THE NIGHT IT RAINED TEARS : Sunday Is 10th Anniversary of Crash That Killed Evansville Basketball Team

A foggy, drizzling night 10 year ago was “the night it rained tears” for those who remember the plane crash that killed the entire University of Evansville basketball team.

A memorial plaza with a fountain and a plaque listing the names of the victims are about the only reminders on the campus of the Methodist school. A service will be held Sunday to mark the anniversary, and memories of the crash remain crystal clear for some people.

Coach Bobby Watson, his 14 players, 11 team friends and the plane’s crew of three died Dec. 13, 1977, when their chartered DC-3 crashed shortly after takeoff from Evansville’s Dress Regional Airport.

“I will never forget the night of the crash. It rained, and it rained the next two days,” said Philip Ott, a UE professor of philosophy and religion. “And that rain was really symbolic of the tears that fell on our campus, and it was not until Sunday that the sun came out.”

Ott said he mentions the tragedy in some of his courses. “I frequently tell them, if they talk to their mom and dad, they can tell you where they were when (President John F.) Kennedy was shot,” Ott said. “And some of my students from Evansville can tell you where they were when they heard about the crash.”

Ott gave the prayer at a memorial service the morning after the accident, and talked about it at commencement five months later.

“It’s appropriate that we come back to remember this moment in time because it was a moment of loss,” he said of the anniversary. “Certainly loss ought to make us more appreciative about the life that we have and ought to make us cherish relationships more.”

Ott’s son, Stephen, gave a hint of how the university might respond to the accident, the professor said. The boy, who had attended a basketball camp run by Watson the previous summer, heard of the crash and approached his father.

“My son came in and said, ‘Is Bobby Watson dead?’ and I said yes. And he said, ‘Is (senior) Kevin Kingston dead?’ And I said yes. And he went right down the list from there of people he had met in the basketball camp and knew from the team.

“And I remember with his fists clenched this little 11-year-old boy said, ‘Sometimes, I doubt God,’ ” Ott said. “I’ll never forget that boy that night, and how much that’s like all of us at some times, in that tragedy makes us question whether there is any meaning or order to life.”

The Aces were 1-3 at the time of the crash, and had just moved up to NCAA Division I status that year. Watson was not the first choice to succeed the legendary Arad McCutchan, who had retired after 31 years and five Division II national championships.

Jerry Sloan, who starred for the Aces in the mid-1960s and the Chicago Bulls of the NBA, originally accepted the job, but backed out shortly afterward.

Sloan had seen the team when it came to Chicago about 10 days before the crash to play DePaul. “Bobby Watson called me and said, ‘I’d like you to stop by (at a team reception with alumni after the game).’ I got there and they were getting on the bus, so I got on and had a few words with them.”

The team had suffered some losses, Sloan recalled. “I said, ‘You gotta hang in there, you guys are going to be all right. Keep your heads up.’ ”

Sloan, now an assistant with the Utah Jazz, heard about the crash after an NBA game in Chicago. “It was really upsetting. It was a shocking thing to have to deal with. You get that terrible feeling in your stomach, and when you talk about it the same thing starts to come back.”

Evansville canceled the remainder of its 1977-78 season and returned the following year with a program rebuilt with transfers. The NCAA waived its normal restrictions on transfer students playing in their first year because of the crash.

Federal investigators later determined that the craft was tail-heavy because of improper loading and was unflyable because the crew failed to remove outside control locks from the elevators and rudder. The craft slammed into a muddy hillside only seconds after takeoff.

Among those who have difficulty talking about the night of the crash is Thorton Patberg, who was vice president for student affairs and had to help identify victims.

“It was foggy that night and very drizzly,” said Patberg, now vice president for development. He and university athletic director Jim Byers heard the news and went to a music recital to tell university President Wallace B. Graves.

The victims’ bodies were brought to a downtown community center by railroad car. That night, Patberg and Graves began calling parents and other relatives.

The twin-engine propeller plane, chartered from National Jet Service of Indianapolis, was en route to Nashville, Tenn. The Aces were scheduled to play Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro the next night, a Saturday.

Most legal actions resulting from the crash were settled out of court within three years. Most families received settlements from National Jet’s insurer in early 1978 of between $40,000 and $60,000. The families of three players in a separate out-of-court settlement in 1980 received $75,000 each.

Donations from friends of the team poured in. More than $330,000 was eventually raised for burial of victims, a bus to transport athletic teams, scholarships, the campus memorial and renovation of Roberts Stadium, where the team plays its home games.

The campus memorial this weekend was to be part of the regular Sunday interdenominational service at the school’s chapel.

The Rev. John Brittain, the university chaplain, was not at Evansville in 1977 but said the memorial will have meaning for faculty and staffers who were. Brittain said he will preach from the 77th Psalm:

“The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; thy arrows flashed on every side.

“The crash of thy thunder was in the whirlwind; thy lightenings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.

” . . . Yet thy footprints were unseen. Thou didst lead thy people like a flock . . . “