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Marshall U. hopes a movie will make its nameA new film by Warner Brothers
tells the story of a football team's rebound
Officials at Marshall University are optimistic that a new movie about its 1970s football program will bring more students and more money to the campus. H. Keith Spears (left), vice president for marketing and communications: "The community would never forgive me if we didn't take advantage of this opportunity." People at Marshall University would rather not think about the first round of headlines after November 14, 1970. On that stormy Saturday night, 37 Thundering Herd football players, eight coaches, 25 university officials and fans, and five crew members boarded an airplane to fly home after a tough loss at East Carolina University. A mile short of the Tri-State Airport, in Huntington, W.Va., all 75 died in what remains one of the worst accidents in college-sports history. Last year Marshall held a well-attended memorial service for the 35th anniversary of the crash. Now, on the 36th anniversary, the event is generating some good news for the university. After numerous inquiries over the years, a major studio, Warner Brothers, has produced a feature film about the tragedy, We Are Marshall, scheduled for general release on December 22. A spike in national interest will almost certainly follow. And for an institution of 14,000 students that focuses on regional needs and does not typically draw from a national pool, that raises some questions. Will the movie help attract more athletes from across the country? Will it trigger a rise in applications and out-of-state admissions? Could it spur alumni to make bigger gifts? And — gulp — what if the movie stinks? Marshall officials do not know the answers, but they are not sitting around waiting for a miracle come Christmas. Considering the tragedy on which the movie is based, Marshall officials shun words like "capitalize," but everyone, including football coaches, those who raise funds, and the president, believes that the university will benefit from having its name on the big screen, and they are preparing to take advantage of the excitement the film has created. Indeed, the chance to "brand" Marshall is too great to pass up, says H. Keith Spears, the university's vice president for marketing and communications. He points out that although many campuses have provided settings for motion pictures, few universities have had their name in a film's title. "We realize that a multimillion-dollar commercial, in some respects, is being produced here," says Mr. Spears, a 1970 Marshall graduate. "The community would never forgive me if we didn't take advantage of this opportunity." Bouncing Back The movie does not focus on the crash, but on its aftermath: how Huntington mourned, and how a cobbled-together team of freshmen and junior-varsity players won Marshall's first game of the 1971 season, on a last-second touchdown. The theme is perseverance, and persevere they did: Marshall went on to win 114 of 139 games in the 1990s and successfully jumped from Division I-AA to I-A. Marshall students got their first glimpse of the film this fall, when the movie's trailer made its debut at halftime of a home football game. The two-and-a-half-minute spot opens with the 1970 team and coaches relaxing on the plane after their game — before a loud rupture leaves the screen black. Rescue workers run through the burning woods where the plane crashed, finding no survivors. After Huntington lays the players to rest, the university talks of axing football. But the campus and the town rally behind the team, gathering outside administrators' offices and chanting "We are . . . Marshall!" and the program is spared. Marshall's fans broke into a standing ovation seconds before the clip ended. One alumna said the applause was the loudest she had ever heard in the stadium. The university's football coaches made sure they had dozens of recruits in the stands to see the footage. One prospect, John N. Bruhin, a high-school defensive tackle from Powell, Tenn., says that until he saw the trailer he "didn't know how big the movie was going to be." Following the trailer, Mr. Bruhin says, Marshall coaches described the football program's history and how the program had to rebuild from the crash. Two days after his visit to the campus, Mr. Bruhin committed to play for the Thundering Herd next season. He plans to catch the movie with a teammate who is also considering playing at Marshall. "Seeing it's going to pump me up even more," he says. To capture that excitement, Marshall coaches are delaying some recruiting efforts so they can direct prospects to the film as it plays in theaters nationwide. The athletics department has also incorporated pictures from the movie and the "We are ... Marshall!" slogan into its promotional material for other sports — though athletics officials say the football team is likely to benefit the most. Michael B. Cummings, Marshall's football-recruiting coordinator, believes that the film's national reach will give the university access to players beyond the mid-Atlantic and Southern states from