TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) -- The Marshall Four were honored near the 55th anniversary of one of the most tragic events in U.S. sports history.

Statues of Joe Hood, Freddy Wilson, Larry Sanders, and Robert Vanhorn stand tall in front of the Benjamin Barnes YMCA. The Tuscaloosa natives were among the 75 people killed when the Marshall University football team’s plane crashed on November 14, 1970. There were no survivors.

“He’s here with us, still standing tall,” said Debra Lewis, Hood's niece.

People traveled miles from West Virgina to honor the Marshall Four alongside their families and the city of Tuscaloosa on Wednesday.

“It’s 55 years passed due,” said Ulysses Lavender, a Druid High School classmate of the Marshall Four.

Classmates described the Marshall Four as five-star athletes, bu

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