1984-2012. It was such a humbling and heart-felt experience. Survivors, friends and family will convene at the Wichita Country Club to console and reminisce about the lives lost. Emily's siblings called 911. Beckman, who earned a masters degree in communications from Wichita State in 2015, Wichita State athleticsthrough his GoShockers.com blog,The Roundhouse. I was certainly highly motivated to do my best work, writing about a subject like history. Only one of those would never get to meet her father. The Wichita Eagle, pp A10, A12. Everyone A plane carrying the Wichita State University football team had crashed. Bethel along Colorados Continental Divide, killing thirty-one passengers. That was stripped Inside Houston football's lost month of September, El Paso Strong: How soccer and friendship helped a girls' team heal from a mass shooting, Who is Trey Lance? Lewis had not spoken about the crash to media members, or many people at all, before A memorial on campus lists the names of those killed in the crash. On Friday, October 2, 1970, a pair of Martin 404 twin-engine aircraft took off from Wichita, Kansas, carrying the Wichita State University (WSU) football team, coaches, and VIP supporters. nothing about it, Batman said. The players helped each other stumble away from the wreckage, then collapsed some twenty feet away. Wichita State had begun the year 0-3 and was scheduled to resume play against Arkansas, ranked ninth in the country and still in the race for the national championship. All our clothes had been blown off or torn off, and I was buried up to my chest in Her team wore the letter "E" for Emily on their jerseys. "It was at least a week before we had official confirmation that his remains had been identified," Diane says. "I'm not sure my parents looked at me in the same way after watching me passed out like that. Copilot Skipper had been gaining altitude since departure from Denver, but it was quickly becoming apparent that the plane was too low to proceed over the lofty granite barrier looming ahead. Lewis was lying on the ground when he realized all his clothes were gone, shorn off by the trees. Public hearings began October 21 to determine the cause of the tragedy. Pat Suellentrop, Remembering the 1970 Wichita State Football Plane Crash, The Wichita Eagle, October 1, 2015. Even today, kind of makes the hair stand up on my back.". seats and wreckage and three of his best friends were pinned near him. She vowed to avoid any undo exertion, to stay off the black diamond runs and to ski only with her father. So much time has gone by now, Grading big trades during the NFL draft: Who won the D'Andre Swift deal? 27 cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Oconee Co plane crash victims identified. "Her mannerisms, some of her giggles. Lutz, B. The profound sadness we feel as a community We do so to remember and honor our friends and to renew our relationships with each other, Featherstone said. Lewis says all the dead were wearing seat belts. I wasnt only a Shocker beat writer, I was a Shocker alum.. He loved his horse, Star. That morning in 1970 -- Mal Kimmel's last morning -- Diane got to the top floor and took one more glance through the staircase's windows, out to the bright, clear day that was beginning to blossom. For 50 years, those Shockers have assembled in October to commemorate the lives lost. what the university has gone through. Little River County, It led to one of the more unlikely games in college football history. After the plane crash, when so much about her life was in turmoil, everyone seemed certain what Diane should do. The annual ceremony of remembrance for those who died in the 1970 Wichita State University plane crash will be held at 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 2, at Cessna Stadium. All 85 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft died . So she would try harder." Emily would head off to college in excellent health. Some of the greatest young men/athletes that ever came out of our state, Featherstone said. The Black Plane, with the team's reserves and assistant coaches on board, took a direct route to Logan. So Lewis called his mother at work back in Duncan. "Sometimes we would tell him what we did that day," Diane remembers. Bob Renner was recorded to have been in the wreckage the longest. The years drive a wedge between survivors linked Christian sat two rows ahead of Lewis. It was too late to save team trainer Thomas Reeves, who died of burns in Idaho Springs. Others, such as former KPTS production manager Gabe Juhnke and recent Wichita State graduate Kaisha Batman, learned about the crash and its impact through their work. Wichita State players remember their 'second season' 50 years later (8:03) Wichita State was devastated by a tragic plane crash 50 years ago. + Caption. "Mom, I'm alive -- it's a miracle," one player would say into a pay phone. Arkansas, or when they pass Memorial 70 and are proud to play a role in documenting the stories. Danny Crocker just 15 minutes before takeoff, Skipper had topographical maps he'd purchased moments earlier at a shop in Stapleton Airport so that he could point out landmarks of interest along the way. working for 17 years at The Wichita Eagle. ", What struck Valory was how her mother "knew him for so long -- even when he was young. attached to the university in a different way, I felt a different type of pride for in the back of the fuselage. I don't think many of the people on the plane knew what But in this part of the country, those of us alive at the time well remember the somber news from Oct. 2, 1970. 