Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: 50 years later, Morehouse keeps father close to heart
11/12/2020 1:01:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Marshall head coach involves sportscaster in annual run to Spring Hill
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – My boy is a few months shy of 9 years old.
What if I were gone tomorrow? What would happen over the next 50 years of his life?
How would he remember me?
This thought camped out in my mind on a rainy night in Huntington this week. I had met Keith Morehouse that afternoon at Joan C. Edwards Stadium and we sought refuge from the downpour near the Gate B entrance, and then we talked about topics related to the 50th anniversary of the Southern Airways Flight 932 plane crash and the loss of 75 beloved people, including Keith's father.
Gene Morehouse, then the Voice of the Thundering Herd, was 48 years old when he perished along with players, coaches, staff, community members and the flight crew on another rainy night 50 years ago.
Gene's boy, Keith, was 9 years old. Tears well at the thought.
"When you lose someone, you never really replace them," Keith started out telling me, "so it's always on your heart."
We discussed the human obsession with round numbers. Any sports fan who grew up with ink-stained fingers and flipped to the sports section of a newspaper and studied standings and category leaders and box scores is wired the same way. We celebrate 100-yard rushers, 300-win pitchers and 1,000-point scorers. But why would 50 years of remembrance be of any greater significance than 49?
Keith found value in the 50th anniversary of his father's passing because of the outpouring of stories about Gene and the 74 other souls aboard that flight. For Keith, Novembers are to remember, and this year more attention than usual has been focused on the 75. There have been stories by national outlets and local media, including a special on Fox 11 this Saturday at 8:30 a.m., titled "A Marshall Memorial: Remembering the 75." ESPN's College Gameday will feature the Marshall football program and this week's ceremonies on their weekly show this Saturday, too. Keith also spearheaded a project at WSAZ that airs Thursday night at 7 called "A Change of Seasons: Fifty Novembers Ago." The station's special allowed Keith to travel all over, speaking to those affected by the crash, and unearthing history and providing even more permanence to the memories of those lost.
"The best part of those round numbers is to maybe tell some stories that have not been told," Keith said. "We always want to keep their memories alive. Seeing those banners on campus, we have read those names for 50 years, but I hadn't seen everybody's face. Now I know what the pilot looked like and the flight crew and the Parthenon editor. To see those faces is a first-class gesture by Marshall."
There's another gesture that has meant a great deal to Keith, too. A few years after Doc Holliday was hired as the Thundering Herd's new head coach, Doc reached out to Keith about speaking to the football team at Spring Hill Cemetery. The idea was to introduce program newcomers to Marshall University's story and the football program's history. Keith embraced the vision.
"I can't thank Doc enough and the players enough for keeping their spirit alive," Keith said. "It's been such a satisfying time. When I talk to those players at the cemetery, I tell them that the fans celebrate the wins here a little more and they mourn the losses, well, those are a little tougher on them. Football was taken away and family and friends and loved ones are gone, and there was a lot of thought about if this program would ever recover. To see it from the ground floor, to see it after that tragedy and the decision to play football, and go all the way through the eighties and nineties when they were gangbusters, to today when there's conference championships and the national rankings, that stuff – if you told the 75 people this now, they would look at you in amazement because nobody thought that was possible in 1970."
Keith's speech to the team has evolved into Marshall's annual run to the gravesite of six unidentified members of the 1970 Marshall football team and the Marshall Memorial that was erected in the cemetery. This is the site of the scene in "We Are Marshall" where Matthew McConaughey, who plays Marshall head football coach Jack Lengyel in the 2006 movie, gives an inspiring speech before the 1971 Xavier game.
The words Keith shares with the Herd players each summer morning just after sunrise are not simply based on a true story. This is the real deal, and the players sit and listen to Keith's words intently. It has a profound impact on them for the duration of their college career.
"Keith is a guy who has talked to our team more than anybody else," Holliday said. "Nobody understands the story and how it affected people like he does because he and his wife were affected directly by the crash with their family members. I'm not sure there's a guy who has a better appreciation for what Marshall means to the community, the fan base and the town."
And therein lies the reason Keith has never left Huntington, West Virginia. He says he had opportunities, but the connection with his late father and the town he left behind tugged at Keith's heart.
"Huntington is a great place," Keith said. "It's got special people. Are there bigger places? Yes. Can you make more money other places? Sure. But in my heart …"
Keith's voice started to crack as he fought back tears.
"But in my heart and mind I always thought Dad's life ended too soon," Keith continued. "I'm older now than he was when he died. I felt like maybe this is where I'm supposed to be."
Gene would be so proud.
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
