COMMENTARY | As reported by USA Today, Oklahoma State’s women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed in a plane crash in central Arkansas on Thursday. Budke and Serna were on a recruiting trip when their single-engine plane crashed near the Winona Wildlife Management Area in Arkansas. Along with Budke and Serna, the pilot and another passenger were also killed. The cause of the plane crash is still unknown.
This isn’t the first fatal plane crash to affect the university. In January 2001, 10 men who were associated with the men’s basketball team died in a plane crash in Colorado.
These plane crashes will forever be memoralized at Oklahoma State University because students and faculty never forget those tragic moments that test the strength of a university. This is the case at my university, Marshall University, which suffered a horrific plane crash in 1970 that killed Marshall’s entire football team, coaches, and several fans.
This unforgettable plane crash that killed 75 members of Marshall’s football team, coaches, and fans has been a symbol of the strength of our community, Huntington, West Virginia, and our university in the wake of such tragedy. Each year on November 14, the anniversary of the plane crash, my entire university has a memorial ceremony in which we shut off the fountain that was made as a tribute to those lives lost that fatal day, and it’s not turned back on until the following spring. In addition to the fountain, we have the “student memorial center,” a gorgeous, multi-purpose building that stands as tribute to those who died in the plane crash.
The plane crash of Marshall University’s football team was also the subject of the 2006 movie ” We Are Marshall” staring Matthew McConaughey. “We Are Marshall” is our university’s motto and it reminds us that in the face of tragedy, people are strong and no one ever forgets.
I’m sure the tragedy that occurred Thursday will be treated in the same manner at Oklahoma State. I offer my condolences.