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Taylor, a Gundersen Lutheran respiratory therapist and an administrative director, was a sophomore at Marshall University on Nov. 14, 1970, when a plane carrying the university’s football team and others from Huntington, W.Va., crashed near the town’s airport.
Last weekend, Taylor and her family saw the movie “We Are Marshall,” which chronicled that crash and how the town and the football program struggled to recover.
“A large, dark cloud hung over our town,” Taylor said. “I remember the devastation and how sad it was.”
Taylor, who moved to Huntington when she was in sixth grade, said she had thought about taking that plane to attend the game with East Carolina University, where her brother-in-law was a professor. She instead stayed in Huntington and helped her father work around the house on that rainy, foggy day.
She and her dad listened to the football game on the radio. “With the bad weather, my dad remarked that it would be miracle if the team would make it back that night,” Taylor said.
Among those killed were a high school classmate of Taylor’s, Marshall football player Mike Blake, and the parents of two grade-school friends.
Marshall lost 37 football players and 12 coaches and university staff members. In addition to five flight crew-members, 21 Huntington residents also perished.
“Every family in town knew someone on the plane,” Taylor said. “There were 18 children who lost both sets of parents.”
Taylor said 7,000 people attended the memorial service in the university’s fieldhouse.
“Huntington was a town used to tragedy, with railroad and mine accidents, and we had a bridge collapse,” Taylor said. “But this tragedy changed a lot of people. I had not thought much about it lately until the movie. Those memories were tucked away.”
Theresa Schneyer of La Crosse, who was born and raised in Huntington, also remembers the crash. “It was quite a shock, and just plain devastation,” Schneyer said. “I thought the movie was very well done, and I cried through the whole thing.”
Her two brothers and some relatives remain in Huntington. “My nephew and his family went to the premiere of the movie,” Schneyer said.
Before the plane crash, Taylor said she already had planned to transfer to the Medical College of Virginia for her junior year to study physical therapy.
She said she had to see the movie because she was curious about how the incident would be portrayed. She said she was glad it didn’t dwell much on the crash itself.
“It was an incredible movie,” Taylor said. “I didn’t know a lot of what happened after the tragedy, and about the rebuilding.”
Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8227.
Nina Holmes wrote on Jan 14, 2007 9:34 PM: