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E-mail StoryAndy Kehe: Plane crash a difficult topic for Tollner
| Wednesday, May 7 2008 11:28 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, May 8 2008 8:40 AM
When it comes to football, Ted Tollner is rarely at a loss for words.
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The ex-USC head coach and current assistant coach with the 49ers has called thousands of plays in his playing and coaching careers, conducted thousands of strategy meetings, talked to thousands of boosters about football, some, even, who don’t think they know more about the game than he does. And he’s had to explain himself thousands of times to scribes, some, even, who don’t think they know more about the game than he does.
And no doubt, he’s muttered to himself a few thousand times.
For everything that happens in football, there is a reason for it and Tollner will give it to you if you want to hear it.
There is one instance, however, that stops him in his tracks. He has no answers, no go-to cliches, no prepared speeches for what happened on the night of Oct. 29, 1960, the night a chartered C-46 aircraft carrying him, his Cal Poly San Luis Obispo teammates, coaches and fans crashed on takeoff in the fog outside Toledo, Ohio, killing 16 players, but sparing him and a few dozen others, including locals Carl Bowser, Bill Ross and Roger Kelly.
Among the 16 killed were Larry Austin, Joe Copeland and Curtis Hill, all three of whom starred at Bakersfield High and will be inducted posthumously into the Driller Football Hall of Fame Friday night during a ceremony at the Holiday Inn Select. Raymond Porras, a transfer from Bakersfield College, also perished in the crash.
It was Hill, an all-everything receiver with NFL potential who swapped seats with Tollner, the team’s sophomore quarterback, for the return trip back to San Luis Obispo after a lopsided loss to Bowling Green University.
So if on Friday night, still 471⁄2 years later, it appears that Tollner is struggling to find the right combination of words while presenting a tribute to the fallen players, it’s because he is.
“It isn’t difficult when I’m talking about it from my perspective, but when relating what happened to three teammates who died — why them and not me — from their family’s and friends’ eyes who might be in the audience, why things turned out the way they did? I’m not sure, to be candid, how much time to spend on it. What’s appropriate?” Tollner said in a phone interview Wednesday.
“I don’t have any answers to what happened. I don’t think I’m going to dwell on (the crash) a lot. Really, I’m at a loss as how to acknowledge it.
“The best thing that can happen is that they be acknowledged as the good and positive people they were while they were here.”
Tollner particularly worries about saying the wrong things in front of Curtis Hill’s friends and family. Had Curtis not gotten sick on the way to Toledo sitting near the back of the plane, he may not have asked Tollner to switch seats with him for the return trip. That’s an incident of fate he hasn’t let control his life.
“I didn’t have any problems flying, so I said sure,” Tollner said. “At his request, we switched, and we know the rest is history. Something you can talk about is fate, but I’m not sure it’s appropriate.”
Deflecting some of attention away from Tollner’s difficult task will be the induction of six other former Driller stars — Michael Stewart, Don Robesky, Hugh Sill, Spain Musgrove, Roger Kelly and Marv Mosconi. Driller Football Hall of Famer and former Vikings All-Pro Jeff Siemon will deliver the keynote address. When it comes to those guys, there’s plenty to talk about, freely.
But you can’t neatly tuck away something as tragic and violent as the events of that October evening in 1960, when in a matter of seconds promising lives were snuffed out and loved ones’ lives changed forever. You can never talk too much about it, either.
It’s just a matter of how to talk about it.
In the end, Tollner’s own perspective might be the best way to go. It is what he knows best, what anybody who lived through it would know best. And it is inspirational.
He’ll do fine.
“Anytime I’m feeling sorry for myself, whether it’s from getting fired or losing a game, (the tragedy) has been my strength,” he said. “You’re here for whatever reason and getting an opportunity to do something good. I’ve drawn strength from it — for whatever reason you’re spared, so make it a positive thing.”