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Fate saved Bobby Bowden from dying in Marshall plane crash 50 years ago | Commentary

With the 50th anniversary of the horrific plane crash that killed nearly the entire Marshall football team coming up on Saturday, I’m reminded of some of the sad, surreal stories I heard when the Sentinel sent me to Huntington, W.Va., to do a story on the 30-year anniversary of the tragedy.

Two of the most poignant accounts came from a couple of coaches with Florida State connections — Bobby Bowden and Red Dawson — who might have died 50 years ago if fate had not intervened.

Bowden could have easily been the head coach of that Marshall football team when it went down in a Southern Airways DC-9 on Nov.