It was a bright, sunny Friday afternoon. I was a sophomore in high school, walking home after a day of classes when I heard the news.
An airplane carrying members of the Wichita State football team had crashed into the mountains in Colorado. I don’t remember the details because the news made me numb. But I do recall my first thought: Was Shocker broadcaster Gus Grebe injured or killed?
Fortunately, Grebe was on a second plane carrying the team, administrators, boosters and coaches to Logan, Utah, for a game against Utah State the next day.
The 35th anniversary of the tragedy is coming up and I still give pause every year to one of the defining events of my youth. I was a Wichita State football fan in those days. I attended all the home games with my dad.
Anyway, for those of you old enough, I’m interested in knowing the impact the Shocker plane crash had on your life. And even if you weren’t alive at the time, send along your comments.
The Derby football team had a game that night at Campus, our biggest rivals. Of course, Derby won the game. But it was a somber atmosphere as people awaited the latest news from Colorado.
I had lived through the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. And, locally, the tanker plane that crashed on North Piatt in Wichita in 1965 definitely caught my attention. But I was so young then and really not capable of assimilating such news.
By 1970 that had changed and the Shocker plane crash was devastating for me. To think that players I had followed so closely on the field had suddenly died was difficult for me to comprehend. One of those players, Steve Moore, was from Derby. I knew where he lived; his younger sister was an acquaintance.
I can still feel the raw emotion of the day. Of feeling like a typical teenager without a care in the world one minute, and in the next feeling as if the world needed for me to care. And I did.
Some would say I have never grown up. But on that day _ Oct. 2, 1970 _ I’m pretty sure I did.
14 Comments
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I wasn’t alive at the time, but I understand that it was quite a tragedy. I am a huge football fan so I’m sure I too would have attended every game that I could - and thus felt a loss similar to you.
But there is something I don’t understand about the whole situation, why does WSU no longer have a football team? I understand that such a huge loss might make it difficult for a couple years, but is the answer really to give up? Maybe there is something I am missing, but it doesn’t make sense to me.
I am a WSU student and long for a team to follow and support. Yeah, we have baseball and basketball, but there is nothing like a spending a Saturday afternoon cheering on your favorite football team - cheering so loud that you lose your voice, wearing team colors from head to toe, and doing it all no matter what the weather.
There is something missing from WSU, and it really shows this time of year, we need the WSU football team again.
I was a young child living in Frisco, Colorado (on the West side of the Continental Divide) at the time of the plane crash. Although at that time I don’t think I had even heard of Wichita, Kansas - let alone fathomed that I would someday be living here - the plane crash is still vivid in my mind. I remember when we would drive from Frisco to Denver - at that time we had to drive over Loveland Pass as the
Eisenhower Tunnel was in the process of being built - and the area where the plane crashed was so easy to see right after the crash, as it was for so many years. My father was working to help build the Eisenhower Tunnel and I remember him telling me how they used the bulldozers and
other heavy equipment to get to the crash site. If you have been out there and know where it crashed, you can see how high on the mountain it was and can only imagine the hard task the recovery team and others faced to clear a path up to the crash site.
Years later the Eisenhower Tunnel was opened and countless cars drive by that mountain every minute of every day not having a clue of the plane crash that happened so many years ago. However, every time I go out there, as I drive by, I do remember the mountain and those that perished on that day. Even though I was young and didn’t know the people on that plane from Wichita, Kansas, I felt sadness that such a catastrophe could happen in the beautiful Colorado Rockies and for the families of those that perished.
To those of you who knew or knew of the people on the plane, your memories are different than mine yet shared.
Now that I am a football mom I have heard the story many times, mainly from my 19 year old football player who wishes they would bring the program back to Wichita so he could play there. Is there even an inkling that they might? How would people feel about it after all these years?
i also remember that day. it was a friday i believe. i was a member of the kapaun high school football team and eddie kriwriel was the coach. i didn’t know at that particular time how much that plane crash affected coach kriwriel. he had coached some of the players on that plane and knew (quite well) alot of people that were killed. we did lose that game against south high that friday. strange, i don’t remember alot about the game that night.
I too keep October 2, 1970 forever etched in my mind….I was a senior at Solomon High School bustling around with everyone else getting ready for our football homecoming game when I heard the news about the WSU crash. It had quite an impact as one of our graduates, Marvin Brown, was killed on that plane. He was quite a talented young man, probably the best athlete our school had ever seen, & one that our football coach, my dad, thought the world of. It was such a devastating event & especially so when you had a family member, friend, or classmate on that flight. I for one will always remember the heartache & sadness of this terrible day.
I was 2 the day the tragedy occurred. I don’t have any personal memories of the event but as a graduate of WSU and former mascot for the Shockers I can tell you that there is a sense of pain and sorrow surrounding the crash that can be felt simply by standing in front of the monument that commemorates those taken from the Shocker family on that day in October. They say time heals all wounds but the scar left behind is there to remind you every day that something happened. WSU Football has 2 scars. The Crash and loss of many great representatives for WSU is commerated on Hillside Avenue between 17th and 21st. Please go by and say a prayer for those families affected. The other scar can only be found in the minds of those that remember a cold day in November of 1986. That is the day they cancelled the football program. I was a first semester freshman when it happened. Financially, it made sense. The program wasn’t supported very well by the community and was losing lots of money. The logical side of me agreed with and supported the decision. But it was the wrong decision. There have been several grass roots efforts to bring football back at WSU but none have caught hold. We can only hope that one day football will come back to WSU. That way more attention and proper rememberance can be brought back to the tragedy of October 2, 1970.
