A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
Octobers in Utah are pretty predictable. Rewarding, yet predictable.
Beautiful fall colors and cooler weather. Outstanding college and high school football on Fridays and Saturdays.
General conference for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On Oct. 2, 1970, one of two chartered twin-engine planes flying the Wichita State University football team to Utah crashed into a mountain near Silver Plume, Colorado, killing 31 of the 40 people on board.
The team was headed to Logan, where the Shockers would play Utah State that Saturday. One of the team’s planes arrived safely. The other went down near the Continental Divide in Colorado.
A bulletin appeared on the front page of the Deseret News on Oct. 2, sandwiched by coverage of Friday’s sessions of general conference:
“GEORGETOWN. Colo. (UPI) — A twin-engine plane, one of two carrying the Wichita State University football team across the Rocky Mountains, crashed Friday.
“Clear Creek County Sheriff Horald Brumbaugh said it was not known if anyone was killed. He said there were survivors.”
The weekend edition of the newspaper carried coverage of the crash. The account described how the plane, with one engine smoking, crashed into the east side of 11,992-foot Loveland Pass about 800 feet under the summit. According to historical accounts, one of the surviving victims was a player who called his parents from a pay phone to say “Mom, I’m alive — it’s a miracle” before adding “My buddies are all dead.”
Twenty-nine persons, 13 of them players, were killed. Eleven persons, including nine players, a co-pilot and a team trainer, survived.
Tragedies involving sports teams are well-publicized, starting with the plane crash in March 1931 of Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne. In October 1960, a World War II plane carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs football team to Ohio crashed. Of the 48 on board, 22 were killed, including both pilots, 16 players, a student manager and a Cal Poly football booster.
And as tragic as the Oct. 2 accident in Colorado was, it was repeated just over a month later, when on Nov. 14, a Southern Airways DC-9 carrying the Marshall University football team, coaches, and fans crashed into a hillside in Kenova, West Virginia, killing all 75 people on board.
It remains the deadliest sports-related air disaster in U.S. history.
In 1998, the College Football Hall of Fame dedicated plaques in memory of more than 120 people who died in the three airplane crashes. The bronze plaques honor the players and other passengers killed in crashes involving the football teams from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Marshall and Wichita State.
Here are some stories related to the 1970 crashes and related stories from Deseret News archives:
“Survivor of 1970 WSU crash to honor victims”
“Crash and learn? Progress requires pioneers who improve”
“50-year-old Mercy Bowl a dim memory now”
“Huntington loves its Marshall football; Thundering Herd known for more than plane crash”