 "Photo: Sholten Singer")
 "Photo: Sholten Singer")
Members of the Marshall University family gathered at the Memorial Student Center Fountain Saturday to remember the 75 lives lost in the tragic plane crash that occurred Nov. 14, 1970.
The keynote speaker, Joe Gillette, would have been on the 1970 football team, but, due to an injury, he could not play.
“I will never forget that day in time,” Gillette said. “The 75 sons and daughters of Marshall perished: 37 football players, every one of them my friend, 12 coaches, 21 citizens of Huntington and five crewmembers, 70 children left to grow up in the community without one or both of their parents.”
He described this tragedy as “a loss that led us to turn grief into triumph.
“Our grief led the Herd nation to proclaim, ‘We are Marshall!’” he said.
“We still do grieve and we will always and forever remember,” he said. “We are no longer grief-stricken. We are grief-inspired.
“It is our responsibility, all of us, to help fulfill the dreams and the potential of those that are gone,” Gillette said.
Jim Maddox, a Huntington resident, was present at the ceremony. Maddox played quarterback for Marshall before the 1970 team.
“It’s just gut wrenching for me,” Maddox said. “I was supposed to have been on the plane with one of my fraternity brothers, Murrill Ralston, and his wife, who both died on the plane. I had to go to California on business. It was the only thing that saved me.”
Maddox said that since then he has had five sons and 12 grandchildren, and he would have missed it all if he had gotten on the plane that day.
“I can’t get over it,” he said. “I can hardly talk about it every year because it just goes all over me. The older I get the more emotional I get.”
Maddox said he used to have to drive by the hillside the plane crashed into in Wayne County every morning on his way to work.
“I don’t know how many days I’d just pull off to the side of the road and cry,” he said. “I just couldn’t get by it,.”
He described the 1970 Marshall football team as terrific players and “an unbelievable gathering of athletes. Probably the best one we ever had up to that point.”
Maddox said he knew most everybody on the plane, including quarterback Ted Shoebridge, who he described as “a wonderful athlete. He was not only a great quarterback, but he was probably a major league prospect in baseball as a catcher.”
George Lambros, president of the M Club, presented a Blanket Award to Shoebridge’s brother at the ceremony, Tom, who accepted it in his honor.
The M Club presents these awards to honor Marshall athletes, past and present, that help bring a positive reputation to Marshall athletics.
Shoebridge, nicknamed “Shoe,” was inducted into the Marshall Hall of Fame in 1990 and broke numerous Marshall football records in 1969.
The 1970 Marshall University football media guide describes Shoebridge as “a bright, intelligent young man and an excellent play caller.”
The guide quoted Marshall football head coach Rick Tolley as saying, “Ted is an excellent football player and in general, a real outstanding athlete in every respect.”
Shoebridge’s and the rest of the 75 victims’ names were read aloud and roses were laid by the fountain to honor each of the victims. The fountain was then silenced again until next year.
Maddox said it’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 40 years since the plane crash in some respects, but in others it seems like another lifetime.
He said, for him, the ceremony was “the same as every year. I’m torn apart. It’s just a wonderful ceremony.”
Marshall University President Stephen J. Kopp, who spoke at the ceremony, said remembering this tragic event in history reminds us of how precious our time is and the blessings that each day brings.
“The power of remembering is truly a power that not only heals, but it inspires,” Kopp said.
Gillette said he doesn’t just talk about the tragedy of the crash, but of the triumph.
He said, “I promise you I will never forget. I know you will never forget. We will never forget because we are…”
The audience erupted with a resounding “Marshall!”
Kristen Barry can be contacted at ryder8@marshall.edu.
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