Marshall Thundering Herd

The Marshall Thundering Herd are the intercollegiate athletic teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in Conference USA, which are members of the NCAA Division I. Sports at the school include women's softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball; men's baseball and football; and teams for both genders in basketball, cross country, golf, and soccer.

Overview
There are six men's varsity athletic teams and nine women's varsity teams: Marshall also fields club teams, not affiliated with the Athletic Department, in rugby union for both women and men, and a men's lacrosse team.

Crash
The November 14, 1970, plane crash that killed all 75 passengers on board, including 37 members of the Thundering Herd football team, is well documented. The event and its aftermath were depicted in the 2006 Warner Brothers motion picture, We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox.

Men's basketball
Marshall Thundering Herd Basketball is led by head coach Tom Herrion.

Baseball
Baseball at Marshall has long been handicapped by a lack of facilities, being the only sport at the university without a proper facility on or near campus.

Rivalries
Marshall's biggest rivalries out of conference are with Ohio University, Miami University and West Virginia University, while East Carolina University and University of Central Florida have been the biggest rivals in Conference USA so far.

Joan C. Edwards Stadium
Marshall plays football at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, which seats 38,019. The stadium, which opened for the 1991 season as Marshall University Stadium with a then-record crowd of 33,116 for a 24–23 win over New Hampshire, hosted a record crowd of 41,382 on September 10, 2010, when the Thundering Herd played the in-state rival West Virginia Mountaineers. On a facade on the stadium's west side is a bronze memorial dedicated to the 1970 plane-crash victims.

In 2003, Marshall renamed its stadium, honoring a major donor, Joan C. Edwards to the university and its athletic program. The facility became the first football stadium in Division I-A to be named after a woman; Mrs. Edwards husband, James F. Edwards, has his name on the actual playing field.

Also in 2003, Marshall University, under much scrutiny, disbanded its men's track & field program, expressing financial concerns with the school's 2005 move from MAC to Conference USA. Since that time it has been demonstrated that men's track paid for itself due to the students paying for the majority of their schooling. In May 2007, the track on campus was closed to make way for the new recreation center, and since that time the women's track and field team has trained and competed without a track of its own.

Cam Henderson Center
Both men's and women's basketball are played at the 9,048-seat Cam Henderson Center, named for the innovative coach who guided the school's basketball team from 1935 to 1955 and football from 1935–49. Henderson is the coach who developed the fast break, the zone defense and even the "King Drill" warm-up made famous by the Harlem Globetrotters. Henderson won 358 games against just 158 losses as basketball coach. Henderson's 1946-47 team finished that season with a school-record 32-5 mark, and captured the 1947 NAIB (today's NAIA) National Championship in Kansas City, Kansas. In football, he coached the Herd to the Buckeye Conference title in 1937 and then to the second-ever Tangerine Bowl on Jan. 1, 1948, falling to Catawba College 7–0. Henderson won 68 games as football coach.

2012 expansion project
In 2012 MU announced a multi-step expansion project, contingent on fund raising. MU accepted ownership of the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse located five blocks from campus. The facility will be demolished and replaced by a soccer specific stadium. MU's current soccer facility, Sam Hood Field, will then be replaced by a $25 million indoor practice facility, track, and physical therapy research center. MU legends Chad Pennington and Mike D'Antoni are heading up fund raising for the effort.