Bill Burch bought an Ezra Brooks-brand bourbon decanter in the shape of the WuShock mascot in 1971. In early October this year, he’ll bring that bottle back to Wichita for a toast with his Wichita State University football teammates.
Burch played linebacker for the Shockers in 1970 as a senior. As fate would have it, a knee injury kept him from traveling to Utah State on Oct. 2. He had expected to travel with the team, but instead was forced to stay home and heal. On that day, the Martin 4-0-4 airliner that carried the Shocker starters crashed near Silver Plume, Colorado, killing 31 people – 14 student-athletes, 14 staff and boosters, and three crew members.
On Oct. 2 this year, Wichita State will hold its annual observance in honor of those lost that day.
Burch will make the trip from his home in Traverse City, Michigan, to share a drink with his friends, some of whom survived the crash, some of whom landed safely in Utah and some who stayed back in Wichita that day.
“I was holding it for a special event,” he said. “And the 50th, it just doesn’t get more special.”
Burch, from Hannibal, Missouri, worked at a liquor store located near the now-demolished Fairmount Towers in 1970. He purchased the decanter soon after it was released a year later.
“The bottle meant so much to me, because of the players it represented and the event,” he said.
He carried the decanter with him through 28 residences, although he wasn’t sure of its purpose until years later. After the crash, he grew estranged from Wichita State because of the memories and pain.
In 2000, Burch returned for the 30thanniversary memorial. He said talks with Jim Rhatigan, then senior vice president of student affairs, and then university president Don Beggs convinced him to come to campus and see his friends and teammates.
That experience proved cathartic for Burch and renewed his association with Wichita State. He attended a reception at Beggs’ home. He joined many of his teammates on the field at Cessna Stadium for what he remembers as more than three hours of discussion about the crash and the guilt some survivors carried.
“It was good for the soul,” Burch said. “When we were together, we realized we weren’t alone.”
After that reunion, Burch returned for several memorials and served on an advisory board for the president. As his relationship with the university healed, he began to target the 50th anniversary as the time to toast from the decanter. He expects many of his teammates to return for this observance, in part because they know their time together is growing short.
“It would mean a lot if we could all sit there and take a drink of it,” he said.
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