Freaky: Marshall plane evacuated due to engine smoke

Minor threadjack: Madden was the last head coach at Hancock College to lead the Bulldogs to an undefeated season ('60). I believe Bill Bertka (former Lakers assistant, head coach) coached there, too, and had like a 95-15 record or something close to it. John Osborne was a legendary baseball coach there. Uniforms look just like the Dodgers' threads. Good school to cover if you ever work in Santa Maria.

 

Yikes, stuff like this is why I'm afraid to fly.

We are Marshall, I guess.

 

RUB THE FUSELAGE, BOYS !!

HEADLINE: Pieces of MU plane could become charm

BYLINE: The Associated Press

BODY:
HUNTINGTON - Two Marshall football fans and coach Bob Pruett want to use pieces of a crashed airplane that 32 years ago decimated the university's football program as a good-luck charm.

The two fans, Millard Robertson of Huntington and Kenova City Council President Ric Griffith, have saved four pieces of the plane that went down in Huntington on Nov. 14, 1970, killing 75 Marshall football players, coaches and supporters.

Now they want to encase the fuselage pieces in glass and have them used in a ritual ceremony at Marshall home games.

Griffith told WOWK-TV he wants to establish a tradition where Marshall players touch the plane pieces as they enter the field.

He cited similar stadium traditions where Notre Dame players touch a "Play Like a Champion Today" sign and Clemson players touch Howard's Rock.

"As they enter the field, the fans will know that they are touching and having a personal link to the people from that crash," Griffith said.

Coach Pruett said he likes the idea.

"I don't think there would be another event in all of college sports that would have the emotion or meaning that this tradition could have," Pruett said.

"I think it's another step toward closure and another step toward honoring those great players."

Robertson found the plane pieces three days after the accident on a hillside near the crash site.

He saved them for 12 years, then gave them to his friend Griffith, who has kept them safe since.

"I remember it like it was last night," Robertson said. "I never thought it would go this far, but I'm glad it did."

LOAD-DATE: April 01, 2002

 

Well, we can only assume that Marshall's plane landed safely tonight. Thus depriving former coach Bob Pruett of another motivational tactic.

 

Ummm... Look at the load date at the end of the story.

 

Ummm ... Sure, I know the story ran on the wire in 2002. Pruett in '02 wanted to rub the charred fuselage for inspiration. I know he's no longer there, Mark Snyder is, while Pruett's now only a gladhander and fundraiser for Marshall.

I'm seriously not trying to be a wiseass dickhead, but I don't see what you're getting at?

EDIT: A-ha. April Fool's Day. No, I was actually around Marshall's program when that idea was first floated.

Seriously. It's no April Fool's hoax. Pruett really wanted to do that.

 

April 1, 2002

 

I was working in that region in 2002. That's actually no April Fool's hoax. It seriously was proposed. Pruett really wanted to encase the fuselage.

 

Wow.