On November 14, 1970, a majority of the Marshall football team died in a plane crash near Kenova, West Virginia. There were 75 coaches, players, boosters, doctors, and flight crew members that we on the plane, none of which survived. The crash forced one of the most dramatic rebuilding efforts in sports history.

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Prior to the crash, Marshall had been a largely inconsistent team, but were appearing to be on the brink of excellence in 1970, starting the year with a 2-1 record. However, they then lost four straight games to fall to 2-5. After losing to East Carolina by a score, they lost not only their season, but also their entire team and heart of an entire city in the aforementioned crash.

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Starting in 1971, Jack Lengyel took over as head coach. The ragtag team, largely made up of underclassmen, was miraculously able to to capture their first win against Xavier in the second week of the regular season. The team would only win eight more games in Lengyel’s tenure as head coach. Since then, the university has built a storied program filled with ten bowl wins and nine conference championships, adding to the four the team had before 1970. This story is also captured in the feature film We Are Marshall, which was released in 2006.