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'Marshall' film has special meaning to Florida coach

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The guests had just started to arrive at the Bowden home in Morgantown, W.Va., on the night of Nov. 14, 1970, when the grim scenes of a plane crash started flashing across the television screen.

Everyone, including West Virginia University's president, athletic director and assistant coaches, stopped and stared in disbelief.

As he did after every home game, West Virginia's 41-year-old coach, Bobby Bowden, hosted a party. But on this night, the Mountaineers' 28-19 upset of Syracuse in the season finale suddenly meant nothing.

"Everybody gathered, standing around — not sitting — standing around the television," Bowden said Wednesday.

The plane, carrying coaches, players and boosters back from Marshall University's football game at East Carolina, crashed on approach near a mountaintop airport outside of Huntington, W.Va., about 200 miles southwest of Morgantown. All 75 passengers died.

Though they were not fierce rivals because of the difference in the schools' sizes, Marshall and West Virginia had the state's two biggest football programs and shared many friendships.

Friday, "We Are Marshall," the story about that tragic day and the rebirth of the Marshall program in 1971, will open in theaters across the country. The movie recounts the tragedy's impact on Marshall and the community as well as the school's difficult decision to resume the football program.

Bowden, who is portrayed in the movie, received an advance DVD last week.

"It is big-time, all the way," said Bowden, who left the Mountaineers to become Florida State's coach in 1976.

Bowden knew many of the people on that plane, including some of the coaches and players he had recruited.

"They started scrolling the names, those killed on the plane, like they do today when they list scores," Bowden said. "Everybody was looking to see if they knew anybody."

Bowden was looking for one name in particular. Red Dawson played receiver at Florida State from 1962-64 and was a co-captain along with Fred Biletnikoff in 1964.

His position coach for his final two seasons: Bobby Bowden.

Dawson was an assistant coach at Marshall in 1970, but he wasn't on the plane. A handful of assistants, including Dawson, were scheduled for a recruiting trip after the game and drove back to Huntington.

Dawson assisted new coach Jack Lengyel the next season in the school's attempt to continue playing football. Before the season, Marshall's coaches, knowing they had limited talent on the roster, decided the Houston Veer offense would fit their players. The only team they knew of that ran the offense was West Virginia, and Bowden was the brains behind the Mountaineers' veer.

Even though West Virginia was somewhat of a rival, Dawson and Lengyel decided to ask Bowden for help, and it is depicted in the movie.

"I thought nothing of it, not one bit," said Bowden, who knew Lengyel from his association with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. "Right now coaches come in every spring and stay with us for two days. We won't let anyone come in who we play, but if we don't play them, we will do it."

Bowden handed over his playbook, film and West Virginia's film room, and Dawson and Lengyel stayed for about three days.

The Bowden scene is among the favorites of "We are Marshall" screenwriter Jamie Linden — and for good reason. Linden, 27, is a Winter Park native who graduated from Florida State in 2001.

"I think if it had been Bear Bryant or Woody Hayes or one of the other legendary coaches, I would have still used it in the movie,'' Linden said Wednesday from Los Angeles. "It illustrates the larger reactions from the rest of the college football community, which was by and large supportive.

"But, yeah, putting coach Bowden in the movie was a huge part of my bias.''

Bowden received advance pages of the script for his approval and found one problem.

"He was scripted as using the Lord's name in vain, at one point, and Bobby circled it and said, 'I wouldn't say this,' " Linden said. "We changed it, happily.''

Mike Pniewski, whose credits include the movie "Miami Vice" and an episode of "The Sopranos," plays the role of Bowden.

"I think he did a great job,'' said Linden, who has attended eight straight Florida State bowl games. "He was smart enough not to go for an emulation of Bowden, not to throw in any 'dadgummits'. He has three scenes, so he probably even underplayed it a little bit.''

What the movie does not mention is that Bowden was offered the Marshall job two years before the crash and could have been on that plane. Linden said he purposely omitted that because he felt people would not have believed such a coincidence.

"I was the offensive coordinator at West Virginia and I wanted a job at a bigger school," said Bowden, who also turned down Louisville that same year. "They were not the powers they are now."

Rick Tolley eventually was named Marshall's coach.

"That's the first thing I thought, 'What if I had taken that job? I would have been on that plane,' " Bowden said. "It makes you think about why you make some of the decisions you do."

Two decades later Bowden had similar thoughts after hearing about another plane crash that took the life of a fellow coach.

In 1979, LSU was looking for a coach and went after Bowden. After seriously considering the offer, Bowden decided to stay at Florida State.

The Tigers hired Bo Rein. Less than two months later, in January 1980, Rein died when his plane crashed during a recruiting trip.

Bowden remains friends with Lengyel and Dawson. Dawson, who lives in West Virginia, visits Bowden every year and the two always play a round of golf.

"We talk about old times," Bowden said. "Our conversations are very pleasant."

Tom D'Angelo writes for the Palm Beach Post.