1974-2017, mostly as a sports writer and columnist. my signature story, he said. His parents would be interred alongside their son many years later. She lifted up Emily's legs to improve blood flow to her heart. to, but you also have to be very respectful of what hes feeling.. Don Christian, defensive back, Duncan High School. Even more than the grief and sadness and loss, what Diane felt most of all was fear: "What happens next? Hell gaze in the direction of I-70, which stretches west through 420 miles of Kansas, then to Denver. clip off the tops of trees. It was her father who had to tell her: Emily's basketball career was over. Eight players and the co-pilot survived. In the late 1980s a marker engraved with the victims names was built beside Interstate 70 beneath the crash site. And how Diane saw something she didn't expect: Mal, right there on the street corner, home from college to surprise her and to be her date for the homecoming dance. the school eight years earlier. ", But Mal Kimmel would never get to tell anyone that he was going to be a father. Please enter your email and password to sign in. (Linda Renner Wilson) and others. working for 17 years at The Wichita Eagle. bit further. to get to know that many people and get to know the human side of a tragic event like LOVELAND, Colo. It's been 50 years since a plane crashed near Loveland Pass claiming 31 lives of the 40 Wichita State University (WSU) football team . Fifty years ago Friday. weave through the interview where you ask him questions, that you want the answers Hearing the full story and feeling I honor their memory every day, Lewis said. of the crash were players Mike Bruce, John Hoheisel, Randy Jackson, Glenn Kostal, Investigators interrogated him for hours about details of contractual arrangements. McPherson County, It has changed me in subtle ways, he said. A couple They were bound for Logan, Utah, to play the Utah State University Aggies the following day. Judy Lane, flight attendant Mallory Kimmel, WSU football player Ben and Helen Wilson, WSU head coach and his wife 27 memorials Page of 2 Marvin G Brown Jr. 1 Oct 1951 - 2 Oct 1970 Prairie Mound Cemetery They are still greatly missed to this day. Each year on Oct. 2 at 9 a.m., a wreath is placed at this memorial. The Shockers were flying to Logan, Utah for a game the Wichita State suffers one of the greatest tragedies in college football history when one of the team's two charter flights crashes en route to its game at Utah State. The Marshall crash seemed to overshadow the Wichita State crash. Golden Eagle was near the top of the re-inspection list at the time of the disaster. Tom Shedden, offensive tackle, Putnam City High School. "Hes been a part of our family," said John Yeros, a former Wichita State player who was on the plane that landed safely. You I wanted to live where he grew up," she says, yearning for more time in Ste. They know that at some point, the memorials and memories will burn only in their souls. USA, McPherson, A couple flying from Florida to Georgia have been identified as two people who died in a plane crash Wednesday. KMUW is still available on 89.1 fm. by the wings of the airplane. near Silver Plume, Colorado. mattered and it still matters.. A system error has occurred. As the NTSB report would explain, the impact had detached the aircraft's seats from the cabin floor. But Crocker seized the controls and began a left turn. Featherstone grew up with Duren. A newspaper clipping following the tragic plane crash in October, 1970 just east of the Eisenhower Tunnel shows a Wichita State football helmet amid the wreckage. "My buddies are all dead. to talk about it, and the fact he was willing to do that, is something I felt really The NTSB determined the cause of the crash to be Crocker and Skippers insufficient and improper flight planning, as well as their lack of understanding of the aircrafts abilities. for KMUW, including a 2014 hike to the crash site with Stephens, Yeros, her mother Fifty years later, looking back on her days working in the psychology office, Diane Buatte would say, "That job probably saved my life.". Custer County, remembers staff members taking several calls from Ohio, home of several Shocker coaches When he got the offer from WSU, he said yes. "[They] were about football practice, pretty much," she says. Whaley, M. (2001, January 29). Rick Stephens, sitting toward the front, was ejected. It was both a wry prophecy and a tribute to her late father, whom she seemed to favor. by tragedy. Ahead stood the Continental Divide, nearly 13,000 feet above sea level. Running back Randy Jackson would tell Stephens that in the maelstrom, he had spotted Jack Vetter, the blond offensive lineman whom Stephens had climbed over to get to the flight deck: "Randy said he tried to pull him out," Stephens recalls. cathartic.". He was a sophomore at Derby High School in 1970 and knew former Derby football star The Wichita State University Football Team Airplane Crash Collection contains various documentsrelating to the airplane crash that took place on October 2, 1970, when members of the WSU footballteam, staff and friends were killed in the Colorado mountains near Denver. We Mal Kimmel had the ARVC gene; he died the day before he was going to play what might have been his first full game of football in two years. really had to, essentially, trust myself. Team '70, those Shockers call their fallen teammates. She did all of it without ever setting foot inside his dorm room (school rules, team rules). And when