HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — On the 50th anniversary of a plane crash that was the worst disaster in U.S. sports history, the Marshall University football team defeated Middle Tennessee State 42-14.

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Freshman quarterback Grant Wells threw for 336 yards and five touchdowns for the Thundering Herd (7-0, 4-0 Conference USA), WSAZ reported. Players wore special black uniforms and No. 75 on their helmets, to honor those who were lost in the Nov. 14, 1970, crash, ESPN reported.

Fifty years ago, the Marshall football team was returning from Kinston, North Carolina, after losing 17-14 to East Carolina. Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed into a hill just short of the Huntington Tri-State Airport, killing 36 players, nine members of the coaching staff, 25 boosters, two pilots, two flight attendants and a charter coordinator.

“We knew that this game was going to mean so much to this fan base and this community,” Wells told reporters after Saturday’s game. “That’s huge, no matter wherever we’re playing or whoever we’re playing. The fact that we could do this on the 50th anniversary is amazing.”

Earlier in the day, Marshall held its annual Memorial Fountain Ceremony, WCHS-TV reported. The event featured guest speakers, and the names of the 75 victims were read. The ceremony ended with the symbolic turning off of the fountain ceremony.

This year’s featured speaker was Lucianne Kautz Call, whose father, Charlie E. Kautz, died in the crash, WCHS reported.

“This morning, I am respectfully representing our loved ones who perished,” Call told the crowd. “We each lost one or more family members. From that moment, we became one family.”

Each student who died in the crash was posthumously awarded degrees in a special ceremony on Friday evening, WCHS reported.

“This plaza and this fountain are the heart of Marshall University,” university President Jerome Gilbert said. “It is the center of activity of the campus.

“Today, it is a sacred place.”

Cox Media Group