We Are Marshall

We Are Marshall is a 2006 motion picture dramatizing the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed most of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, the rebuilding of the program, and the healing that the community undergoes. It stars Matthew McConaughey as head coach Jack Lengyel, Matthew Fox as assistant coach William "Red" Dawson, David Strathairn as University President Donald Dedmon and Robert Patrick as ill-fated Marshall head coach Rick Tolley. Georgia governor George "Sonny" Perdue has a cameo role as an East Carolina University football coach. [1] The movie is rated PG. The movie was scored by Christophe Beck.

Plot

On the evening of November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 which Marshall University chartered to transport the Thundering Herd football team to Greenville, North Carolina and back to Huntington, West Virginia clipped trees on a ridge just one mile short of the runway at Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia and crashed into a gully. The team was returning from their game against the East Carolina University Pirates — an eventual 17-14 loss. There were no survivors. In all, seventy-five people lost their lives. The dead included the thirty-seven players, Tolley and five members of his coaching staff, Charles E. Kautz, Marshall's athletics director, team trainer Jim Schroer and his assistant, Donald Tackett, twenty-two boosters, and five crew members.

In the wake of the tragedy, and having just been kicked out of the Mid-American conference the previous year for over 140 NCAA violations, President Donald Dedmon leans towards indefinitely canceling the football program, but he is ultimately persuaded to reconsider by the pleas of the Marshall students and Huntington residents, and especially the few football players who didn't make the flight. Dedmon hires a young new head coach Jack Lengyel, who, with the help of Red Dawson, manages to rebuild the team in a relatively short time. They were aided by the NCAA's waiver of a rule prohibiting freshmen from playing varsity sports (a rule which would be permanently abolished in 1972). The new team is composed mostly of the returning players and athletes from other Marshall sports programs. The "Young Herd" won just two games during the 1971 season; their first post-crash victory is a heart-stopping 15-13 home win against Xavier University in the first home game of the season. In reality, the play was a 13-yard screen pass from quarterback Reggie Oliver to freshman fullback Terry Gardner. When Gardner caught the ball, there was no time left on the clock. The extra point was unnecessary. In the film, the pass is longer.

Filming

Filming of We Are Marshall commenced on April 3, 2006 in Huntington, West Virginia, and was completed in Atlanta, Georgia. The premiere for the film was held at the Keith Albee on December 12, 2006 in Huntington; other special screenings were held at Pullman Square. The movie was released nationwide on December 22, 2006.

Trivia

• The name of the movie is based on a cheer performed by students and players at the university, which is also featured prominently in the movie. There is some argument about when the cheer actually began, but it is generally dated after the time of the movie.
• Georgia Tech assistant coach Dick Bestwick was initially hired as Rick Tolley's replacement. However, a week later, Bestwick backed out of the deal because some promises made during the hiring interview were not kept, and returned to Georgia Tech.
• Marshall began its football program November 14, 1895, exactly seventy-five years before the day of the crash.
• Before Jack Lengyel was hired to be head coach, Joe McMullen was appointed as the new Athletic Director in February 1971. McMullen was a former assistant under Joe Paterno at Penn State and a head coach for twelve years. McMullen knew Lengyel through their connection at University of Akron.
• On December 19, 2001 Marshall played East Carolina in the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. The ECU Pirates had a commanding 38-8 lead at halftime. Marshall coach Bob Pruett reminded the Thundering Herd of the plane crash. In what was viewed as one of college football's greatest come-from-behind victories, Marshall defeated East Carolina 64-61 in double overtime. It remains the highest-scoring bowl game in college football history.
• Marshall University started a memorial fund to aid the families of the victims. Additionally, the Big Ten Conference contributed a portion of their Rose Bowl receipts, then-Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom donated $50,000, and Wichita State University, which was dealing with the deaths of 29 players in a similar plane crash on October 2 of that year, offered to share a portion of their receipts. The benefit was telecast nationally and featured such names as Bill Cosby, Monty Hall, Kate Smith, George Gobel and other celebrities.
• In the movie, newspaper headlines are from the combined Sunday newspaper of Huntington WV, the Herald-Advertiser. The weekday afternoon Advertiser ceased publication in 1979 and the seven-day paper is now the The Herald-Dispatch. In one scene the paper is referred to as the Herald by a secretary.
• In the movie, Herndon Stadium in Atlanta was used for the football game scenes. From 1927 to 1990, Marshall played its football games at Fairfield Stadium, which has since been torn down.
• Coaching legend Bobby Bowden of Florida State University was the head coach at West Virginia University during the 1971 season. In memory of the victims of the crash, Mountaineers players put green crosses and the initials "MU" on their helmets. Bowden allowed Lengyel and his assistants access to game film and playbooks to acquaint themselves with the veer offense, a variation of the option offense which aids teams with weak offensive lines after Lengyel discovers that the team is unable to run the Power I formation he favored. Lengyel credits Bowden with helping the Young Thundering Herd recover. Bowden reportedly became emotional while viewing the movie, and has said that he was was the original candidate for the Rick Tolley coaching job. http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/121906/spf_6895455.shtml]
• In the movie Bowden refers to a willingness to help Marshall since the Herd and WVU will not play each other that season. In reality the two teams did not meet at all in that era. Their 1997 game was the first football matchup between the two schools in over fifty years.
• In the movie, emergency vehicles are shown heading east on Fourth Avenue past the Keith Albee theater. In reality, Tri-State Airport is located west of Huntington. However, this may not be a true goof, as the on-ramp to Interstate 64, which was completed in the Huntington area in 1965, is located east of the theater and would be a plausible route to the crash site via the Ceredo/Kenova exit.
• In the end credits of the movie, clips are shown of some of the more prominent players in Marshall history, such as New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington, Oakland Raiders receiver Randy Moss, and Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Byron Leftwich.
• The real Red Dawson can be seen in the movie as the coach of Xavier.
• 1971 quarterback Dave Walsh can be seen in the movie as an assistant for Xavier.
• The 1970 Clint Eastwood movie Kelly's Heroes is shown as the headliner at the movie theater, just before the plane crash.
• In an episode of How I Met Your Mother Marshall is standing infront of the mirror repeatedly saying,"I am Marshall! I am Marshall!" Each time louder then before and with more excitement until it sounded like the cheer in the movie.

References

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