Thanks to Nate Olson of Simmons Bank for his help on this story. For more, please go to our Simmons Bank blog at www.beyondthebank.com.
Thousands of Arkansans have memories of University of Arkansas football games they’ve attended through the years at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Those who were there on Oct. 24, 1970, will never forget when the Wichita State Shockers came to town.
As far as football games go, Arkansas’ game against Alcorn State from Mississippi at War Memorial Stadium this Saturday likely won’t be memorable.
But a ceremony on the field should be.
Surviving members of Wichita State’s 1970 football team will attend the Arkansas-Alcorn State game. A plane crash that killed 31 people is at the heart of this story.
Why Arkansas?
Why Little Rock?
Why War Memorial Stadium?
Read on.
Chuck Dicus, a former Razorback and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, now heads the Arkansas Game & Fish Foundation in Little Rock. A business associate met a former Wichita State football player named John Potts, and they began talking about what happened in 1970. The business associate mentioned her conversation to Dicus this spring and said he should reach out to Potts.
Dicus called, and the idea of a reunion with both teams in attendance was born.
On Oct. 2, 1970, two chartered planes left Wichita to carry the Wichita State football team to a game in Logan, Utah, against Utah State.
Most of the starters were on what was known as the Gold plane.
Others were on what was known as the Black plane.
Olson picks up the story at that point: Continue reading here…