John Raby

After a plane crash killed most of the Marshall University football team 50 years ago, the simplest choice for school leaders would have been to drop the sport altogether. It was the worst sports disaster in U.S. history. But school officials couldn't bring themselves to eliminate the team. From the 75 lives lost, the program slowly rebuilt and eventually triumphed. A half-century later, those who lived through the tragedy remember the feeling that they had to keep playing. On Friday, the university will mark the anniversary of the crash by awarding posthumous degrees to the players who were killed.