Rick Tolley

College coach infobox
Name = Rick Tolley
Caption = Image from the 1970 Marshall University football press guide
DateOfBirth = 1940
Birthplace =
DateOfDeath = November 14, 1970
Sport = Football
College = Marshall
Title = Head Coach
CurrentRecord =
OverallRecord = 6-13
Awards =
Championships =
CFbDWID = 2343
Player = Y
Years = 1958-61
Team = Virginia Tech
Position = Center & Linebacker
Coach = Y
CoachYears = 1969-70
CoachTeams = Marshall
FootballHOF =

Rickey Dale Tolley (1940 - November 14, 1970) was the head coach of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team during the 1969 and 1970 seasons. He died in the 1970 plane crash that killed all of the crew and passengers, including most of the Marshall football team and coaching staff and several team boosters.

Tolley became the interim head coach of Marshall just 4 days before the start of fall practice for the 1969 season. He had just 32 players that first season yet still managed to win games against Bowling Green University (21-16), Kent State University (31-20) and East Carolina University (38-7). The game against Bowling Green snapped a 27-game, 3 season losing streak. They also just lost another game against Ohio University (35-38) when the Bobcats scored the winning touchdown with five seconds left.

Tolley started his coaching career at John Battle High School in Bristol, Virginia as an assistant football coach for two years and then as an assistant baseball coach at the University of Virginia for another year. He then joined the football coaching staff at Ferrum Junior College for three years, one of which they won the National Junior College Championship. He then left to become the defensive line coach at Wake Forest University in 1968. He joined Marshall as an assistant in February, 1969.

In college, Tolley played center and linebacker for the Virginia Tech Hokies football team. At Mullens High School, he played basketball, baseball and football. (Mullens has since been consolidated into Wyoming East High School).

Tolley had been married to the former Mary Jane Edmundson of Charlottesville, Virginia since 1963 at the time of his death. The couple had no children. Mary Jane Tolley later moved back to Virginia, where she taught English and Creative Writing for high school students. Never remarried, she is now retired and living an active life in Richmond. She can be seen in a final scene in the movie "We are Marshall" with many people gathered around the university Memorial Water Fountain honoring and remembering the crash victims.

Tolley is depicted in the movie We Are Marshall by actor Robert Patrick (uncredited). Patrick was 18 years older than Tolley, causing Tolley to be portrayed in the film as middle-aged.

External links

* [http://www.marshall.edu/LIBRARY/speccoll/virtual_museum/Memorial/coaches/tolley.asp Memorial from Marshall University]

Persondata
NAME=Rick Tolley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH=
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=November 14, 1970
PLACE OF DEATH=Huntington, West Virginia