On Nov. 14, 1970, Marshall University graduate Dr. Keith Spears, six months out of college, married and adjusting to life with a new baby, sat down in his living room when a flash came across his television screen about a plane crash just outside the Huntington (W.Va.) Tri-State Airport.

Spears thought the crash seemed unusual since the small airport never received much traffic. Once he learned the crashed jet was a chartered flight, it became evident to Spears who had been aboard. All 75 people on the plane were killed. Among the victims was the Marshall University football team, which was returning from a game against East Carolina.

Thirty-six years later, Spears, the vice president of communications and marketing at Marshall, becomes choked up when recalling the event. The crash shook the entire Huntington community. Six physicians died in the accident, leaving a large gap in the medical community, Spears said. The football program’s response to the accident is what inspired the community to recover from the disaster.

The story of how Marshall rebuilt its football program after the crash serves as the subject of the movie, ‘We Are Marshall,’ which will receive a nationwide release on Dec. 22. To guarantee the movie remained truthful to its subject, the people of Huntington and former Marshall coaches and players played a considerable role in the making of the film.

Spears, 58, acted as the university’s primary consultant on the movie. He was one of the first members of the community to read the script penned by 25-year-old Jamie Linden.

‘(Producers) Basil Iwanyk and Mary Viola came to Huntington and lo and behold, they brought a script with (them),’ Spears said. ‘I knew they were for real. I read the script, cried a bit, set it aside. And then read it some more.’

Despite numerous factual errors in the script, Spears saw the willingness of the producers and Linden to work with Marshall University as a sign they could handle the sensitive subject.

Former Marshall assistant coach Red Dawson also noticed this sensitivity, Spears said. Dawson gave up his seat on the flight that crashed to another coach and became burdened with guilt that he lived while a colleague of his died.

He originally wanted nothing to do with the film, but after a meeting with producers from Warner Bros. and Thunder Road Pictures as a favor to Spears, Dawson approved the project. He and actor Matthew Fox, who played Dawson in the movie, even agreed to watch the premiere together

Spears had three rules for the film: Honor the victims of the plane crash, respect the people of Huntington and guard the integrity of the university.

‘We would not do anything that would support any matter of degradation,’ Spears said.

Spears, who has seen the final cut of the film, said he believed the filmmakers did an admirable job handling the delicate subject matter

Jack Lengyel left a head coaching job at the College of Wooster to take over as coach for the Thundering Herd in 1971 after the school decided to continue the football program following the plane crash. He saw the head coaching position at the school as a way to pay back football for all the opportunities it had given him.

Actor Matthew McConaughey portrayed Lengyel in the movie. The former coach joked he took some ribbings since McConaughey was named People’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ in 2005, but Lengyel added the ‘Failure to Launch’ star displayed enthusiasm and compassion for the role and grasped the situation well.

‘All the actors did a magnificent job,’ said Lengyel, 70. ‘They were totally immersed in the particular movie and the circumstance. They were very sensitive (to the film’s subject).’

Everybody involved with the film seemed caught up in the film’s story. After a shoot in Atlanta, the cast and crew watched a half-hour clip from the movie and Spears was stunned to see many members of the film production with tears in their eyes. These were men and women who have worked all their lives working on movies, and yet they could still be touched by ‘We Are Marshall,’ Spears said.

After the shoot, Academy Award-nominated actor David Strathairn, who depicted Marshall’s interim president, came up to Spears and said he felt the filmmakers were doing something right, but he had no idea the film would seem as genuine as it did.

Marshall senior Laura Richter, a production assistant for the film, helped coordinate scenes in Huntington and the university.

She said the legacy of ‘We Are Marshall’ has not been ignored by the current generation at Marshall. Many students know the story through parents who are alumni of Marshall and others have learned of the account while on campus and ‘have the utmost support for (those connected with the legacy).’

Marshall students played a majority of the 1,500 extras in a scene where students stood outside the school and chanted ‘We are Marshall,’ while university administrators decided whether it should continue the football program.

‘It was a wonderful shoot,’ said Richter, 22. ‘I get chills when I see it in the trailer. To see all these students participate and want to help out the university-it was great.’

Rick Haye, the Photographic Services Manager at Marshall, said the shoot had a considerable significance to the people of Huntington. Haye grew up in Huntington and began attending Marshall in 1971, one year after the plane crash. He vividly remembered the tremendous affect the accident had on his hometown.

‘This whole town basically stopped for a week,’ Haye said. ‘Everybody knew somebody or had some connection on the plane. Businesses basically shut their doors for two or three days.’

Haye, 53, served as one of many faculty members at Marshall to play an extra in the film. He fittingly played a photographer.

Lengyel said he had been searching for a studio to make the film for years. But 36 years later appears to have been the appropriate time for its release. This was indicated last Saturday when the Thundering Herd returned to East Carolina for their first football game in Greenville, N.C., since the plane crash.

Lengyel will attend a ‘We Are Marshall’ premiere at the National Football Foundation today on the anniversary of the accident. He has heard the film described as a ‘solemn walkout’ and he was anxious to see how the legacy unfolds on-screen.

‘This is not a football movie,’ Lengyel said. ‘This is a movie about a community that faced a major crisis. I’ve never been to a university or community that was so together for each other.’

Published on November 12, 2006 at 12:00 pm