1970 wichita state football roster

[18][19], In 2012, an attempt was made to begin a club-level football team at Wichita State with hopes of eventually reviving the football program, though no official endorsement was given by the university.[20]. The Shockers played in three bowl games and had an 03 record. players, athletic staff members and team boosters crashed at approximately 3 p.m. Thanks for visiting PennLive. AP. Fairmount defeated Wichita High School, now known as Wichita East, by a score of 124 in the only game played that year. On December 25, 1905, Fairmount played a game against the Washburn Ichabods using a set of experimental rules. [2] [3] They played their home games at Cessna Stadium and were members of the Missouri Valley Conference until the program was discontinued. Learn more. KPTS will show its 2009 documentary Black & Gold: Remembering the WSU Plane Crash at 8 p.m. Friday. The Thomas A. Reeves Memorial Scholarship honors the Wichita State trainer who died in the crash. The elevation of the site is 10,750 feet. The NTSB said rain and poor visibility contributed to the crash. A: Other factors budget woes,losing records, low attendance and loss of conference affiliation caused the demise of football. The team compiled a 09 record (04 against conference opponents), finished last out of five teams in the MVC, and was outscored by a total of 381 to 99. Taylor,. On Friday, October 2, 1970, Wichita State traveled to Logan, Utah, in two chartered planes, designated as "Gold" and "Black" according to the school colors, for a game against Utah State. Classes were cancelled Monday, October 5, and a memorial The Utah State football team held a brief memorial service at the stadium where the The 1970 matchup was the most lopsided of a lopsided series, as Arkansas cruised to a 62-0 win. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. 9 Arkansas had the plane carrying their starters not crashed three weeks before, but it was even more pronounced with the young players they were forced to use. List of Wichita . (AP Photo)ASSOCIATED PRESS. At Wichita State, our students are the engine of innovation, with a collaborative infrastructure that helps develop new ideas, and get new projects and businesses off the ground. [21], Wichita State won fourteen conference titles.[22]. The 2006 movie, We Are Marshall, depicted the aftermath of the crash. Understanding the 1970 Wichita State football plane crash. Wichita State's game against Arkansas at War Memorial Stadium on Oct. 24, 1970 was one of those times. Twenty-nine persons died To read last week's Throwback Thursday on the previous nine times Arkansas and Texas A&M played when both were ranked, click here. Wichita State University 2023. Judy Dunn, 39, Oklahoma City, flight attendant, Judy Lane, 28, Oklahoma City, flight attendant, Oct. 31: Cincinnati 35, WSU 5 (moved from Oct. 17), Leading passer: Rick Baehr, 43 of 121, 514 yards, Leading receiver: Bill Moore, 12 for 175 yards, Honorable mention All-Missouri Valley Conference: C Kelly Cook, RB Don Gilley, DT Don Pankratz, LB George Whitfield, LB Bruce Gerleman. A: On Nov. 14, 1970, a plane carrying Marshalls football team back crashed near the airport in Huntington, W.V., killing 75 people. In one of the worst tragedies of college sports history, a plane carrying WSU football players, athletic staff members and team boosters crashed at approximately 3 p.m. on a mountain near Silver Plume, Colorado while en route to Logan, Utah for a game with Utah State University. The team was headed to Logan, Utah, for a game the next day against Utah State. Explaining Shocker football's peculiar role in 'Ted Lasso', Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wichita_State_Shockers_football&oldid=1133405551, American football teams established in 1895, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Independent (18951923, 1927, 19401945, 1986), Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Longest field goal (tied) Joe Williams 67 yards vs Southern Illinois October 21, 1978, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 16:51. We know you hear with us the thrill and excitement of the game. Without football, the Shockers' basketball program has become a powerhouse. [16], In 1998, an advisory committee at Wichita State recommended reinstating the football program at Wichita State after a 15-month study for $70,000. That event is the subject of the 2006 movie "We Are Marshall," starring Matthew McConaughey. I As a matter of