On this, the 43rd anniversary of the Marshall University plane crash, I would like to say thank you to the Marshall Athletic Department for what they are doing for tonight’s game. They are honoring the 75 lives that were lost by making the first significant change to the Marshall football helmet (sans green for a few games) in 23 years. When I first saw the picture of the helmet that will be worn tonight, goose bumps immediately covered my arms. I get emotional every time I watch “We are Marshall” or think about what happened that night. I was not alive at the time of the crash in 1970, but I have grown up in the Tri-State area and have been associated with Marshall sports more or less since I was two years old, sitting under the scorer’s table at basketball and football games. I started working for the sports information department at Marshall when I was 12 and later went on to play baseball and earn both of my degrees at Marshall. My professional career has also been centered on my employment at this university.

But you see, “We are Marshall” is much more than just a slogan or even a movie to me, my family, and thousands across the country, especially the immediate Huntington area. I grew up less than 3 miles from this campus in Chesapeake, Ohio, in the home of two Marshall alumni, both having spent their professional lives as school teachers in local school districts. Because of how hard I worked in high school, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to choose where I wanted to go to college. I had a number of offers to play baseball throughout the country and my grades and test scores would have allowed me to choose nearly any of those schools with scholarships available. Even so, I chose Marshall, not just because it was close to home, but because of its rich traditions and because of what the university meant to my family.

I was once a part of a group where a Marshall faculty member proclaimed that every graduate of this university should simply forget about Marshall upon graduation, that their degrees were worthless. He was and still is, terribly mistaken. Marshall alums are proud of their degrees and their school, and some are downright emotional about it.

My parents were heavily involved in the university as students. My mother worked for Gene Morehouse and was good friends with several whose parents were aboard the plane on that fateful night in 1970. My father was a fraternity brother and lived on the same floor in the dorms with several members of the 1970 football team. Both remember that time very well and the people who perished just as well. Both my mother and father worked for the sports information department for 20+ years after graduating, living with the idea of “We are Marshall” in their hearts, long before the slogan was introduced to the university community. Both of my choices-which university to attend and where to settle down to work-also came before the slogan was introduced, but once it was, I was able to reflect and realize that yes, it is because of people like my parents, or someone like myself who has remained loyal to MY university, giving back to the current students, faculty, and staff of the university, and hoping to be able to help the future of the university that the slogan was created.

“We are Marshall” does not just embody the current faculty nor will it be something that is forgotten by administrators or students when/if they leave, at least not for those who are truly sons or daughters of Marshall. “We are Marshall” will remain an important reminder to anyone who embraces the slogan: what this university stands for and how much not only the university, but also the people of the university mean to them. To someone like me, it will always be more than just a slogan. It will be a philosophy, a way of thinking and a way of life, no matter what direction life may take me.

It is with extreme pride that I will be cheering for the Herd this evening, and every game, no matter the outcome. It should also be with extreme pride that the 2013 football team gets to honor the 75 lost, but never forgotten, individuals from the 1970 team and the Huntington community by donning the 75 decal tonight. Wear it with pride! #GoHerd #75 #NeverForgotten