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8:41 p.m. • 2-10-12

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We Are Marshall

I recently saw the movie We Are Marshall and wanted to alert ALL sports fans...GO SEE IT. The movie is powerful, moving, accurate and true. After a 1970 football game at East Carolina the plane carrying the Marshall University football team, the coaches, many athletic officials and boosters crashed.
All  75 on board were killed. How the crash is depicted in the movie is stunning and breathtaking but tastefully done.

I was also impressed with the football action and the uniforms they wore. It was authentic 70's football with the big facemasks, Riddell helmets, those tan, Cramer arm pads and Spot-bilt shoes with cleats that clicked when you walked on cement. So many football movies miss with the uniforms and action but not this one.

Matthew McConaughey played Jack Lengyel...the coach who took over the program after the fatal crash. McConaughey had the southern drawl but the real Coach Lengyel did not. He was from Ohio and carried a northern accent.
Matthew Fox was Coach Red Dawson. The movie had Dawson giving up his spot on the plane just before take-off when actually Dawson drove to Greenville before the game knowing he was going recruiting after the game. There were a few minor issues like this for the dramatic and thematic but that's Hollywood.

After seeing We Are Marshall, I'll never let November 14th pass again without thinking about the plane crash that happened on that day in 1970, the sadness that followed and the climb from the ashes of Marshall football.
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You could not be more correct Mr. Gravely. It was a great depiction of the events and the Marshall story. My grandparents were on the plane as my grandfather, Dr. Glen Preston, was one of the team physicians. At the movie premiere in Huntington, WV, in December, all of the family members echoed your comments.

Great movie. Everyone should go and see it.

My brother lived in the dorm with all of the players. It was very sad time. He still doesn't talk about it.

I'm a 1979 graduate of MU. One of my best friends in the 8th. grade, Billy Nash, lost his brother Barry in the Marshall crash. He was one of the 5 who could not be identified. Upon graduation from MU, I went to work at ACF Industries in Huntington, WV and the personnel manager was Nate Ruffin, one of the team members who was injured and was captain of the Young Thundering Herd the following season. Nate was a big part of the movie and in real life I remember him as a very nice and well respected individual. I thought the movie was very good.

I went to school with one of the team members and his sister was my best friend. I was disappointed that in the movie Hollywood chose to change the race of #71. It spoiled the rest of the movie for me.

I graduated from a high school in Ohio with 2 members of the Marshall football. One was injured and didn't travel with the team that day. The other player, Alan Saylor, was on the plane. I will never forget hearing about the crash and going to the visitation of my 19 year old classmate.

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