policy, Sports Reference only reports the results of games as played on the field. Understanding the 1970 Wichita State football plane crash Two planes carrying Wichita State University football players, coaches, administrators and fans refueled on Oct. 2, 1970, in. WSU lost to. The stories of the people affected by the crash and its aftermath serve as a tribute to all - teammates, friends and family. The site is accessible after a short hike and friends and family members still visit. . This is an opportunity to put the events in the publics mind, Stephens said in 2014. Last year, the Tampa Bay Times, published a story about another player, David Withers, who also was not on the plane because of an injury. 9 in the country, Wichita lost by a 620 score. A: The Black plane followed the original flight plan, north toward Laramie, Wyo., to gain altitude before crossing the Rockies. According to Orville Henry's story in the following day's Arkansas Gazette, a crowd of 40,000 at War Memorial Stadium gave Wichita State's team - a 46-man roster with 19 freshmen and 20 sophomores - a minute-long standing ovation. The visiting Shockers fumbled the football an incredible 17 times, with the Seminoles recovering 10 times. Fifty years ago Friday. Find . Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Self Proclaimed or Named by Newspaper Champions: 1937: Pittsburg (10-1) / Bishop Ward (7-0-1) / Great Bend (9-0) 1936: Pittsburg (11-1) 1935: Chanute (8-0) 1934: Wichita North (8-0) 1933: Wyandotte (9-0) / Pittsburg (11-0) 1932: Wyandotte (8-0-1) 1931: 1930: Topeka 1929: El Dorado (8-0) / Topeka (7-0) / Independence (9-0) 1928: Lawrence (7-0) / El Dorado (9-0) By the half, the freshmen were veterans. In the afterglow of Kansas State's remarkable 2022 football season, some pieces are starting to fall into place for next year. Thirty-one people died as a result of the crash: 14 players, 14 WSU staff and boosters, and three crew members. College Football at Sports-Reference.com Blog and Articles. A fictional version of the program is shown in the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso. [37], After the crash, the team's scheduled games against Utah State and Southern Illinois were cancelled. The plane crashed while trying to land at Tri-State Airport in Kenova, W.Va. Bulldozers plow through wreckage of the DC9 chartered jet that crashed in Kenova, W.V., Nov. 15, 1970. They reached the Final Four in 2013 and finished the 2013-14 regular season with a perfect 31-0 record. 84 defensive end Pete Naputano was a junior from Altoona who was on the injured list and not on the plane. The Shockers would have likely still been over-matched against No. 1970 Wichita State Shockers football team, 1970 NCAA University Division football season, 1970 Missouri Valley Conference football standings, Wichita State University football team plane crash. The Black airplane carried the reserve players and assistant coaches. Hugh McElroy, who that week became the . The two planes traveled to Denver, Colo., to refuel. However, at that point on the flight path, the crew would have been unable to see that the valley ended at Loveland Pass, and thus they proceeded into an area from which an escape was not possible. NTSB report, I feel I did everything that I could have done in the situation. Dorothy Harmon She served as interim athletic director after the crash. Twenty-nine died at the scene. The crash site is about a 575-mile drive from Wichita and is above I-70 on the north side of the highway, sitting on public land in the Arapaho National Forest. The stadium is still used by the schools track and field, soccer, and lacrosse programs. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. People can donate to the 70 Football Memorial Scholarship Fund at foundation.wichita.edu/give. Survivor Rick Stephens, a tackle on the 1970 team, has ridden his bicyle from Wichita to Colorado to raise money for the scholarship fund. "I look up there and think of them." Lewis could have been on the list. But they could not pull the overweight plane, a Martin 404, out of a box canyon. Of the 40 people on board, 29 died at the scene and two died later. The Wichita State Shockers football team was the college football program of Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. Wichita State University 1970 Football Team Airplane Crash Tragedy. Were still all so close, and we do so much of that in their memory. [8], On November 7, the Shockers showed marked improvement in a 2112 loss to Tulsa. A rescue worker probes though the wreckage of a plane crash in Silver Plume, Colo. on Oct. 2, 1970. Please consider supporting our work. Fewer people are familiar with another football tragedy that happened the month before the crash of an airplane carrying Wichita State University football players. Valley Conference. [5] Fairmount won the game 240.