Jule Huffman is going to be sporting his green blazer tomorrow. Keith Morehouse is going to have a little more on his mind than his usual Marshall rah-rah on the airwaves. And, the Tri-State is going to be fully aware. And it has nothing to do with BCS or Bowl Game implications, although it does have to do with a very significant game...and significant for very tragic reasons.
Marshall travels to Greenville, NC tomorrow to take on East Carolina in Conference USA play. 40 years ago, Marshall made that same trip, played the same school, and was having a similar season to the one they are having now...Only thing is, The Herd didn't make it back.
This season marks the 40th Aniversary, not like anybody looks forward to remembering that event, of the crash that obliterated a school's football program and a community.
The echos of a plane going down still ring in the ears of college town community. When you gaze upon the site of the wreckage, you can still see the flames, you can still imagine the screams. You can still feel death over you shoulder.
Alot has happened since that crash, Marshall re-built from absolutely nothing and managed to become, percentage wise, the winningest team in College Football for the 1990's. They won 2 National Championships in the now FCS, and produced stars like Randy Moss, Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwhich among others. They have won conference championships and won bowl games, and even finished 11-0 in Division 1/BCS football. But, that Marshall, like the one who existed after the crash is gone. Marshall finds it's self in a postition that has some similarity to it. They are young, and they are sruggling to find their identity as a team.
In a bit of poetic bliss and romanticism, Marshall, in a year in which it's greatest tragedy in very poignant, could defeat the team that was the last to play them before the tragedy of Southern Airways Flight 932. It would be very Disney-esque for this 'Young Thundering Herd' to go down to Greenville and win. Now, ECU is hardly a power-house, but it would be a statement win for this year's Herd. Not a statement in the aspect of getting noticed in the polls, but a statement that this Herd team is turning it around. And there would be no better time to turn it around than in Greenville, where 40 years ago, Marshall had seemingly died....
Marshall has risen from worse circumstances, and they can do it once more.
This time, Hollywood won't come calling to chronicle the resurgance, but you can believe these players, this program, and the town will all take notice, and carry-on for the Sons of Marshall...And the 12th man that day will be 75 strong...
We Are...... Well, we are about to find out in Greenville.....
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