Southern Airways Flight 932 was a chartered DC-9, from Kinston, NC (ISO) to Huntington-Tri-State/Milton Airport (HTS) in Ceredo, West Virginia. The plane was carrying 37 team members, eight members of the coaching staff, 25 boosters, four flight crew and one charter company employee. On November 14, 1970, at 7:35 PM, the plane crashed into a hill just short of Tri-State Airport, killing all 75 on board. Because it was the team's only chartered flight of the season, many prominent citizens were on board, including a city councilman, a state legislator, and four of the city's six physicians. Seventy children lost one parent in the crash; an additional 18 were orphaned.

Six weeks before the Marshall plane crash, one of 2 chartered planes carrying the Wichita State University football team, en route to a game in Logan, UT, crashed into the side of a mountain in Colorado. The plane carried the upperclassmen, the head coach, other team staff, university officials, and several boosters. Thirty-nine people died, about half of them were players. Nine people survived, including the co-pilot. The surviving team members, plus some freshman, played the remainder of the season.

The crowds in the large stadium scenes consist of hundreds of local extras, thousands of blow-up dummies, and thousands of CG Extras.

The film premiered in Huntington, West Virginia, on December 12, 2006, followed by a Hollywood premiere on December 14. Both used a green carpet, the Marshall University school color, instead of the traditional red. Stars in attendance included: Basil Iwanyk, director McG, writer Jamie Linden, Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Anthony Mackie, Arlen Escarpeta, Kate Mara, and Dalton Polston. Real-life coaches Jack Lengyel and Red Dawson also attended.

Robert Patrick, uncredited, plays Marshall head coach Rick Tolley.

Continuity

After recruiting the new players, the coaches talk about having a quarterback named John Cady. When they go to the field to practice, Lengyel asks about his options for quarterback, and no one mentions John Cady.

When the Morehead player scores a touchdown, the camera zooms in to the scoreboard, which says 28. In the next shot, of a player in the end zone, the scoreboard says 22.

Coach Lengyel talks out of the right side of his mouth. In one scene, while visiting West Virginia University, the camera shows his reflection in a trophy. He starts talking out of the left side of his mouth, then switches, as if he realized his mistake. When Coach Lengyel first looks at the trophy, he talks out of the side of his face. In the next shot, Lengyel's mouth is flat.

At the end of the first home game, the team celebrates in front of completely empty grandstands. They couldn't have emptied that quickly, before the on-field celebrations ended.



Factual errors

In spring 1971, Jack Lengyel and Red Dawson approach WVU football coach Bobby Bowden for use of his "veer" formation. Dawson says the two schools "are rivals." Bowden agrees to help, saying "We don't play y'all this year." WVU and Marshall are basketball rivals; they hadn't played each other in football since 1923, and didn't again until 1997.

The closing narration states that Jack Lengyel "is now in the College Football Hall of Fame." He was never inducted into the Hall of Fame, though he received an award.

Nate and his teammate ride to the plane crash in a 1972 GMC truck.

When Coach Lengyel and President Dedmon talk about getting the NCAA to let freshmen play football, Dedmon mentions that he will be married 25 years in May. Dedmon was 39 in April 1971, which would mean he got married at 14. Even in West Virginia, that's not likely.

In 1971, the logo on WVU's football helmets was a small w with a large looping v and a small u, not a basic black WVU.



Revealing mistakes

Paul Griffen's son, a member of the football team, perished in the plane crash. Yet no one with that last name is on Marshall's 1970 football roster. Either both characters were fictional, or their last names were changed.

As Red Dawson reads the newspaper after the crash, the camera pans over the list of deceased players. The same names are repeated several times next to the photos of the coaching staff.

A plane crashes near the city, but no explosion is heard, and no vibrating of the ground from such an event happens. Only people hearing about it through radio, telephone call, and seeing emergency vehicles.

When Lengyel runs out of the house chasing his son and sees Marshall fans walking to the first 1971 home game against Xavier, pink and white blooms are visible on the dogwood trees in the background. The game was played September 25, 1971, when the dogwoods would not be in bloom.

Just before halftime against Xavier, Marshall kicks a 37-yard field goal, which is counted as "GOOD!" In the last frame, including the ball and right goal post, the ball is clearly 20 yards to the right of the right goal post, The announcer said the 37- yard attempt was "awfully long", yet the football sailed 15 yards above the top of the goalposts. That's at least a 65-yard kick.



Anachronisms

When the President of Marshall calls potential coaches, he crosses out a 910 area code, established in 1993, and a 336 area code, established in 1997.

When Jack Lengyel and Paul Griffen are seated at Boone's, and Lengyel eats a piece of pie, a minivan passes on the street behind them. Minivans did not exist in 1971.

When Nate Ruffin and a varsity player talk on the roof of a campus building, the new Library and Football Stadium, built in the 1990s, are visible in the background. The stadium appears only once, and is edited out of subsequent shots. It doesn't appear in the DVD version.

When the tall player is recruited off the basketball court, the basketball hoop is portable, with a breakaway rim. Marshall's basketball gym has the same rims. Breakaway rims were invented after 1982, when Darryl Dawkins of the Philadelphia 76ers broke two backboards in two consecutive nights.

During the first half of the Xavier game, a defender recovers a fumble and returns it for a long gain. Until 1990, a defensive player could not advance a recovered fumble.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

Jack says "darn" to Red in church, but his lips clearly say "damn".

When Nate places the football on the tee at the ceremony, a voice on the microphone can be heard through the speakers. When the camera angle rises above Nate, no one is at the microphone.



Errors in geography

At the beginning, when people drive to the plane crash site, the cars are driving away from Ceredo, where the plane actually crashed.



Character error

When President Dedman dictates a letter to the NCAA, the camera is behind the secretary, who is writing in shorthand. A line goes down the center of the page, yet she scribbles across the page. Shorthand is not written across the page. The line down the center divides the page into columns, and for efficiency one column is filled at a time.

All the characters, including Coach Lengyel, consistently pronounce Wooster College's name as though it rhymes with "rooster." Students and residents pronounce it "WUSS-ter", like the Massachusetts city.