Lost in a rush of games, the Mercy Bowl remembered Print Written
by Admin    Tuesday, 23 December 2008 11:23 NCAAF Headline News
 Exactly how high the plane got off the ground is hard to say.
No one could really be sure that foggy night in Ohio nearly a
half-century ago. Some folks swear the old C-46, a leftover from
World War II, never lifted off at all. Ted Tollner, a
quarterback at Cal Poly, was sitting over the left wing, on the
side where the engine gave out. ``After we hit, it was all a
blur,'' he said. The Arctic-Pacific charter split in two and
caught on fire at Toledo Express Airport on Oct. 29, 1960. It
was the first airline crash involving a U.S. sports team. Of the
22 people killed, there were 16 Cal Poly players, a manager and
a booster. The next year, with support from Bob Hope and a
blessing from President Kennedy, a game was held at the Los
Angeles Coliseum to offset burial costs, pay medical expenses
and set up an educational fund for the victims' families and
survivors. They called it the M