KD Lawson in movie ‘We Are Marshall’

A few months back, our own KD Lawson, associate professor and program coordinator of Photography, was an extra in the movie “We Are Marshall,” scheduled to be released in December of this year.

“We Are Marshall” goes back in time to Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. There, in 1970, most of the members of the school football team, as well as coaches, university staff, community members and crew members, died in an airplane crash.

“Everyone football relied on for guidance, fundraising, not to mention playing the game, was gone,” said Lawson.

Lawson was a senior in a local high school at the time of the crash. He began his college career at Marshall the following school year.

“Lots of people have stories about how college changed their lives,” said Lawson. “For me, I got to witness a community come together.

“At Marshall, it wasn’t about ‘weeding out’ students; instead, students were all encouraged. Each person had a connection to the other in that community.”

After the crash, the university started to pull its football program back together.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association did not allow freshmen to play at the time, so freshman players had not been in the plane. For the next season, those players—now sophomores—new freshmen and even a soccer player as the kicker formed part of the new team. They called themselves the “Young Thundering Herd.”

When Warner Bros. Studios began making the movie, the Marshall University Alumni Association contacted former students to be extras in the movie.

Lawson signed up, and he appears sitting in the stands during the movie trailer.

“I got sunburned, because while everyone else took a break, I stayed out, fascinated,” said Lawson, “because I was learning how scenes are set up for a movie.”

He was also able to see old classmates, including Reggie Oliver, who threw the pass leading to a winning touchdown against Xavier University. An autographed photograph taken of that play is displayed in Lawson’s office.

Now, he’ll have even more mementos from college days to add to his wall.

To view the film’s trailer, visit movies.yahoo.com/feature/wearemarshall.html. See if you can find KD!

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