key facts.

       “Most people are amazed by what they discover from the movie and the documentaries about the Marshall tragedy,” said Greenlee. “As amazed as they are, they don’t realize that what they’ve learned is only the tip of the iceberg.”

       November Ever After, for example, tells of former Marshall lineman Ed Carter, who missed the fatal flight and started an evangelical ministry as a result of his life being spared.

       Dickie Carter’s story is also told in the book. Dickie Carter was a star running back who quit the team a few weeks before the crash.

       In the book, Greenlee also talks about the volatile racial atmosphere on the Marshall campus. He argues that the plane crash most likely averted what could have been a full-scale race riot on Marshall’s campus.

       To learn more, go to http://NovemberEverAfter.com

Retrospect 1969: College football's centennial year

        Editor’s Note: Few people realize that in the era of November Ever After, college football celebrated its 100^th anniversary (1969). It wasn’t exactly a vintage year for Marshall’s football team, but that’s another story for another time. Take a look at this archive article that ran in the school’s newspaper The Parthenon. The article was written student journalist Jeffery Bergen and was published October 31, 1969.

       This year is the mark of a century of intercollegiate football. Fans who have attended college games this season have noticed that on the side of each player’s helmet are the numerals “100” framed by a football.

       It is recorded that the first intercollegiate game was at New Brunswick, on Nov. 6, 1869, between Rutgers and Princeton. Rutgers won six goals to four. The game was not timed by a watch, but was decided when one team scored six goals.

       A century ago, teams used a round, rubber ball. A goal was scored when the ball was kicked under the crossbar. Today, players run for a touchdown and kick extra points over the crossbar for a field goal or the point after touchdown.

       Marshall football began its season in 1898 when the Herd fell to Catlettsburg, Ky., 11-5. Being a young team, they lacked experience and did not have a winning season until 1937.

       Under the direction of Coach Cam Henderson, the team of ’37 tallied a record of winning 14 games in a row. The team also scored the most points, 343, in the history of the school.

       We can estimate that two-and-half million men have played college football in a century and that 1,500 have been “immortal.” Men like George Gipp (Notre Dame); Red Grange (Illinois); Jim Thorpe (Carlisle) and many other players and coaches are the men who have made football the game it is today.

       Twenty to thirty million fans will see a college game in 1969. This seems like a good way to start off the next century.

Greenlee to share perspective on radio talk show

      The memoir November Ever After continues to attract considerable media interest as the anniversary of the 1970 Marshall University plane crash approaches. Craig T. Greenlee, the memoir’s author, will share his insights and memories on Insiders Sportsline, a sports talk radio show co-hosted by veteran broadcasters Paul Swann and Woody Woodrum.

       The interview is scheduled for Friday, November 11 at 5:05 p.m. on WRVC-94.1 FM/930 AM in Huntington, West Virginia. Nine days from today (November 14) marks the 41^st anniversary of the aviation disaster that killed 75 people, which included MU athletic administrators and boosters, plus most of the football team and coaching staff.

       The daily show, which runs from 4 to 6 p.m., reaches listeners in the metro Huntington area, Ironton, Ohio and Ashland, Kentucky. WRVC is the flagship station for the Thundering Herd IMG Sports Network.

'I can only imagine what it must have been like'

By Cynthia Greenlee

       Craig and I had been married for about 7½ years before he ever mentioned anything about the Marshall University plane crash. I knew he went to Marshall, but he never said very much about his college days.

Cynthia Greenlee

       When we went to see the movie We Are Marshall, what I remember more than anything was how he kept shaking his head all during the movie and afterwards. He even got into specifics about different scenes and explained what really happened and what didn’t.

       There was one scene in the movie that really seemed to bother him. Anthony Mackie, who played Nate Ruffin in the film, got very emotional during a scrimmage and attacked one of his teammates. In that scene, assistant coach Red Dawson had to pull Ruffin off the guy. Craig kept saying that the real-life Nate didn’t act anything like the character in the movie.

       Craig ought to know. He and Nate played together, so he would have a good understanding of how Nate might react in stressful situations.

       When Craig did some of his background research for the book, we went back to Huntington (West Virginia) for a few days and we visited his college roommate Bill Redd and his wife, Marie. They talked a lot about the crash. For me, I don’t think it would be something I would want to talk about, even after all these years. I’m not so sure I would want to relive all of that.

       I can only imagine what it must have been like to be on Marshall’s campus that night. Craig’s best friend (Scottie Reese) died in the plane crash.  Maybe that’s why he never said anything about it.

Cynthia Greenlee is married to the author. The couple lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.