UE to commemorate 29 lost in 1977 plane crash

EVANSVILLE — The University of Evansville will hold a public memorial at noon Dec. 13 to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the 1977 plane crash that killed 14 UE men's basketball players and 15 others with them.

The service will be held at Memorial Plaza on UE's campus, located directly behind Olmsted Hall. It will include an invocation, a special message, the reading of names of the 29 who perished and a moment of silence to remember them.

The service will be open to the campus community and public.

More: REMEMBERING THE ACES: 1977 UE plane crash

The crash and attendant deaths, considered one of the most shocking and tragic events in Evansville's history, occurred on the night of December 13, 1977. The 1977-78 UE men's basketball team, coaches and staff and others had boarded a chartered DC-3 plane for a game against Middle Tennessee State University the next day in Nashville, TN.

Ninety seconds after take-off the plane crashed, killing 29. Every person on board the plane died: 14 UE basketball players, head coach Bobby Watson, two trainers, well-known local broadcaster Marv Bates, UE athletic staff and fans, two employees of the charter plane company and three flight crew members.

More: Remembering the Aces: 1977-78 season brought optimism, then tragedy

Federal investigators blamed the disaster on flight crew negligence.

"46 years later, we remember each life that was taken much too early," stated UE's announcement of next week's memorial.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: UE to commemorate 29 lost in 1977 plane crash