West Virginia Senate Approves Creating Memorial Day for 1970 Marshall Plane Crash

February 15, 2023

Mountaineer News

WV State News

In this Nov. 15, 1970 file photo, Dr. Donald Dedmon, acting president of Marshall University, stands at a lectern in Huntington, West Virginia as he speaks with friends and relatives of those killed in the plane crash that killed 75 people a day earlier and 36 Marshall football players. Harry Cabluck / AP

CHARLESTON, WV - Minority Whip Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Way, remembers dedicating seats at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in Huntington and marking the transition seat for Red Dawson, the former Marshall University assistant football coach, because “He's the glue between the ones who died in the plane crash and the young Thundering Herd.”

Dawson wasn’t with the 75 who died on Nov. 14, 1970, as their plane crashed returning from a game at East Carolina. He was on a recruiting trip instead.

Plymale also remembers his mother, then a Marshall professor, losing four students in the crash and being assigned to attend a funeral for Bob Patterson in Louisburg, North Carolina, and becoming lifelong friends with his family.

On Wednesday, the West Virginia Senate passed House Bill 2412 to mark November 14th as a permanent state memorial day to remember those who died in the plane crash. The House approved the bill January 20th.

“This goes deep,” Plymale said. “You don’t make this a holiday, but a day of remembrance.”

Sen. Michael Woelfel, D-Cabell, was a freshman at Marshall at the time of the crash and said he remembered thinking about whether he should rush out to the crash site that night.

He noted that he’s the only member of the legislature that had a line in the 2006 “We Are Marshall” movie, where Matthew Fox played Dawson. But he also believes the movie brought up old wounds and led to healing for the community, which he thinks the memorial day can do as well.

“That movie brought a lot of people back together to deal with the loss, and they did it collectively,” Woelfel said. “So I think this is another step along that healing process.”

Plymale noted it wasn’t just football players and coaches on the flight, but also administrators, city council members and a legislator who died.

He noted that 64 children lost one or both parents that night and that there were so many funeral processions that they would bump into each other at intersections in the viaduct.

“You had so many deaths and so many things happening here,” Plymale said.