Among the victims were 36 Marshall football players. In the first season after the crash, Marshall won just two games. The plane crash redefined comebacks and helped shape the identity of the public university that serves 13,000 students in Huntington. Everyone on board perished: 36 football players, 39 coaches, school administrators, community leaders, boosters and the flight crew. Those not on the Marshall plane have spent the last five decades dealing with heartache, self-doubt and unanswerable questions about why they were spared.