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.