IT'S BEEN CALLED college football's forgotten tragedy. Why? Because it took place 50 years ago. Because Wichita State ended its football program in 1986. Because just six weeks later, a Southern Airways DC-9 carrying Marshall University's football team never made it to the runway during its final descent, killing all 75 passengers and crew on board and forming the basis for the 2006 feature film "We Are Marshall," starring Matthew McConaughey. Maybe that's why so many haven't heard about what happened to the Wichita State University Gold Plane, which crashed into Mount Trelease 10,750 feet above sea level and burned, claiming the lives of 31 of its 40 passengers and crew. Fourteen of those killed were starters on the WSU football team, and the horror was front-page news across the nation. "Mom, I'm alive -- it's a miracle," one player would say into a pay phone. "My buddies are all dead."
