[3] 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 aboard.

The deceased include the 37 players; head coach Rick Tolley and five members of his coaching staff; Charles E. Kautz, Marshall's athletic 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.

The new team is composed mostly of the 18 returning players(three varsity, 15 sophomores), incoming freshmans, and walk-on athletes from other Marshall sports programs.

Due to their lack of experience, the "Young Thundering Herd" ends up losing its first game, 29–6, to the Morehead State Eagles.

Hours after the victory a grief-stricken Coach Dawson remains in the team's locker room, in disbelief over the Herd's first win since the crash.

John G. Barker was hired as the school's president in early 1971, and started work on March 1, 1971, so Dedmon's firing because of Marshall's return to the football field is inaccurate.

Penn State assistant coach Bob Phillips was a close acquaintance of athletic director McMullen, but took his name out of consideration after visiting Marshall.

In October 2008, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in a summary judgment in favor of Warner Bros.[9] We Are Marshall received mixed reviews from critics.

The site's consensus states: "Matthew McConaughey almost runs We Are Marshall to the end zone, but can't stop it from taking the easy, feel-good route in memorializing this historic event in American sports.

Roger Moore from the Orlando Sentinel gave it 4 stars out of 5 and said in his review that "We Are Marshall (it's the rally cry of the team) doesn't always have a handle on the grief, but it does keep emotions close to the surface.