Most people do. As saplings begin to reclaim the location, the events of the day remain raw for those who lived it. brent.briggeman@gazette.com, © 2020 Produced by Colorado Springs Gazette. They finished 0-9. Stephens was ejected from the front of the plane and knocked unconscious. Record: 5-4-1 (49th of 112) (Schedule & Results) Conference: MVC Conference Record: 1-2-1 Coach: Woody Woodard (5-4-1) Points For: 181 Points/G: 18.1 (35th of 112) Points Against: 161 Opp Pts/G: 16.1 (70th of 112) SRS: -4.75 (80th of 112) . [17], In 2006, Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans proposed to use public funds to restart the football program at Wichita State. Both airplanes refueled at Denver’s Stapleton Airport. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock), Wreckage of a plane carrying the Wichita State University football team is shown in Silver Plume, Colo. on Oct. 2, 1970. The other plane took the northern route over Wyoming while the plane carrying the first team and coaches took a scenic route through the Colorado mountains. He would subsequently drop the plan weeks later. Pilot Dan Crocker struck a tree and was killed. They returned to practice after 10 days, wearing shorts and T-shirts as the team’s jerseys, pads and helmets were destroyed in the Colorado crash. Pilots of a Beechcraft Super King Air 200 became disoriented in a snowstorm and crashed near Strasburg, about 40 miles east of Denver, as they returned from a game at Colorado. It was the first night football game played west of the Mississippi River. The team gathered four days after the crash and voted 76-1 to continue with the season. We knew they were old planes,” said John Yeros, a Denver-area native who had lost his starting position that week as coaches reshuffled the lineup in the wake of an 0-3 start — a demotion that likely saved his life. 9 Arkansas in a game that Yeros noted for its relative degree of normalcy. The Shockers played in three bowl games and had an 0–3 record. A Martin 404 carrying starting members of the Shockers team, its head coach and his wife and other supporters and administrators crashed into a wooded mountainside in Clear Creek County, near the eastbound entrance to the Eisenhower Tunnel. It was one of two aircraft carrying the Wichita State University football team to Logan, Utah. WSU moves forward on National Institute for Digital Transformation Admissions. Former T. C. Williams High School football coach Herman Boone, whose hiring was featured in the film Remember the Titans, compared Jeffries’s hiring to that of Jackie Robinson signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Indeed, Wichita State fielded a team for 90 years, but dropped the program in 1986 due to poor performance, poor attendance and poor finance. But Stephens and those on board the ill-fated Gold plane were near Loveland Pass, not Loveland. However, the American has 12 football-playing schools, as Navy is an associate member for football only. “It’s hard to explain to people how close this group still is. [15], In 1997, the cost was cited at $11 million to restart the football program and three other women's sports. Thirty-one people including 14 players from the team died when the charter plane crashed into the Mt. You take life and you try to make the best of it. Yeros’ freshman roommate, John Dunren, a sophomore quarterback from Oklahoma City, had taken the opposite path that he had. The weather was clear, little wind, mid-60s, the kind of early October day that spoils the state’s residents. The twin-engined propliner carried 37 passengers and a crew of three; 29 were killed at the scene and two later died of their injuries while under medical care. “Significant factors were the overloaded condition of the aircraft, the virtual absence of flight planning for the chosen route of flight from Denver to Logan, a lack of understanding on the part of the crew of the performance capabilities and limitations of the aircraft, and the lack of operational management to monitor and appropriately control the actions flight crew.”. Stephens and his seven surviving teammates never got back together as a group. The accident had occurred on payday, and he had left his paycheck in a pocket of the coveralls that went with Stephens. How can you guys do that? (AP Photo/File), A memorial to a Wichita State University teammate killed in the plane crash Sept. 23, 2020, hangs from a piece of the 40-seat, Martin 404 twin-engine plane lying on the side of Mt. The following is a list of players that attended Wichita State who were drafted in the NFL Draft from 1960-present. “Our accident should never have happened,” he said. Dunren had just earned a starting role that week, and he was killed in the crash. But even as the world has begun to erase the memory, visitors have morphed from the mourning to the curious. Stephens has been four times to the site. That unmistakable cacophony of life speeding forward offers a stark contrast to what is found here, where strewn-out, charred remnants of a plane remain as they have for 50 years, surrounded by makeshift memorials and a Wichita State banner hanging from a tree keeping a constant vigil. As a result, said Harmon, who died in January 2019, the company made it a point to provide an extra touch by showing the team various landmarks and sites along their path. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock), A Wichita State University flag hangs from a tree Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020, above the crash site of the Martin 404 twin-engine plane that crashed into the side Mt. He left his seat and walked toward the cockpit, which he said was not out of the ordinary as the pilots welcomed the players to watch them fly the planes. [21], Wichita State won fourteen conference titles.[22]. This was 1970. The pile of seats trapped many of those who survived the initial impact.

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