which it normally draws. "If we're trying to recruit a player from California," he says, "it will help that especially." Campuswide Benefits But university officials note that athletes represent a finite audience — and officials are banking that the film will help more than their sports program. Several other departments are trading on the movie to bolster Marshall's image, attract new students, increase alumni participation — and, they hope, provide a spike in donations and pad the university's modest $75-million endowment. To anticipate the movie's wider impact, university officials have closely watched how other institutions have benefited from films in which they are featured. They point to Disney's Glory Road, released this year, an inspirational movie about the 1966 University of Texas at El Paso national-championship men's basketball team. El Paso received a significant boost from the movie, and Marshall officials see the same opportunity. "The question is how long that opportunity can be sustained," says Rae M. Goldsmith, vice president for communications and marketing for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. "A movie alone won't sustain that interest." It's a small window, she says, and to reap benefits Marshall has to focus on a few constituencies, be they long-lost alumni, prospective students, or large donors: "Institutions can't afford to target the whole nation." Marshall's admissions officials have not planned any direct-mail campaigns tied to the movie, but, like the athletics department, they are using the "We are ... Marshall!" slogan on all of their recruiting materials. In anticipation of a deluge of inquiries, admissions officials plan to keep a full staff over winter break. To prepare for a bump in traffic on its Web site, the university has increased the bandwidth capacity of its home page, which includes a link to the movie. Still, inquiries do not offer any guarantees, and Marshall officials are also focusing on the pockets of their alumni. Many alumni are already revved up about Marshall's football program and the national notoriety the film is bringing. When news of the movie broke, the university had to set up a hot line, literally overnight, to accommodate calls, many of which came from Marshall graduates. Last spring during filming, 17,000 people — twice as many as usual — showed up for Marshall's annual intrasquad football game to preview the next year's team. Marshall's president, Stephen J. Kopp, has been calling on alumni chapters to stir interest in the film. In August, just before football season kicked off, he flew to Southern California and bought a fancy dinner for 80 alumni, bringing along executives from Warner Brothers, the movie's producers. Later the university paid to fly a dozen alumni-chapter presidents to Huntington for the premiere of the trailer. The president has also met privately with some potential donors, hoping to use the excitement around the film to bring in donations. The Marshall University Foundation, which manages gifts to the university, is being more circumspect. "We're not going to be overtly going out and trying to capitalize on this — we'll be going out quietly and, hopefully, tastefully," says John K. Kinzer, the foundation's interim director. But to court donors, he plans to add three new members to his staff of five in the next few months. Millions in Free Publicity The foundation is rolling out the red carpet — or possibly one in Thundering Herd green — for the movie's Huntington premiere on December 12. In three weeks during October, the foundation sold nearly 600 seats, at $1,000 apiece, to a black-tie gala for selected alumni. By the time the curtain lifts, they expect to have sold nearly $2-million in tickets. Marshall will keep pursuing those donors who attend the premiere, since they have shown that they are willing to spend. As Mr. Kinzer says, "It's an indication that they might be serious." Companies hoping to cash in on the film are also, in effect, raising money for Marshall. Nike has started producing "We are ... Marshall!" shirts, which will be distributed nationally. According to its contract with the Collegiate Licensing Company, Marshall will earn 8.5 cents on every sales dollar, a higher percentage than many big universities get. Plus, with the university's name appearing more often than ever in national print publications, Marshall officials estimate it has received millions of dollars of free publicity. And come spring, Warner Brothers plans to release a two-disc version of We Are Marshall: one disc with the movie, another with an existing documentary about the university. Commercials do go awry sometimes — that is, they fail to promote their product as intended. Though backed by a major studio, there is no guarantee that the film will succeed, artistically or financially. Mr. Spears says the movie will have a positive impact even if it doesn't win an Oscar — but he has fanciful hopes. "I want to be able to walk down the street, and when I say to someone, 'We are ... ' I want people to complete that sentence for us," he says. "We are Marshall."
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