Marshall wide receiver DeMarcus Harris looks to the sideline during a game against Georgia Southern on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington. The Herd’s helmets for the annual “75†game have design features that call back to the 1970 Marshall plane crash and to the Young Thundering Herd team of 1971.
Marshall wide receiver DeMarcus Harris looks to the sideline during a game against Georgia Southern on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington. The Herd’s helmets for the annual “75†game have design features that call back to the 1970 Marshall plane crash and to the Young Thundering Herd team of 1971.
HUNTINGTON — There isn’t a player on the Marshall football team unaware of who William “Red†Dawson is.
The then-Thundering Herd assistant coach helped resurrect the program following the tragic plane crash of 1970 and served as the acting coach until Jack Lengyel was hired to lead the Young Thundering Herd ahead of the 1971 season.
Dawson was one of the few members of the 1970 Herd program not to board the ill-fated Southern Airways Flight 932. After Lengyel convinced him to stay on staff as the defensive coordinator in 1971 in the first season after the tragedy, Dawson left in fall of 1972 and never coached again.
He still keeps his finger on the pulse of the Herd, though, and spends a significant amount of time around Marshall, often observing practices in-season and during the spring and summer periods.
“You’re going out there during a hot August practice, and then you see coach Red in the stands,†Marshall linebacker Landyn Watson said. “Him being out there at practice every day just means a little bit more to me, knowing that he was a part of that.â€
As the anniversary of the plane crash nears, the Herd will participate in the annual fountain ceremony, visit the memorial at Spring Hill Cemetery on Friday night and then suit up in all-black uniforms to play Coastal Carolina on Saturday afternoon in the annual “75†memorial game. Marshall will wear helmets that Dawson helped design.
“None of us were here, so for us to be sole decision-makers without involving or seeking counsel from people that it truly means something to, I think that would be incorrect,†Herd coach Charles Huff said. “So I wanted coach Dawson to at least be involved, and he was happy.â€
On the front bumper of the helmet is a depiction of the memorial fountain that sits in the plaza of the student center on the Huntington campus. On the back bumper is the date of the crash, and on either side of the helmet is an oversize Young Thundering Herd-style interlocking “MU†logo.
The varsity stripe that runs down the middle of the helmet, as it has in past years, has the 75 names of those who died that night printed on it.
“It kind of just brings a little bit more, not pressure, but it brings a little bit more influence on the way that we want to play and how we see the helmet and all things like that,†Marshall defensive lineman Mike Green said. “I think it’s real special when we put these new helmets on and are able to go out there and show our respects.â€
It will be the first and only time this season that Marshall wears its black uniform. That was standard in past years, but the Herd started introducing different combinations of that uniform in other games last season.
“We’ve changed that this year and been kind of more traditional across the board,†Huff said. “I’ll say that.â€
Luke Creasy is a sports reporter for HD Media. He can be reached by phone at 304-526-2800.
