Tragedies connect two NCAA opponents
CHARLESTON, W.VA. Dan D’Antoni was a 23-year-old assistant with the Marshall basketball program in 1970, and a babysitter, too. He was at the home of a friend and team physician for the Thundering Herd when a plane carrying members of the Wichita State football team crashed in Colorado.
As they watched the news unfold, and learned of the 31 lives lost, Dr. Ray Hagley turned to D’Antoni and said: “You really don’t know how tragic this is going to be unless you live there.”
Six weeks later, D’Antoni was watching some of Hagley’s six children when television and radio broadcasts were interrupted for a report that the plane carrying the Marshall football team had crashed near campus, killing all 75 aboard. Among them were Hagley and his wife. Their children were suddenly orphans.
D’Antoni eventually left Marshall, only to return in 2014 to lead the Thundering Herd. As fate would have it, the program’s first trip to the NCAA tournament in 31 years means a game against Wichita State on Friday in San Diego. The meaning of the schools’ first matchup in men’s basketball (they never played in football) is hardly lost on supporters of two schools forever linked by tragedy.
“To be 18 years old and to be part of two human tragedies was a heavy burden,” said John Potts, a kicker on the 1970 Shockers team who was ineligible to play at the time. “Once we were made aware of the Marshall plane going down, we were all stunned, and it was hard to believe it was happening all over again.”
The crashes were separated by a mere 43 days and 2,100 kilometres.
Jim Rhatigan was watching TV in his Wichita home when the school’s dean of students saw a news flash about the Marshall crash. He tracked down his counterpart there, Constantine Curris, and offered his insight on how his school dealt with the crash.
“I was able to help him a great deal,” Rhatigan said. “We never did meet in the real sense, but I feel like we were connected for life.”