HUNTINGTON, WV (WOWK) — An author with ties to the tragic 1970 Southern Airways Flight 932 crash that took the lives 75 people, including members of Marshall University’s Thundering Herd, will be joining the 53rd annual Memorial Fountain Ceremony at the university’s Huntington campus.

At the ceremony, Craig T. Greenlee will share his perspective on the crash and its effects.

While Greenlee was not a member of the Marshall football team at the time of the incident, he was briefly one before the crash and still had friends from his time on the team, according to a Marshall press release.

After the crash, in the spring of 1971, he wanted to show his support by rejoining the team.

“I even got my starting position back as a safety,” Greenlee said. “But once preseason practice started with the Young Thundering Herd in August ’71, I knew time had come for me to hang up the cleats for good. I turned in my gear and never looked back.”

Years later, in 2011, Greenlee wrote the book “November Ever After: A memoir of tragedy and triumph in the wake of the 1970 Marshall football plane crash” as a response to the film “We Are Marshall,” wanting to tell a more true version of the story.

“There’s no question in my mind that the plane crash averted what could have been a bloody race riot at Marshall,” Greenlee said. “The situation was just that volatile, but the crash was so shocking, any beef between blacks and whites became meaningless. The hurt and devastation was all-encompassing.”

“Just like we share the same air, we share the same sorrow and we share the same sense of wonderment and satisfaction in seeing how the football program has not only survived, but thrived.”

A livestream of the Memorial Fountain Ceremony, along with additional information, can be found on the Marshall University website.