her father searched for a pulse, he couldn't find one. He remembers slowly waking up, feeling cool air and seeing a pine forest. The great memories and friendships you develop with your teammates. games and knew that team. And Featherstone specifically wants Oklahomans to remember four of the 31: Four Oklahomans among the 31 aboard an airplane that entered a Colorado canyon and never came out. The plane started shaking. He didn't like flying much and was in the habit of picking up a little something at the airport -- Dramamine, if they had it -- and dozing through flights. Stephens would never know how he had escaped and survived. His family owned a bar in town called Palomino; maybe he could work there? After freeing Lewis takes a list with him onto the deck. When the aircrafts stopped for fueling in Denver, the players stretched their legs on the tarmac. reviewed Wichita State Plane Wreck. On Dec. 23, Emily and her dad got in a few runs on the bunny slope. I decided I better head back to my seat and when I turned around, I fell himself, Renner tried to free Randy Kiesau, Don Christian, and Jack Vetter. Her skin was mottled; she began to turn blue. Lets just try it, Lewis said. Juhnke grew up in Wichita and his parents attended Wichita State. Its just kind of forgotten about. Duren told Featherstone there was an empty seat on the black plane. National Honor Society member.. to play baseball. A cardiac MRI showed that the right ventricle of Emily's heart had near-catastrophic scarring. All 75 people aboard died. The survivors are getting older. up outside. It was determined that significant responsibility lay with the FAA for failing to follow on its warnings issued to schools, including WSU, against using Golden Eagles services. Valory, who preferred cheerleading to competitive athletics, always wanted to know what Mal had been like: "Depending on what was happening in my life, it would kind of prompt a question, like, 'Did he play sports?'". Mal wrote Diane that he was frustrated with his progress: "Way too slow, way too slow to move up on the totem pole: That was a big adjustment, when he had always been one of the top players. family. below the crash site. Her buzzer-beater off the glass drove the crowd into a frenzy. The first lawsuit was filed five days after the crash. The names of the 31 passengers that were killed were read after, followed by a student peformance of Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone.". "It is a haunting experience to go up there," Stephens says. When the plane entered the canyon, and the Rocky Mountains suddenly loomed near, and the pilot started banking, desperately trying to buy time, Christian looked back at Lewis. I really think we were Highway memorial, Wichita State football team, Remembering the 1970 Wichita State Football Plane Crash, Forgotten Tragedy: Survivors Quest to Keep Memories of 1970 Wichita State Crash from Fading, GeorgetownSilver Plume Historic District. team, being part of a brotherhood. "I said, 'No matter what, you take the shot. "I went into the cockpit area," Stephens says. That research paper, including "I always say I've had a guardian angel," she says. As they rode the elevator up to their condo, Emily told him she was feeling faint. ON THE MORNING of Oct. 2, 1970, 21-year-old Malory W. Kimmel drove away from Wichita State University's Jardine Hall, heading for the Field House nearby. Twelve survivors staggered or were carried to the highway, where ambulances rushed them to Idaho Springs. down when we started hitting the trees. the aftermath of the tragedies at Wichita State and Marshall (also in 1970). "Tell me in 60 years" is what Diane said to Mal that day on his family's property in Ste. Lewis mother turned hysterical, crying and yelling. They "I was honestly kind of surprised she went," Perryman said, "but I get it.". Survivors Piatt Plane Crash Memorial - Wichita, Kansas. But the fire still prevented rescuers from getting inside. She interviewed Stephens about a week before the 2018 anniversary of the crash. financial reasons and low attendance. The WSU tragedy prompted a thorough government investigation of FAA regulations for charter flights. Ronald Skipper were the only two survivors in the front of the plane. He started throwing up blood. a call from Jim Rhatigan, the former Wichita State senior vice president. Each year, she would see her mother's mood darken as Oct. 2 drew near. An inhaler didn't seem to help. (2000, October 1). The last thing John Hoheisel remembers before the crash is looking out the window and watching the plane's wing By late afternoon, nineteen bodies had been taken to a temporary morgue in Idaho Springs for identification. Wichita State University is experiencing some system outages, affecting our streaming services, e-mail and internet. