1970 - Shockers Football Team Crash

On October 2, 1970, the first, or “gold” plane (the twin plane to the second, or black, plane) carrying players and staff of the WSU football team took off from a Colorado airport after refueling, bound for Logan, Utah for a game against Utah State University. It flew into a mountain valley too narrow to enable it to turn back and smashed into a mountainside, killing 31 of the 40 players, administrators, and fans near a ski resort 40 miles (64 km) away from Denver. President Richard Nixon sent the president of the university a note which read, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to you in this time of sorrow.”