Sept. 9, 2010
Friends of Coal Brings on Young Thundering Herd
Williams Recalls Pin Drop Silence When Team Plane Would Land at Tri State Airport
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – When “Doc” Holliday’s 2010 Thundering Herd football team runs onto the field Friday night at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, an air of sentiment will greet the players preparing to battle the Mountaineers. Representatives of the “Young Thundering Herd” will form a gauntlet around the team.
Honoring members of the 1971-1974 “Young Thundering Herd” will occur prior to the game. It’s the first of events leading up to the 40th anniversary of the Marshall air crash disaster. One of the highlights will be this year’s commemoration will occur at the fountain when the water ceases to flow until Spring.
One of the former players --- recruited for the 1974 team by Jack Lengyel --- is Steve Williams, often known for his passionate speeches about the city during council meetings. He’s now president of the “M Club,” which is an association of former Marshall student athletes.
Williams explained that a number of new “traditions” will start this year. For Friday night’s game --- though, “I don’t know [all[ the names , but I’m sure Reggie [Oliver] is coming down, Allen Meadows, Bill Forbes, Rex Repass …. We have a tailgate at the pavilion three hours before the game.”
Although the collective years of “Young Thundering Herd” designation will be honored Friday, each of this year’s home games will host “a series of reunions” of other squads. At one of the games former area coaches will be invited. Williams indicated that for the first time the widow of the late Head Coach Rick Tolley will return to campus.
“The idea of the M Club is to get in the business of reunions and get everybody reconnected,” Williams said. “What’s funny, you know the people you played with and you know the team’s before and after, but you don’t know other sports. It’s amazing when you get the group together, there’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood of anybody that competed. There’s a bond. It’s special to see everybody again 40 years later, those were ‘heady’ days of youth.”
Ironically, Williams had found that when reuniting it does not matter if you were “close” to a specific person in the past or not. “ Now, there’s a closeness and you just start finding out how much alike you are. Looking back on his Freshman and Sophomore years on the team, Williams has vivid memories of air travel.
“When we would make the approach in the evening to Tri-State Airport (flying back in) , the airplane cabin became as quiet as could be. We were usually coming down in fog. Nothing was said. It was really quiet. At touchdown, you could hear a collective sigh,” Williams said.
The flight from Philadelphia to Huntington’s Tri-State Airport following the Temple game still resonates with Williams.
“It was cloudy and had rained for two days straight. We left Friday when it was raining. When we came in that [Saturday] night, you could hear a pin drop.”
The now city councilman and former member of the House of Delegates played for Marshall 1974-1977. “I played the last year [when the team was called] The Young Thundering Herd,” Williams recalled.
Referring to “We Are Marshall” (2006, the movie), he explained that during his Freshman year the team would gather at sunrise for a ceremony in Spring Hill Cemetery on game day. The memories of the 1970 disaster by 1974 were “still fresh enough that seniors sat down and cried like babies [because] they knew the players that were killed.”
Bobby (“Crunch”) Crawford, who had played for Huntington High, was a senior on the Marshall team when Williams was a freshman. The seniors led the annual remembrance and Crawford, in particular, had a difficult time speaking.
The 1970 crash which killed players, coaches, community members, and flight crew had varying impacts upon those in Huntington. Some would say the unfulfilled “superblock” (now Pullman Square) symbolized the city’s pain. For others, it took their youth. Williams readily agreed, noting that one of the players (tackle Eddie Carter) became an evangelist.
However, many have found that the coming together of Sons and Daughters of Marshall by assisting in the production --- and viewing --- of “We Are Marshall” helped bring closure to some of those that lived past the deadly crash in November 1970. As evidence, the returning to Huntington of team members, including some by plane. For that matter, the film’s director, McG, later admitted a fear of flying. He stoically flew into Tri State unaccompanied before accepting the assignment. Once on the ground, he went to the crash site and said a prayer.
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Friends of Coal Brings on Young Thundering Herd
Williams Recalls Pin Drop Silence When Team Plane Would Land at Tri State Airport
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – When “Doc” Holliday’s 2010 Thundering Herd football team runs onto the field Friday night at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, an air of sentiment will greet the players preparing to battle the Mountaineers. Representatives of the “Young Thundering Herd” will form a gauntlet around the team.
Honoring members of the 1971-1974 “Young Thundering Herd” will occur prior to the game. It’s the first of events leading up to the 40th anniversary of the Marshall air crash disaster. One of the highlights will be this year’s commemoration will occur at the fountain when the water ceases to flow until Spring.
One of the former players --- recruited for the 1974 team by Jack Lengyel --- is Steve Williams, often known for his passionate speeches about the city during council meetings. He’s now president of the “M Club,” which is an association of former Marshall student athletes.
Williams explained that a number of new “traditions” will start this year. For Friday night’s game --- though, “I don’t know [all[ the names , but I’m sure Reggie [Oliver] is coming down, Allen Meadows, Bill Forbes, Rex Repass …. We have a tailgate at the pavilion three hours before the game.”
Although the collective years of “Young Thundering Herd” designation will be honored Friday, each of this year’s home games will host “a series of reunions” of other squads. At one of the games former area coaches will be invited. Williams indicated that for the first time the widow of the late Head Coach Rick Tolley will return to campus.
“The idea of the M Club is to get in the business of reunions and get everybody reconnected,” Williams said. “What’s funny, you know the people you played with and you know the team’s before and after, but you don’t know other sports. It’s amazing when you get the group together, there’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood of anybody that competed. There’s a bond. It’s special to see everybody again 40 years later, those were ‘heady’ days of youth.”
Ironically, Williams had found that when reuniting it does not matter if you were “close” to a specific person in the past or not. “ Now, there’s a closeness and you just start finding out how much alike you are. Looking back on his Freshman and Sophomore years on the team, Williams has vivid memories of air travel.
“When we would make the approach in the evening to Tri-State Airport (flying back in) , the airplane cabin became as quiet as could be. We were usually coming down in fog. Nothing was said. It was really quiet. At touchdown, you could hear a collective sigh,” Williams said.
The flight from Philadelphia to Huntington’s Tri-State Airport following the Temple game still resonates with Williams.
“It was cloudy and had rained for two days straight. We left Friday when it was raining. When we came in that [Saturday] night, you could hear a pin drop.”
The now city councilman and former member of the House of Delegates played for Marshall 1974-1977. “I played the last year [when the team was called] The Young Thundering Herd,” Williams recalled.
Referring to “We Are Marshall” (2006, the movie), he explained that during his Freshman year the team would gather at sunrise for a ceremony in Spring Hill Cemetery on game day. The memories of the 1970 disaster by 1974 were “still fresh enough that seniors sat down and cried like babies [because] they knew the players that were killed.”
Bobby (“Crunch”) Crawford, who had played for Huntington High, was a senior on the Marshall team when Williams was a freshman. The seniors led the annual remembrance and Crawford, in particular, had a difficult time speaking.
The 1970 crash which killed players, coaches, community members, and flight crew had varying impacts upon those in Huntington. Some would say the unfulfilled “superblock” (now Pullman Square) symbolized the city’s pain. For others, it took their youth. Williams readily agreed, noting that one of the players (tackle Eddie Carter) became an evangelist.
However, many have found that the coming together of Sons and Daughters of Marshall by assisting in the production --- and viewing --- of “We Are Marshall” helped bring closure to some of those that lived past the deadly crash in November 1970. As evidence, the returning to Huntington of team members, including some by plane. For that matter, the film’s director, McG, later admitted a fear of flying. He stoically flew into Tri State unaccompanied before accepting the assignment. Once on the ground, he went to the crash site and said a prayer.
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