I was a freshman at WSU when the plane crashed and had season tickets to the football games. I was working on that Friday afternoon when I heard about the crash. As an earlier poster mentioned, I also wondered about Gus Grebe. His name as well as Coach Ben Wilson and the players whose names I knew went through my head and I wondered what happened to them. It was a sad time on the campus of WSU. Many memorial services that I attended. Then a little over a month later the whole awful thing occurred again as the Marshall airplane crashed killing 75 people. Sadly Marshall had changed the airline they were flying on after the WSU crash because they thought the new airline would be more reliable.
Over the years from time to time I have thought about the players, fans, coaches and WSU officals killed on the plane. The players were only a few years younger than myself. Their lives were cut so short because of the gross errors of the pilots. In fact now they have been dead longer than they lived.
This past summer a couple of us hiked up to the site of the crash. You can see where the plane clipped the trees coming into the mountain. There still is a wide open area where the plane crashed and burned. There are plane parts some of which are dug into the ground. There is a lot of melted aluminum. Mostly though it is a quiet beautiful area and as you look around you can’t help but feel respect and sadness for the lifes cut so short 35 years ago.
I have posted a link which shows 3 of the pictures I took on the site a few months ago. http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/specs/martin/mar-404.htm
I was a security guard at Fairmont Towers where they all stayed. That was a tragic day. I can not remember names now, but remember one from Oklahoma City, that switched planes in Denver so his room mate, high school football team mate and very close friend thru all of school, could ride the team plane. Nothing on the other side of the room was changed for a long time, even maybe the rest of the year. I remember one surviver that was engaged, and it was a big day when he came back home. Then there was another surviver that went on to play pro football. That is a day I will not forget for Kansas, along with the Udall tornado, and the plane crash.
My name is Dave Lewis,I remember Steve Moore,he was a great and talented football player,He showed me and Donnie Christian the school when we were recruited.Donnie was my best friend,I had known Donnie since we were Five years old.He was going to be married in December of 1970.I was sitting in the back of the plane that day anticipating a beautiful flight.We had stopped in Denver that day,and I asked the pilot if we were going to fly over the Continental Divide,He said we were and that he was going to get some maps so we could have a scenic tour.When we were trapped in the canyon,Donnie turned and looked at me and that was the last time I ever saw him.That summer before the Crash I lived with Donnie,Johnny Taylor and Randy Kiesau.I will be attending the 35Th Memorial.I have never been back to Wichita since 1973.I had years of guilt and frustration,maybe I can make peace with myself October 2. Dave Lewis
In response to www’s post the player who went on to play in the NFL was Randy Jackson who was drafted by the Buffalo Bills. In his rookie season, Randy was the Bills backup halfback. He played behind the league’s leading rusher for 1972, a guy named O.J. Simpson.
I remember Steve Moore and Marvin Brown.They were very talented football players.I was sitting in the back of the plane the day it hit the canyon.We had stopped in Denver and I asked the pilot if we were going to fly over the Continental Divide,he said yes and that he was going to get some maps so we could have a scenic tour.That summer,before the crash, I lived with Donnie Christian,Randy Kiesau, and Johnny Taylor.I had known Donnie since I was five years old.He was like a brother to me. He was going to be married in December 1970.When we were hopelessly trapped (and did not know it)Donnie turned and looked at me with an expression I remember to this day.That was the last time I ever saw my buddy.I will be attending the 35Th Memorial for the first time.I have not been back to Wichita since 1973.I hope that years of guilt and frustration will be washed away on October 2. Dave Lewis
I remember Steve Moore and Marvin Brown.They were talented football players.I was sitting in the back of the plane on that day.We had stopped in Denver and I asked the pilot if we were going to fly over the Continental Divide,he said yes and he was going to pick up some maps so we could have a “scenic tour”.I had spent that summer in Wichita and lived with Donnie Christian,Randy Kiesau,and Johnny Taylor.I had known Donnie since I was five years old.He was like a brother to me.He was to be married in December 1970.When we flew into the canyon(and were hopelessly trapped)he turned and looked at me before we hit the mountain,I remember his expression on his face to this day.That was the last time I ever saw my Buddy.I will be going to the 35Th Memorial.I have never been back to Wichita since 1973.I have had years of guilt and frustration.On October 2 it is time to heal. Dave Lewis
I am Marvin Brown’s niece. Since I was born in ‘77 I never got to meet him. My family has told me all about how great of an athelete he was!! Solomon’s football field is dedicated and named after him. Last x-mas we got all of the old 8mm home video’s put onto DVD and for those of you who knew him he sure was a ham for the camera when he was younger. I really wish I could have known him. It is funny to explain to someone that you miss someone you never knew. My brother moved to Wichita in 93 and he invited me to a party. I can’t remember how we started talking about it but we told a guy that we lost our uncle in the crash. He said hey that guy over there is John Hoheisel, he is a survivor. I instantly got this overwhelming feeling of excitement but yet complete sadness. My brother and I went over and introduced ourselves to John and then we talked for a while. It was very interesting to know who my uncle was from someone that was not in the family. I have many of his qualities from what John told me about him. That I am thankful for. My grandparents have never flown because of the crash. I didn’t fly until I was a Junior in high school. I love flying but everytime I get on one I ask Marvin to look after me. I went with my family to the 25th in 95. I can’t remember her name but the lady that sang blowing in the wind came back to sing it at the 25th and it is the best version of that song I have ever heard. I have told my husband that my dream is to go a visit the site especially now after seeing the pictures posted on the website listed above. Dave I see that you haven’t posted anything since the memorial and I pray that it gave you a bit of release. Take care Michelle.