🌾The Truth about the End of Shocker Football

November 13, 2024 | Sign Up | Support Us

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The Truth about the End of Shocker Football

Most people have heard about the tragic plane crash that killed half of the members of the 1970 Wichita state football team.

Most people also assume that is why WSU doesn’t have a football team today.

What if I told you that wasn’t the reason?

That the shockers played an additional 16 seasons after the 1970 season accident before pulling the plug.

Let’s dive in.

Wichita State Football

The Wichita State Shockers fielded a football team from 1897 to 1986.

They started out as the Fairmount Wheatshockers from 1897 to 1925 before the change was made to the Wichita Shockers in 1926.

The first game was a 12-4 victory over Wichita High School (now Wichita East).

In 1905, the first night football game this side of the Mississippi (I love this phrase) was played thanks to the Coleman Company setting up temporary gas-powered lighting against Cooper College (now the Sterling Warriors).

The Plane Crash Tragedy

Fast forward to October 2, 1970.

Two planes were on their way to a game against Utah State University when one of the planes crashed, killing 31 people (29 were killed at the scene, 2 later died of injuries, 6 survived).

The plane crashed into a mountain 8 miles west of Silver Plume due to pilot errors such as poor in-flight decisions and inadequate pre-flight planning. Before the crash, several witnesses noticed how unusually low the aircraft was flying towards the Continental Divide.

The game was cancelled and Utah State held a memorial service at the location of the cancelled-game and a memorial was held back home at Cessna Stadium.

After the NCAA and MVC allowed freshman players to fill in the squad (not allowed nationwide until 1972), the remaining members of the team continued the 1970 season calling it “The Second Season”.

Six weeks after the WSU crash, Marshall University also suffered a tragedy when the team was returning from a game in North Carolina (as depicted in the Matthew McConaughey movie We Are Marshall).

You can still visit the site in Colorado, located adjacent to westbound Interstate 70, at Dry Gulch at milepost 217 (39.6965°N 105.8736°W), about two miles (3 km) east of the Eisenhower Tunnel.

AllTrails has great directions to the crash site.

Our friend Travel with a Wise Guy made a video about hiking the trail:

Many people think this was the end of Shocker football, but they continued to play not just the rest of the 1970 season, but for the next 16 years.

Post-Plane Crash

Wichita State went 0-9 for the 1970 season.

From 1971 to 1986, the Shockers compiled an overall record of 53 wins, 111 losses, and 2 ties.

The only winning season was in 1982 when they finished in 8-3. This season brought a glimmer of hope under Coach Willie Jeffries, the first African American head coach of a NCAA D1-A football program at a predominately white college. The attendance even increased a bit up to 23,000 that season before dropping off again as they struggled in subsequent seasons.

The average attendance was less than 9,700 per game, second lowest at Cessna Stadium since 1969 (before the plane crash). At the time, Cessna Stadium had a capacity of 31,500 people.

Cancelling the Program

(Wichita State Played #5 Arizona State in their final season)

On December 2, 1986, Wichita State President Warren Armstrong told the Coach and players the university was indefinitely.

This came as a surprise to the team.

The decision was made due to the deficit spending for the program and the recommendations of a consulting company that began studying the athletic department in April.

The consulting company, Synergos, essentially found football would bring down the whole athletic dept if it was not dropped. Boosters would have to contribute $3.6 million ($10.36 million in 2024 dollars) to save the program - $2.5 million towards debt retirement and $1.1 million towards improving funding for the team and facilities.

The team lost $839,000 in 1986 ($2.4 million in 2024 dollars) - $667k in revenue and $1.5 million in expenses.

Fortunately, scholarship commitments would be honored for the players and the school helped those transfer that wanted to.

Although 12,000 season tickets were sold, many were bought at reduced rates by corporations and people just didn’t go to the games.

The Future of Wichita State Football

Ted Lasso might be the only person who can revive the program.

Although there hasn’t been a game since 1986, that hasn’t stopped people from trying to resurrect the program.

1992 - a study was done on Cessna Stadium and showed it would take $24 million in improvements to comply with I-A football standards
1997 - the cost was cited at $11 million to restart the football program and three other women's sports
1998 - an advisory committee at Wichita State recommended reinstating the football program at Wichita State after a 15-month study for $70,000.
2006 - Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans proposed to use public funds to restart the football program at Wichita State. He would subsequently drop the plan weeks later
2012 - an attempt was made to begin a club-level football team at Wichita State with hopes of eventually reviving the football program, though no official endorsement was given by the university.
2016 - Wichita State released a results form an extensive study about bringing the program back. High level numbers include $21-28 million for Cessna Stadium renovations (which are already happening), a new practice facility for $20 million, $6 million including travel, athletic equipment, conference membership. There are also the costs of bringing female sports to life since Title IX requires there to be an equal male-to-female ratio among student-athletes. WSU President Bardo even shared this image to twitter:

2017 - WSU moved from the Missouri Valley to the American Athletic Conference where it was / is the only full member of the conference which does not play football. However, the American has 14 football-playing schools, with Army and Navy as associate members for football only.

That brings us to 2024. Will we ever field a team again? That remains to be seen.

Cessna Stadium is currently under renovations to help make it a better destination, like collegiate track and KSHSAA state track tournament.

Alternatively, some people have made it a point to keep the Shockers front of mind..digitally. Reddit user U/Alternative_Menu_453 put some extensive thought into multiple unis and using past inspiration. Check out his post and how much detail went into it.