by Bobby Bowden
First published 2015
Red Dawson stands among the few Marshall University football coaches who didn't board Southern Airways Flight 932 in November 1970. The plane crashes en route to Huntington, West Virginia, killing all seventy-five people aboard, including players, coaches, boosters, and crew. The tragedy destroys the entire football program. Red faces survivor's guilt that will plague him for decades. He must now help rebuild a team from scratch using mostly freshmen and walk-ons in 1971. School administrators pressure him while he struggles with confusion and harassment. Red battles seemingly impossible obstacles that existed before the crash and new difficulties that emerge afterward. Heated tensions develop between him and university officials as they attempt to resurrect the devastated program. Red becomes the bridge connecting tragedy to the program's eventual rebirth. The Marshall Thundering Herd will become the most successful NCAA Division I team of the 1990s. Red carries the weight of the worst sports air disaster in American history for nearly fifty years.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, sports, american-history
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, overcoming-adversity
Setting: Huntington, Marshall University, West Virginia
Period: 1970s, 1990s
260 pages · Hardcover · Sports Publishing