The annual remembrance of Memorial ’70 will be held at 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 2, at the memorial sculpture at the university entrance at Alumni Drive and Hillside (18th and Hillside). The reception will be held immediately after in the lobby of Duerksen Fine Arts Center northeast of Memorial ’70.
In an annual ceremony of remembrance, a wreath is placed at Wichita State’s Memorial ’70 each Oct. 2. The brief ceremony honors WSU football players, administrators and supporters who died in a plane crash Oct. 2, 1970.
The WSU “Gold” plane, a Martin 404 carrying 36 passengers and a crew of four, crashed at approximately 3 p.m. on a mountain near Silver Plume, Colorado while enroute to Logan, Utah for a game with Utah State University. Twenty-nine persons died at the scene, while two others died later after receiving medical attention for their injuries. The WSU “Black” plane landed safely in Utah.
This time of remembrance is to acknowledge the changes that the plane crash made in the lives of the victims, their families, their friends and the university.