Filed under: FCS
Who lived, and who died, was as random as a pregame coin toss.
Just minutes after 10 p.m. on Oct. 29, 1960, a twin-engine World War II-era cargo plane carrying the California Polytechnic College football team began to taxi down the runway at Toledo Express Airport. That afternoon, the Mustangs had been pummeled by Bowling Green, 50-6. Now, entombed in a fog so thick that all taxi service had been suspended in Toledo for the evening, the Arctic Pacific Airlines flight accelerated blindly into the night.
Fate hinged on a row number. Sometimes less.
Bill Dauphin, a 19-year-old sophomore offensive tackle, lived. Three teammates sitting in the row in front of Dauphin, another three in the row behind, and two alongside him all died.
Fullback Carl Bowser survived. The offensive lineman who had coveted his aisle seat, pushing Bowser from behind as they boarded the plane in a successful attempt to wrest it from him, perished.
Curtis Hill, the Mustangs' NFL-caliber wide receiver, asked to switch places with the sophomore quarterback just before take-off. Hill died. The quarterback, Ted Tollner, survived.
"Whether it's fate ... there's no explanation," said Tollner, now the quarterbacks coach of the Oakland Raiders. "I don't have an answer. I don't think there are any answers."
No comments:
Post a Comment