October 2, 1970: The Wichita State Crash

October 2, 1970: A plane crash outside Silver Plume, Colorado kills 31 people, including several members of the Wichita State University football team, traveling to play Utah State University. Amazingly, 9 people survive the crash.

The plane was a Martin 4-0-4, a twin-engine propeller-driven plane. The weather had been clear, and an investigation found that the crash had been due to multiple pilot errors.

1970 team photo

The game is canceled, and while the NCAA grants the Wichita State team -- with some irony, called the Shockers, although that's a reference to Kansas wheat production -- a waiver to allow their freshmen to play, thus making the season's completion possible, the program never recovers. WSU ended their football program in 1986.

A 1970 Wichita State football helmet

Ironically, Wichita State played at Cessna Stadium, named for an aircraft-building company. It opened in 1946, and the University approved it for demoliti2020, because it would cost less than continuing to maintain a stadium for a sport they don't play anymore, and only might ever start playing again.

Wichita State had won 14 Conference Championships between 1908 and 1963, and had produced players like running back Ted Dean, who scored the winning touchdown for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1960 NFL Championship Game; and linebacker Bill Parcells, who was the Shockers' linebackers coach in 1965 before moving on to bigger things. But the program was canceled. Despite a few efforts to get it restarted, it never has been.

Just 43 days later, another crash would kill all 75 people on board, including the entire football team of Marshall University of Huntington, West Virginia. It remains the deadliest sports-related tragedy in North American history. In 2006, the film We Are Marshall, about that crash, premiered.

As yet, there is no film about the Wichita State crash the same Autumn. The school built Memorial '70, and, every year, on October 2, at 9:00 AM Central Time, a wreath is placed  at this memorial. (The crash hapened at 1:14 PM Mountain Time, 2:14 Central.) There is also a roadside memorial listing the names of the victims on Interstate 70, about 2 miles east of the Eisenhower Tunnel and about half a mile from the crash site.

Memorial '70

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October 2, 1970 was a Friday. Actress and talk show host Kelly Ripa was born.

There were no scores on this historic day: No football, the NHL and NBA (and ABA) seasons hadn't started yet, and both of baseball's League Championship Series started the next day.