On November 14, Southern Airways Flight 932, which was chartered by the school to fly the Thundering Herd football team, coaches, and fans to Kinston, North Carolina for a game against the East Carolina Pirates and back to Huntington, 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. 37 of them were members of the football team. It was the worst single air tragedy in NCAA sports history. The tragedy was depicted in the movie We Are Marshall (2006) and the documentary film Marshall University: Ashes to Glory (2000).
^"2008 Marshall Football Guide" (PDF). Marshall University. 2018. p. 186. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
^"Herd's comeback crushes victory bid by XU, 31–14". The Cincinnati Enquirer. October 4, 1970. Retrieved May 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Marshall beaten by Pirates, 17–14". The News and Observer. November 15, 1970. Retrieved March 2, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.