December 13, 1977, Evansville Aces players, coaches, supporters
and flight crew boarded a chartered DC-3 plane to travel to Murfreesboro for a game against Middle Tennessee.
Just one minute after taking off, at 7:22 p.m.
crashed, tragically taking the lives of everyone onboard.
The only member of the Purple Aces who did not die in the crash was 18-year-old freshman David Furr;
he was out for the season with some infirmary and thus was not on the plane that day. Lucky break? Well…
Davis Lee Furr, weeks after the plane crash, and his younger brother Byron were killed in a car accident near Newton,
Illinois, leaving the entire 1977 Evansville team dead.