What team was later rebuilt by the new head coach Jack Lengyel?”
On Nov. 14, 1970, a chartered airplane carrying 37 members of the Marshall University football team crashed. Also lost in the tragedy were eight coaches, 25 team boosters and five crew members. In the aftermath, there was talk the school should drop football. However, it was decided the program would resume play the following season. The man selected to lead the team was Jack Lengyel. In a distinguished career, Lengyel would go on to become the athletic director at the Naval Academy; later, in his “retirement,” he would work as an interim AD at a number of universities, including a stint at Colorado following the 2004 departure of Dick Tharp. With the feature film “We Are Marshall” slated for a Dec. 22 release, Lengyel chatted recently about his role in the university’s recovery.
