On This Date in Sports December 13, 1977: The Evansville Basketball Tragedy
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
Just four games into their first Division I season, the University of Evansville suffers a tragedy when their basketball team is killed in a plane crash. The Purple Aces, who won one of their first four games, was flying to Nashville to face Middle Tennessee. Their flight crashed shortly after takeoff at Evansville Regional Airport. The pilot failed to remove the gust locks, which threw off the flight's balance when the overloaded luggage compartment shifted. The crash killed all 29 on board.
The University of Evansville was among the top basketball teams in Division II. They won the Division II tournament five times (1959, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1971). Among the stars was future Hall of Famer Jerry Sloan, who played on the 1964 and 1965 championship teams. Arad McCutchen had been Evansville’s coach for 31 years but chose to retire when the Aces moved up to Division I. Jerry Sloan, who had just retired from the Chicago Bulls, was offered the job to be the coach at Evansville but turned it down, looking to coach in the NBA. Bobby Watson, an assistant at Oral Roberts, eventually took the job.
Evansville began their inaugural with an 82-72 to Western Kentucky at home on November 30th. Following a 94-71 road loss against DePaul, the Purple Aces won their first game in Division I on December 3rd, beating Pittsburgh 90-83 at Roberts Municipal Stadium. The Aces' next pair of games were on the road. They were crushed by Larry Bird’s Indiana State 102-76. Their next game was to be at Middle Tennessee.
Bobby Watson was the only coach on the flight. His three assistant coaches Mark Sandy, Bernie Simpson, and Stafford Stephenson, were on scouting assignments. The players that were killed in the crash were freshman guard Warren Aston, freshman forward Ray Comandella, Mike Duff a freshman forward, Kraig Heckendorn a freshman guard, Mike Joyner a freshman guard, senior guard Kevin Kingston, freshman forward Barney Lewis, junior guard Steve Miller, sophomore center Keith Moon, freshman forward Mark Siegel, freshman guard Gregg Smith, junior forward Bryan Taylor, senior guard John Ed Washington and senior Tony Winburn. The 14 players and coach were joined by 11 staff members and three crew members who were all killed in the crash.
One player was not on the flight; freshman David Furr was out for the season with an ankle injury. In a scene out of the Final Destination film franchise, Furr died two weeks later in a car accident. A memorial known as “The Weeping Basketball” was constructed for the team on campus. The remainder of Evansville’s season was canceled.
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The Purple Aces returned to the court in 1978 with Dick Walters as the team’s new coach. They would post a record of 13-16. Walters would be the Purple Aces coach until 1985, leading them to their first tournament appearance in 1982.