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. long-time radio voice of Shockers athletics. Renner's leg was pinned beneath the some of the first people in Wichita to know about it. So it was a little disconcerting when she began to experience shortness of breath and fatigue on the court. First one breath nothing. Some are in poor health. Then, just a few seconds later, it Meet the NFL draft darling playing only once this fall, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. From there, it's a short hike up the mountainside to where the plane went down, and even a half-century later, that site remains strewn with wreckage from the aircraft and dotted with white handcrafted memorials placed there by grieving family members. Genevieve. The Denver Post, pp. of trees had fallen in. Jennifer Perryman had called one more play for her point guard -- the last shot of Emily's basketball career. The remnants of that Wichita State team have spent half a century honoring the memory of those who died. Featherstone spent 34 years in law enforcement but still breaks down when talking about his friends who never made it to Logan. Not only were they just great young men, friendly to everyone, and amazing athletes, they also were too young to die while they had so much to offer.. ", She had visited him at WSU on weekends, driving through the night with his parents, before enrolling there herself one year later, immersing herself in a social world that revolved around football. They sent me over to the administration building to I stayed where I was, Featherstone said. Has won three Sports Emmys and six Edward R. Murrow Awards, as well as a Prism, a Gracie, and a National Headliner Award. "How many laps did they have to run? We really focused on the moments he knew the plane was going to crash, waking up and Please reset your password. Wichita State University held a memorial service at Cessna Stadium on Friday honoring both the victims and survivors of a plane crash 50 years ago. But I was looking out the window. USA, Ashdown, comfortable being able to talk about it, Lutz said. A memorial service will be staged in Cessna Stadium, which has remained even though Wichita State dropped football in 1987. . Sports editor for The Sunflower, Sean Marty, observes the 1970 Wichita State plane crash site on Sunday, Sept. 27 near Silver Plume, Colorado. through their work. (1995, October 3). She wasn't done. debris. USA, Clinton, By that time, she'd found out something about ARVC: It's inherited. Then suddenly at 9:34 a.m., terror rained from the sky. Linebacker Glen Kostal lost consciousness for a few seconds on impact. I look up there and think of them.. Others tried to rescue those trapped in the front part of the cabin, some of whom were screaming for help. She graduated -- and, boosted by a school stipend for family members affected by the crash, Diane got a master's from Wichita State in speech pathology, especially enjoying her work with young children. Both airplanes refueled at Denver's Stapleton Airport. I heard a rumble. Two planes carried the team, but which crashed? The second craft headed straight west out of Denver toward the mountains. Robert and Sandra Denton, both residents of Williamsburg, Mich., Clare, Mich., and The Villages, Fla., were flying in their single . Get out of here.". It was dark and somewhat Stadium and remembers answering questions about football. They hadn't even told their parents yet. about the crash in the Sunflower. We have set your language to Steve Moore, one of the victims of the crash. Lewis was on the gold plane. it exploded. Minutes after the crash, with a compound fracture of his leg, he regained consciousness outside the burned airplane, roused by a rescuer who'd been working on the Eisenhower Tunnel less than 2 miles away. He was thrown onto a pile of mangled mess. It was such a monumental thing that happened in our She looked north, down to the street below and there he was. One thing that always struck me was, walking over, it was about as a beautiful an "She had the 'it' factor," says Jennifer Perryman, coach of the high school varsity team at Nixa. Yet within the week, freshman recruits who'd stayed behind in Kansas, second-stringers who'd landed safely in Utah on the Black Plane, even a few on the mountainside who had somehow escaped with their lives, had voted to continue on with Wichita State's football season. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. But when Friday night gave way to Saturday morning, Mal had not yet been accounted for. The Associated Press. Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. It was like if you cut the cord on an elevator. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. On Oct. 2, 1970, Wichita State sent its football team in two planes to a game at Utah State. After graduating with a degree in nursing from WSU, Valory would work for a year in Wichita before eventually moving to Kansas City, Missouri. Funding for the memorial . There was a very real part of them that felt it was something that they owed those It was a cold Saturday morning--January 16, 1965. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Gabe Juhnke and Stacey Jenkins, Black & Gold: Remembering the WSU Plane Crash, KPTS, aired October 2, 2009. Emily had inherited it from her grandfather. I was the last out, and I was getting nervous because I had A dazed Hoheisel and a few of his teammates were met on the several attempts, Renner said, Vetter told him, "Bobby, I'm burning. A flight attendant spilled the refreshments she was carrying. Because Wichita State ended its football program in 1986. Johnny Duren, wide receiver, John Marshall High School. was engulfed in flames. The fire deterred those looking to return for people still trapped in the plane. "That is unheard of: No one that I am aware of has ever done something like that. Just like Mal Kimmel, Jack Vetter was 21 years old. April 28, 2023 at 4:57 am EDT. Valory opened the door of the condo just as Emily lost consciousness. Teammates such as John Yeros, Ed Plopa and John Potts took lead roles in speaking We wanted to do a story that was anything that was different from what we had read I wish it had been a cathartic process for those guys, but I always felt their pain,
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