Posted by
Billy email MADBillyD@aol.com on Friday, December 26, 2008 2:27:00 PM
Exactly how high the plane got off the ground is hard to say. No one could really be sure that foggy night in Ohio nearly a half-century ago. Some folks swear the old C-46, a leftover from World War II, never lifted off at all.
Ted Tollner, a quarterback at Cal Poly, was sitting over the left wing, on the side where the engine gave out.
"After we hit, it was all a blur," he said.
The Arctic-Pacific charter split in two and caught on fire Oct. 29, 1960, at Toledo Express Airport. It was the first airline crash involving a U.S. sports team. Of the 22 people killed, there were 16 Cal Poly players, a manager and a booster.
The next year, with support from Bob Hope and a blessing from President Kennedy, a game took place at the Los Angeles Coliseum to offset burial costs, pay medical expenses and set up an educational fund for the victims' families and survivors.
They called it the Mercy Bowl.
A crowd of more than 33,000 turned out to see Fresno State beat Bowling Green, 36-6, that Thanksgiving Day in 1961. Check eBay, and it's easy to find ticket stubs -- stamped with "Benefit Cal Poly Plane Crash Fund" -- and souvenir programs for sale.
Tollner was there as a spectator, still nursing the right ankle smashed in the accident. He went to a life of coaching in the NFL and college, always wondering why he was allowed to survive.
Shortly before the flight, Curtis Hill asked Tollner to switch seats. The gifted receiver became ill on the trip to play at Bowling Green, and he figured he'd do better near the front of the plane going back home to San Luis Obispo.
Tollner traded, moving back a few rows. Minutes later, the pilot, flying with a license that had been revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration, tried to take off.
"I was pretty much the cutoff," said Tollner, now the quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers. "About 100 percent of the people sitting in front of me were killed. Curtis was one of them. The people in my row and back mostly survived."
"A lot of things go through your mind when you get an extra bonus of 48 years to live. Why me?
(It is too bad they don't play a bowl game today for some kind of cause. Read more on this story Mercy Bowl remembered.)
