RE: To Marshall fans
My Mom was a junior/senior at the time of the crash. She still has a copy of the student newspaper ("The Parthenon") and a copy of a local newspaper reflecting the sad tragedy of Nov. 14, 1970. I was born almost two years later to the day, so my knowledge and understanding is filtered through the prism of many others that experienced that reality.
As Mom has recounted, 1970 was a tumultuous year in Huntington. Although Huntington was a more racially (and relatively more accepting) area of WV, Marshall Univ. served a broad region of southern WV that has an odd mix of cultures and sub-cultures. A consequence of that is that racial tensions were on edge throughout that year. If I recall her recollections correctly, there was an event earlier that week which raised the tensions higher. In ways that are hard to reconcile with human behavior, the racial tensions seemed to calm -- at least in part to the loss of human life suffered by everyone in the community: white and black; wealthy, middle-class, and poor; white-collar and blue-collar.
And, what folks tend to overlook is that the tragedy rippled through a quarter of the US states: the crash claimed the lives of players from 11 different states (NY, NJ, OH, VA, WV, KY, NC, SC, AL, FL, TX), and at least 25 different communities/towns, not to mention the coaches from different areas, and the local community supporters. If a single stone creates a resonance in a small body of water, think of the 75 ripples tearing through the lives and communities where these folks were raised and/or lived. An immeasurable impact.
I personally struggle (as I think the MU community does) with balancing honor and remembrance vs. wallowing in the memory of those that died. Most of us (alumni and/or supporters) are mostly well-intended in these efforts, but sometimes it (may) go a bit too far. It is an ever-changing and delicate balance, and impossible to strike the right chord because so many families and friends were impacted. Personally, I hope that future television broadcasts focus a little less on the crash and "the story" not because I'm not proud of the leaders and the supporters that made the difficult and often heart-wrenching decision to carry on despite the constant reminders of what and who was lost, but because I wouldn't want the survivors to have that raw nerve exposed over and over. But that is my personal feeling - and I wouldn't dare impute my feelings or demand others adopt my attitude(s). Just as I cannot truly understand those that have suffered tragedy, like the OKC bombing, 9/11, Boston Marathon, etc., I similarly cannot fathom the pain from what happened in 1970. Sympathy I can muster; empathy - too difficult to imagine.
FWIW. One Herd fan's perspective.
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