On November 14 , 1970 , Southern Airways Flight 932 , which was chartered by the school to fly the 1970 Marshall Thundering Herd football team and fans to Greenville , North Carolina for a game against the East Carolina Pirates and back to Huntington , West Virginia , crashed on approach to Tri-State Airport after clipping trees just west of the runway and impacting nose-first into a hollow . All 75 people on board died . It was the worst single air tragedy in NCAA sports history . The 1970 Marshall University football team was coached by Rick Tolley and finished with a record of 3 – 6
Southern Airways Flight 932
Southern Airways Flight 932
1971 Marshall Thundering Herd football team