[6]. The experiment was considered a failure. The highlight of the game for Wichita was a 105-yard kickoff return by tailback Don Gilley in the first quarter. Richard Taylor Minister at University United Methodist Church, he knew many of the players, coaches and administrators on the plane. school at this time. The university had a contract with Golden Eagle Aviation to provide a Douglas DC-6B to transport the team to away games. medical attention for their injuries. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. The MVC dropped football to NCAA Division I-AA status in 1985, leaving WSU an independent in its final season. The NTSB estimated the plane exceeded its takeoff weight limitation by around 5,165 pounds. The football players decided to continue the season, which was later designated as (AP Photo/Henry Griffin)AP. The Wichita State Shockers football team was the college football program of Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. (AP Photo/Chris Schneider) Preview pages of the 1970 yearbook from West High School from Wichita, Kansas online. Join our linker program. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. The team's statistical leaders included Rick Baehr with 513 passing yards, Don Gilley with 290 rushing yards and 12 points scored, Bill Moore with 175 receiving yards.[2]. [11], When Willie Jeffries became Wichita States head coach in 1979, he became the first African-American head coach of a Division I-A football program. [40], On October 24, 1970, the team played the first game after the crash. The crash claimed the lives of 31 members of the Wichita State University football team. (AP file photo) This Oct. 2, 1970, file photo shows wreckage of a plane that carried members of the Wichita State University football team, in Silver Plume, Colo. Rusted and ragged pieces of . Radio voice Gus Grebe was supposed to ride on the Gold plane, but was late arriving and flew on the Black plane. . [12], On December 2, 1986, Wichita State President Warren Armstrong announced that the university would no longer sponsor football due to the financial strain the program placed on the university. Portrait of John Yeros near the site of a plane crash near Loveland Pass, Colo., on Thursday, August 27, 2010. www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/, Those left behind mourned and built new lives, A beautiful fall day then an ominous sound, Pilot steadfast in denying fault: Someone needed to be blamed, The years drive a wedge between survivors linked by tragedy, 1970 healing process began on a Saturday night in Little Rock, Former Utah State player still feels linked to Shockers, Former WSU player Rick Stephens rides to remember friends who died, Photos: Crash survivor and friends honor victims in Colorado, Bob Lutz: Bob Seaman kept Shocker football going in the wake of 1970s tragic plane crash, Payton Tolle delivers one of the best two-way games in Wichita State baseball history, About that bloody fetus picture you found on your car . On September 12, Wichita State opened its season with a 4114 loss to Gene Stallings' Texas A&M Aggies before a crowd of 30,006 in College Station, Texas. A: On Nov. 14, 1970, a plane carrying Marshall's football team back crashed near the airport in Huntington, W.V., killing 75 people. at Cessna Stadium. They met Wichita coming the other way. The Shockers were a common opponent for the Razorbacks in those days; they played five times between 1964 and 1980. [14], In 1992, a study was done on Cessna Stadium to comply with I-A football standards. Naputano was one of four players who led the team onto the field in the spring of 1971 the others were Felix Jordan, Ed Carter and Nate Ruffin. The Gold aircraft carried the starting players, head coach and athletic director. On October 2, 1970, airplane carrying Wichita State University football team crashed in Colorado Rocky Mountains killing 31 team members, supporters, coaches and airline personnel. Skipper. Marshall lost, 17-14. This week, we take a look back at Arkansas' game against Wichita State in 1970. 1969 Roster - By Number From the 1969 FSU Football Handbook, page 42. .