1971 Marshall Thundering Herd football team
| 1971 Marshall Thundering Herd football | |
|---|---|
| Conference | Independent |
| 1971 record | 2–8 |
| Head coach | Jack Lengyel (1st year) |
| Offensive scheme | Veer |
| Home stadium |
Fairfield Stadium (Capacity: 18,000) |
The 1971 Marshall Thundering Herd football team (sometimes referred to as the Young Thundering Herd) represented Marshall University in the 1971 college football season. It marked the Thundering Herd's 69th season. The team was led by head coach Jack Lengyel in his first year and played its home games at Fairfield Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia.
The Marshall Thundering Herd finished with a 2–8 overall record.
Before the season
Previous season
On November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932, which was chartered by the school to fly the 1970 Marshall Thundering Herd football team and fans to Greenville, North Carolina for a game against the East Carolina Pirates and back to Huntington, West Virginia, crashed on approach to Tri-State Airport after clipping trees just west of the runway and impacting nose-first into a hollow. All 75 people on board died. It was the worst single air tragedy in NCAA sports history.[1] The 1970 Marshall University football team was coached by Rick Tolley and finished with a record of 3–6.
New coaching staff
Marshall lost much of their coaching staff and their athletic director in the crash. Joe McMullen was hired to be the new AD. Georgia Tech assistant coach Dick Bestwick was hired to be the head coach. However, after two days he returned to Georgia Tech. Wooster coach Jack Lengyel was eventually hired to fill the position.[2] Assistant coach William "Red" Dawson had gone on a recruiting trip instead of flying back with the team after the ECU game in 1970 and coach Lengyel convinced him to stay around for the 1971 season, providing some continuity. Dawson would retire from coaching following the season.
Freshmen eligibility waiver
Prior to and during the 1971 season the NCAA did not allow freshmen to compete in varsity football. Marshall requested and was granted a waiver to allow freshmen to compete so that they could field a complete team. Due to the age of the players on the team coach Lengyel nicknamed them the Young Thundering Herd.[3] Beginning with the 1972 season the NCAA allowed freshmen to compete for all varsity football teams.[4]
Construction of the roster
In addition to the true freshmen who were allowed to play the roster featured three players from the previous year's varsity team. Defensive backs Felix Wright and Nate Ruffin had both missed the ECU game due to injuries, and defensive lineman Eddie Carter had missed the ECU game due to personal matters. As freshmen had not been allowed to play on the varsity team in 1970, the 1971 roster also had many sophomores that had been recruited to Marshall. The rest of the roster was filled via walk-on tryouts, from which 35 players were added.[5]
Coaching staff
Jack Lengyel, Red Dawson, John Reilly, Jim McNally, Mickey Jackson, Bill Urbanick.
Roster
Schedule
| Date | Time | Opponent# | Rank# | Site | TV | Result | Attendance | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 18 | at Morehead State | Jayne Stadium • Morehead, KY | L 6–29 | - | |||||
| September 25 | Xavier | Fairfield Stadium • Huntington, WV | W 15–13 | - | |||||
| October 2 | at Miami (OH) | Miami Field • Oxford, OH | L 6–66 | - | |||||
| October 9 | at Northern Illinois | Huskie Stadium • DeKalb, IL | L 18–33 | - | |||||
| October 16 | Dayton | Fairfield Stadium • Huntington, WV | L 0–13 | - | |||||
| October 23 | at Western Michigan | Waldo Stadium • Kalamazoo, MI | L 0–37 | - | |||||
| October 30 | Bowling Green | Fairfield Stadium • Huntington, WV | W 12–10 | - | |||||
| November 6 | at Kent State | Memorial Stadium • Kent, OH | L 0–21 | - | |||||
| November 13 | Toledo | Fairfield Stadium • Huntington, WV | L 0–43 | - | |||||
| November 20 | Ohio | Fairfield Stadium • Huntington, WV (Rivalry) | L 0–30 | - | |||||
*Non-conference game.  Homecoming. #Rankings from released prior to game. All times are in Eastern Time. | |||||||||
We Are Marshall
The event and its aftermath were dramatized in the 2006 Warner Brothers motion picture, We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey as Jack Lengyel and Matthew Fox as Red Dawson.
References
- ↑ Sahadi, Lou. "Marshall football: From tragedy to triumph". ESPN Classic.
- ↑ "Q&A: 'We Are Marshall' movie fact vs. fiction". The Hearald Dispatch.
- ↑ "ESPN Classic - Marshall football: From tragedy to triumph". espn.go.com. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
- ↑ "NCAA's decision to allow freshman eligibility changed football landscape". Retrieved 2015-05-13.
- ↑ Woodrum, Woody. "September 25, 1971: Marshall-15 Xavier-13". Retrieved 2015-05-14.
- ↑ DeLassus, David. "Marshall Yearly Results". College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
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