MU Football History

Future Marshall AD could sense tide was turning

By ANTHONY HANSHEW
The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- Bob Marcum could sense a turn in the Marshall football tide.

It was early November 1970, and the Thundering Herd was in the stretch run of a fifth consecutive losing season. Marcum, a Huntington native and 1959 Marshall graduate, was visiting his hometown for a Friday night Huntington East High School football game.

A friend talked Marcum, then an administrator at Canton-McKinley High School in Ohio, into making it a weekend and attending Marshall's home game against Kent State. The Thundering Herd exited Fairfield Stadium with a 20-17 victory and Marcum walked away impressed by his alma mater.

"When I talked to (team doctor) Ray Hagley, he told me that the attitude was one that was turning positive," Marcum said. "They were more positive about the team and the program.

"There was a little more optimism than there had been previously and you saw that when you saw Marshall play."

One week later, Marcum -- like so many others -- lost a good friend when Dr. Hagley and 74 other men and women died in the Nov. 14 Marshall football plane crash. Marcum heard the news that night in Canton after returning from an afternoon trip to Columbus.

Thirty-five years later, Marcum is back home as Marshall's athletic director. The legacy of Marshall's 1970 football team has not been lost on a campus where most students weren't born at the time of the most catastrophic tragedy in American athletics.

The Memorial Student Center fountain serves as a constant reminder and the bronze sculpture adorning Joan C. Edwards Stadium provides perspective on game days.

"The student government does a great job with honoring those that were involved in the plane crash, and I think a lot of student-athletes are certainly aware," Marcum said. "A lot of the students weren't even born yet, but it's still something that's definitely attached to the school."