Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in The Eagle on Oct. 3, 1970.
SILVER PLUME, Colo. — A plane carrying the top Wichita State University football players, athletic staff members and team boosters crashed and burned early Friday afternoon in rugged, snow-patched mountain country near the Continental Divide.
Twenty-nine persons, including 13 football players were believed killed.
Eleven persons, including nine football players, the plane’s co-pilot and the team trainer, were known to have survived the flight group, composed of 36 in the Wichita group and four crew members.
The unaccounted for and presumed dead included Bert Katzenmeyer, 52, WSU athletic director; head football coach Ben Wilson, 44, and Dr.