Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Air Tragedy Remembered

It has been nearly 40 years now, so the wounds have healed over, like an old Sequoia growing steadily around an old burn.

Thirty-nine years ago today, a brooding Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football team boarded its chartered C-46 airplane at Toledo, Ohio. The Mustangs had been beaten that afternoon at Bowling Green University, 50-6.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane lost power in the left engine. It lurched downward and to the left, crashed, cartwheeled, broke in two and burst into flames.

Twenty-two of the 46 on board died, 16 of them players. At the time, it was the worst sports air disaster in history.

For weeks, San Luis Obispo was a familiar dateline, with news organizations reporting on how the little Central California town bore its grief.

One of the survivors was Gil Stork, now 59 and a vice president of Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. He suffered multiple broken bones.

“All things considered, it’s changed my life for the better,” he said recently of the experience. “I’m able to more sharply focus on today’s events, and my relationships with people close to me are better. I don’t think of [the crash] every day like I used to, but I do every time I read about a crash.

“No, I’m not afraid to fly. I can’t be. My son lives in London.”

Another of the survivors: Quarterback Ted Tollner, later coach at USC and San Diego State.

And what happened to the team? It played on, the following year.

Also on this date: In 1960, Olympic light-heavyweight champion Cassius Clay made his pro debut, stopping Tunney Hunsaker in six rounds. . . . In 1973, Mark Donohue, 37, won The Times Grand Prix at Riverside, then made a surprise retirement announcement. However, he returned to racing in 1975 and died in a Formula One crash while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix.