Every time Marshall’s football team visits Old Dominion University, and the Herd plays at Ballard Stadium on Saturday, I am reminded of the time nearly 48 years ago when I trekked to Huntington, W.Va.
Two months earlier, on Nov. 14, 1970, a plane carrying the Marshall football team, coaches, administrators and alumni crashed into a mountainside as it approached the Huntington airport. All 75 people returning from a game at East Carolina were killed.
I was a 17-year-old linebacker at Norview High School. My dad penned a letter to then-Marshall recruiting coordinator Gail Parker suggesting that the Herd consider recruiting me and others from Norview.