'I Can't Even Imagine'

Carl Lee was a three-time Pro Bowl cornerback during his 11 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings.

Since writing the memoir "November Ever After," I've done a fair share of interviews on sports talk radio shows. One of the most memorable happened a few months after the book's initial release.

It wasn't until several days after this interview when I realized how special it was -- and for several reasons. One of the show's hosts was a former Marshall football star who played a dozen seasons in the NFL. 

Carl Lee is one of the most accomplished athletes to ever compete for the Thundering Herd. A three-time Pro Bowl cornerback, Lee played all but one season with the Minnesota Vikings and he ended his career with the New Orleans Saints. 

Lee and I played the same position in college (free safety) and I got to see him play when I attended graduate school at Marshall in the late '70s/early '80s. I got a sideline view of his college playing days as a free-lance photographer who covered Marshall's football team for the school yearbook.

During this interview, Lee had some interesting perspectives. He arrived on campus nine years after the 1970 crash that wiped out most of Marshall's varsity football team. And although he was familiar with the tragedy as a native West Virginian (born and raised in South Charleston), there was so much about this topic that he did not know.

I sincerely believe that "November Ever After" helped him to get a clearer picture of the impact the plane crash had on a college campus and its surrounding community. There's no doubt in my mind that when you read what he had to say during the course of the interview (see below), that you will agree with my assessment.

Carl Lee: "I thought the movie (We Are Marshall) was a great movie. And with me being a Marshall guy, it gave me a completely different perspective (about the tragedy). And a lot of the guys I played with, we all talked about this.

We didn’t get it. We really didn’t get the gist of how big this story was when we were there (playing football at MU from ’79 to ’82). We knew about it (plane crash), but we really didn’t get it.

        

I’m trying to fathom what it was like the week, two weeks after this happened. You’re on campus and you’re trying to go to class. You go to the cafeteria; you go to the gym. I just can’t see what campus could look like or even feel like in those couple of weeks after the crash. Is there any way to articulate what that was like?

What I can’t imagine is empty rooms. We were in Hodges Hall (dormitory) and I can remember how loud Hodges Hall always was. All the time, all hours of the night, there were always people roaming around. I can’t imagine walking down the hallways of Hodges Hall and seeing empty rooms with clothes still in the closets.

I can’t even imagine what that would have been like."

Note: Last spring, Carl Lee was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. In 1995, he was inducted into the Marshall University Athletics Hall of Fame (football, track and field). Lee also served as head football coach at West Virginia State for 10 seasons.