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Talking College Football With Coach Jack Lengyel 11

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Dean Hybl
Jack Lengyel, who served as the head coach at Marshall University from 1971-1974, was played in the film We Are Marshall by Matthew McConaughey.

Jack Lengyel, who served as the head coach at Marshall University from 1971-1974, was played in the film We Are Marshall by Matthew McConaughey.

As we prepare for the much anticipated start of the 2009 college football season, Sports Then and Now will spend this week getting ready for the college football season with previews of some of the top teams and conferences in the country as well as special features on greats from the past.

We kickoff coverage with an interview with a former college football coach whose tenure as head coach at Marshall University was chronicled in the 2006 movie We Are Marshall.  The movie starred Matthew McConaughey and brought renewed attention to a small town that dealt with a big tragedy in 1970.

Though Jack Lengyel is now most associated with his tenure as the coach who kept alive the football program at Marshall following the death of 75 players, coaches, staff and boosters in a plane crash on November 14, 1970, his career in college athletics actually spanned six decades.

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