Edition:
December 1, 2006
Public Notices - DBA Info • CONTACT
US: News Department • Display
Advertising • Classified
Advertising
|
||
The Friday Flyer Assistant Editor
Having the opportunity to experience an event so profound it is preserved for posterity through photographs, books, television specials and, ultimately, on the silver screen, doesn’t happen in most people’s lifetimes.
Conversely, in their most noble form, movies give average people an opportunity to see and feel the context of those significant events that shaped the history of individuals, families, towns and countries.
“We Are Marshall” is a movie coming out in theaters December 22 that will give viewers a chance to appreciate what was experienced by a small community in West Virginia on November 14, 1970, when the entire football team and several staff members from the local university were killed in a plane crash while returning home from a game in North Carolina.
For Canyon Lake resident Bonnie Riniti, the movie will be a homecoming; and the events it depicts are permanently etched in her mind and heart as a native of Wayne County: home of Marshall University and the town of Huntington. As a football fan of the Marshall Thundering Herd, the chant, “We are Marshall,” resonates as clearly for her today as it did when she was a teenager 36 years ago.
“When I lived in West Virginia, one of the biggest thrills was to attend a Marshall football game, where I had season passes for the 5th row, 50 yard line, given to me by a dear friend who has since passed away,” says Bonnie. “Somehow, it wasn’t just the game that brought us together; it was like attending the largest family reunion ever. There is not a church large enough to hold the amount of good people who attended those games.”
As another Huntington resident, Julia Keller, wrote for the Chicago Tribune in September 1999, “To have been born and raised in Huntington, as I was, is to remember the crash, and how the city simply crumpled beneath the collective weight of its sorrow, as any city would.”
The movie, “We Are Marshall,” begins with the crash that took place at 7:37 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, 1970, “as a cold rain pecked at the ground and a nasty fog rolled in,” Julia writes. “The chartered jet smashed into a scrabbly field about two miles west of Huntington’s Tri-State Airport, some 30 seconds before it would have landed. Everyone aboard was killed instantly.”
She continues, “The crash site was a horrific mess of broken bodies, twisted plane parts and burned earth, upon which the chilly rain continued to fall. Seventy-five people died on that plane, including most members of the Marshall University football team and coaching staff, along with a contingent of prominent Huntington residents who attended all the games, home and away . . . To this day, the crash retains the dubious distinction of being the biggest sports-related disaster in U.S. history.”
Bonnie adds to that recollection: “I was a teenager at the time, a coal miner’s daughter. We had no phone, no cable television. What we did have was neighbors, friends and family. As you know, news travels fast in small communities. But you knew the news wasn’t good when it began with tears. Everyone seemed to gather together as one huge family.”
For Julia and Bonnie and many others who lived through the shock and sorrow that engulfed their community, “We Are Marshall” stands as a tribute to those who were lost and the many more who were left behind.
The movie continues with the story of the men who stepped in to help rebuild the football program (and ultimately the community): Coach Jack Lengyel, played by Matthew McConaughey, and Coach Red Dawson, played by Matthew Fox. Warner Bros. produced the movie and hired Joseph McGinty Nichol, known as “McG,” to direct it. Much of the filming took place last spring at Marshall University in Huntington, using local citizens as extras.
During the filming, Bonnie’s niece called her and said, “You’re not going to believe who’s hanging out in the same club you used to hang out in . . . Matthew McConaughey!”
Early this fall, Bonnie decided it was time to go home and visit her beloved town and family and she decided it would be a surprise. Her cousin, Sid Stephenson, a Marshall alumnus who also remembers the 1970 tragedy, was in on the secret, reminding her the date she had chosen to arrive would fall on the date of Marshall’s annual memorial service – November 14.
Sure enough, her red-eye flight landed early Tuesday morning just in time for her to meet Sid and drive to the school for the ceremony. After the excitement of filming last spring, and in anticipation of the movie’s release on December 22, the town was out in force for the ceremony with several special speakers providing moving testimonials that brought Bonnie and others to tears.
Afterward, she approached one of the speakers to express her appreciation. Warmed by her enthusiasm and reference to having just flown in from California, the speaker held her hand and volunteered for a picture. He told her he too was visiting from California.
Afterward, Sid laughed at Bonnie and asked her if she knew with whom she had been speaking – it was McG, the director of the movie.
Then she thanked another of the speakers whose personal memories of the event were so emotional and learned he was Red Dawson, one of the Marshall coaches who missed the flight that fateful day because he had stayed behind in North Carolina for some recruiting appointments.
By then, Bonnie was shivering in the 40-degree dampness, so she and Sid stepped into the student union building for some coffee and to take pictures of the memorial plaques. While she was there, she saw another of the speech-givers and approached him with words of encouragement and appreciation. He, noticing her shivering, wrapped his arms around her to warm her up – and once again, Sid took a picture. Afterward he told Bonnie, “That was Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia.”
Finally, with the ceremony behind her, it was time to take a drive out to the “boondocks” to surprise her parents at her childhood home. To hear Bonnie describe her family and lifestyle is to learn about a place nearly as different from Southern California as any foreign country.
“I try explaining to my neighbors and my friends who I am and where I’m from – what made me the person I am today, why friends, family and a strong community is very important to me,” she says. “It was a very simple life, not one that many people (here) could handle.”
Too soon, the whirlwind visit was over and it was time for Bonnie to come home – but not before handing out the armfuls of Canyon Lake T-shirts and hats she had purchased from the Canyon Lake Market. In turn, she hands out Marshall T-shirts to everyone she meets here.
“By seeing ‘We Are Marshall,’ hopefully you can see who I am and understand a little bit of my background,” she says. “You may even realize now why I’m so proud of Huntington, West Virginia, and Marshall University. I’m hoping this movie will reflect the strength of a small community. That even in the darkest of moments, when some were saying, ‘Give up,’ we didn’t. We just got stronger. My heart goes out to the families who have to relive these moments and my thoughts are with them. But remember, the voice that was once silenced shall now be heard. Marshall fan or not – see this movie.”
|
