<P> Matthew McConaughey stars as head coach Jack Lengyel, with Matthew Fox as assistant coach William "Red" Dawson, David Strathairn as university president Donald Dedmon, and Robert Patrick as ill - fated Marshall head coach Rick Tolley . Then - governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue has a cameo role as an East Carolina University football coach . </P> <P> It was scored by Christophe Beck and written by Jamie Linden . The film addressed rebuilding the program and the healing that the community undergoes . Dr. Keith Spears was the Marshall University consultant . </P> <P> On the evening of November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932, a McDonnell Douglas DC - 9 chartered by Marshall University to transport the Thundering Herd football team back to Huntington, West Virginia following their 17--14 defeat to the East Carolina University Pirates, clips trees on a ridge just one mile short of the runway at Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia, and crashes into a nearby gully, killing all 75 people on board . </P> <P> The deceased include the 37 players; head coach Rick Tolley and five members of his coaching staff; Charles E. Kautz, Marshall's athletics director; team athletic trainer Jim Schroer and his assistant, Donald Tackett; sports information director and radio play - by - play announcer Gene Morehouse; 25 boosters; and five crew members . </P>

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