As all eyes in Athens shifted to Peden Stadium in April while the Ohio football team scrimmaged to end its spring season, another Green and White game was taking place in Huntington, W.Va., less than 90 miles away.
Bobcat fans probably haven't thought much about the Thundering Herd of Marshall University ' once one of Ohio's biggest rivals ' since The Herd left the Mid-American Conference last season for Conference USA.
However, that's all about to change if Marshall's Green and White game was any indication. A record crowd of 17,346 Herd fans packed Marshall's Joan C. Edwards Stadium, but Marshall fans were not in the seats only to catch the football scrimmage.
The real draw was actors Matthew McConaughey (Failure to Launch) and David Strathairn (Good Night
and Good Luck). Director Joseph McG Nichol (Charlie's Angels) also was in attendance.
So why is there Hollywood hoopla in Huntington? To understand, one must flashback to the first time Marshall left the MAC.
In 1968, The Herd was struggling to find success in the MAC, and a group of Marshall athletic boosters tried their best to quickly get Herd programs back on track.
However, the NCAA uncovered more than 140 recruiting violations soon after the quick-fix scheme and, as a result, Marshall was placed on probation by the NCAA for one year.
The MAC was less forgiving and expelled The Herd from the conference.
After having its reputation sullied by the recruiting scandal, Marshall fielded a football team of about 40 players for the 1970 season. The reduced roster was the last thing Marshall needed to turn around what already had been a dismal era of Herd football.
New coach Rick Tolley led Marshall to three victories in 1969, snapping a 27-game losing streak in the process, which dated back to the season finale of the 1966 season.
A rocky year was ahead in 1970, but The Herd was 3-5 when it hit the road to take on East Carolina. A victory would secure the best Marshall season in recent memory, but it was not in the cards ' The Herd fell short, 17-14.
Marshall would not get its final chance to earn the fourth victory.On Nov. 14, 1970, Tolley, four other members of his coaching staff, 37 football players, Marshall athletic officials, boosters, fans and a flight crew boarded a chartered DC-9.
Forty minutes later, the plane crashed and burned in a field minutes from Huntington's Tri-State Airport. Seventy-five people lost their lives.
John H. Reed, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, reported that there were no irregularities that led to the crash and it was the worst involving an athletic team in the history of American aviation.
In a single stroke, Marshall's football program was wiped out. To make matters worse, The Herd lost several of its prominent athletic boosters and Director of Athletics, Charles Kautz.
Somehow, through trials and tribulations, The Herd rebuilt itself into the winningest collegiate football team of the '90s.
Enter McG, who wants to tell the story of the Marshall football team's rebirth in an upcoming Warner Brothers' movie, We Are Marshall.
Hollywood's elite already are taking notice. McConaughey is on board to play coach Jack Lengyel, who takes over as coach after the tragedy. Strathairn is set to play then-Marshall president, Donald Dedmon. Lost star Matthew Fox also is joining the cast as assistant coach Red Dawson.
We Are Marshall is filming now and is expected to be released in December. I'm not a movie critic, but this is going to be a movie worth the price of admission. 17
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Mark Shugar
