Here’s what I didn’t know until Sunday: The same Southern Airways charter plane was supposed to pick the Mississippi State football team up in Baton Rouge later that night to bring the Bulldogs home after a LSU game. Lewis Grubbs, Jackson dentist and star sophomore halfback of the 1970 Mississippi State team, said that they waited and waited. “That plane never came.” Southern Airways’ two-engine DC-9 DC-9 was carrying 70 passengers and a crew of five. All of the passengers and crew perished in the accident. Investigators concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error or instrument panel malfunction. State players heard about the Marshall team accident, just as their game with LSU began. The plane that crashed was not theirs until they got to the airport. While Southern Airways searched for a replacement plane, Coach Charles Shira met the team and explained the situation. The Marshall team accident was the second fatality in football-related aviation accidents during the 1970 season. A plane carrying Wichita State football team members crashed in Colorado on Oct. 2, killing 31 of the 37 passengers. The Marshall crash was the most tragic and is still remembered. The documentary “We Are Marshall” was also made. It starred Matthew McConaughey. Grubbs said, “I don’t see how anyone could watch that movie without dry eyes.” Grubbs was a native of Prentiss and was working towards his pilot’s license. Grubbs stated, “So I knew a lot about flying. Also all the statistics about how safer it was to get on an airplane than getting in your car.” “But I was just like everyone else that night. Grubbs recalls one funny moment in the entire episode. He said, “They opened the canteen at airport and let us eat whatever we wanted.” We had some friends with us, and one of them was a judge I believe. He found the liquor cabinet. He assured us that he wouldn’t get on any plane drunk that night. And he made sure he didn’t. He didn’t know he got on or off that plane.” Larry Templeton was also on the flight. Templeton was a sports information assistant and would later become the school’s athletic director. Templeton stated, “That was a long, long period, but I still remember how sad the mood was while waiting for the flight, and how quiet it was on board.” “And I also remember some players who were really scared riding back in the car with the highway patrolmen who had been with our team for the game.” Grubbs, who was really a running back, said that LSU had “popped us pretty good. We beat Oklahoma State and Georgia, and would beat Ole Miss. We had a winning record. However, I remember feeling that none of this mattered. I can recall sitting there thinking about how a whole football team, just like ours had been murdered in an instant. All those young people who had a whole new life ahead of them. It is something that I think about every time I see a Marshall Score.” *** Twenty-one year after the Marshall tragedy, Nate Ruffin was my human resources director at The Clarion Ledger. I was there at the time. Ruffin, who is now deceased, informed me that he was a Captain of the 1970 Marshall team. If not for an injury, he would have been on the disastrous flight. Ruffin was the Marshall athletic department’s phone operator, relaying the news to his friends and family. Ruffin attended eight funerals and memorial services. He was a part of the 1971 Marshall football team that won three championships, as shown in the movie. The worst assignment: Ruffin was asked by the morgue to identify dead bodies. Ruffin said that these people, these strong, young men were reduced to the size and shape of dolls. Ruffin recognized his best friend by the jewelry he wore. Ruffin had nightmares for many years. Strangely, he felt guilty. “Why them? Why not me? It doesn’t make sense, but you think: I should have been there.” Ruffin explained to me that he had spent 12 years in numbing his self with alcohol and drugs. He then came out of that dark period while delivering a speech at a tribute to his fallen colleagues. He said that he wept openly for the first time since the tragedy. He said it was a spiritual cleansing, and healing. He spent the majority of his adult life helping others. Nate Ruffin was a friendly, big man. He was solid like a rock. In 2001, he died from leukemia. He is buried with six of his teammates in Huntington — six who were not able to be identified.