The 1960 season was one of great excitement and expectations for the Bowling Green football team. Coming off of the national championship season of 1959, by midseason, the Falcons had themselves in great position to defend their title.
They had won sixteen games in a row, and were coming off back-to-back wins over rivals Toledo and Kent State. But all of the joy would come to a sobering halt the night of October 29, 1960.
The Mustangs of California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo annually made one cross-country trip to play a football game each season. The 1960 trip was slated for Bowling Green in late October. Even before the trip, there was some caution about the trip, and even a few jokes that turned out to be eerie premonitions.
Cal-Poly made changes to its plans when it found out the cost of a four-engine plane, and opted instead for a two-engine charter from Arctic-Pacific Airlines, even though an identical plane had made an emergency landing years before with the Cal Poly team aboard. In the days leading up to the trip, those that were staying behind joked and put pictures of airplane crashes on the lockers of those team members making the flight to Ohio.
The flight to Toledo went as expected, and the Mustangs, who had won just one game all season were no match for the Falcons, losing by a final of 50-6 at University Stadium. As the Bowling Green campus celebrated another win, the Cal Poly team loaded onto buses for the Toledo airport to meet their flight home. The pilot, Donald Leland John Chesher, who had also flown the Youngstown State team to a game in Connecticut that afternoon, returned to find Toledo buried in a heavy fog.
The fog was so thick that night, that even driving was quite the hazardous task. Looking at the lights on the runway, Chesher and the airport control tower determined visibility at less than 1,000 feet, and the pilot physically walked the runway route himself to make sure it was clear of other aircraft. While the control operators cautioned that there was not enough room for a proper take-off, aviation rules left the decision to fly or not to fly at the hands of the pilot, and since Chesher only got paid for the time spent in the air, he made the decision to try to fly out of Toledo. Players and coaches worried if the conditions were safe enough to fly, even voicing their concerns with the co-pilot, but soon, the planes engines roared and it began to taxi down the runway.
The plane would barely get 300 feet into the air before crashing into an orchard with a loud explosion. When rescue crews got to the wreckage, the found the plane ripped in two. The 20 passengers and two crew members in the front half of the mangled plane all died, the twenty-six who were found amongst the wreckage of the back half of the plane escaped with minor injuries. Sixteen of the dead were Cal Poly football players.
As news of the crash spread across the nation, and to Bowling Green, campus fell silent. What had began as a night of celebration turned into a stunned state of mourning.
Almost immediately, students from both Bowling Green and their rivals at the University of Toledo came together with the
residents of both towns to provide whatever help they could for the victims of the crash and their families.
The reasons for the crash were numerous, the heavy fog caused the pilot to lift-off prematurely, the primary engine failed, and an overloaded plane all contributed to the disaster. One more disturbing discovery was made in the plane's wreckage. Pilot Chesher was found strapped into the right pilot's seat, showing that he had switched seats with his less-experienced co-pilot Howard Perovich, a 30-year old man whose mother and sister-in-law would also die in the crash.
Cal Poly cancelled the rest of their season, including their homecoming game, and many wondered if the Mustangs would ever take to the football field again. But they were back at it in 1961, finishing
that season at 5-3, and currently participate in NCAA Division 1-AA. Recently announced renovations to Mustang Stadium include a memorial park to honor those who passed away in the crash.
While Bowling Green would go on to lose its perfect season and national championship hopes with a loss to Ohio University
two weeks later, they still remembered their opponents from Cal Poly, and wanted to do something to help. Following the 1961 season, they matched up with Fresno State to play the inaugural Mercy Bowl in Fresno, California. Proceeds from the game were donated to the widows and children of the victims, and a then-record crowd of 33,145 came out and raised over $200,000 for the event.
Bowling Green was behind 3-0 after the first quarter, but a 2 yard Ray Bell touchdown run put them up 6-3. Fresno State would answer, and the fourth-ranked Falcons would not score again, losing the game 36-6.
The Bulldogs would finish the 1961 season at 10-0, while the Falcons ended up at 8-2.
(Material for this article collected from "Can You See Many Lights?",
TIME Magazine, Nov. 14, 1960.)