Story about jim marshal (MN Viking)
Marshall's hard luck continued on that fateful trip in 1971, just after the end of the NFL season. A group of sixteen snowmobilers were organized for a trip along the snow-covered mountains of Montana and Wyoming (the trip would criss-cross them along the border of northern Montana and southern Wyoming). The idea would be that a semi-trailer would carry their snowmobiles to the first checkpoint- they would get out and ride their snowmobiles from one point to another, then meet back up with the trailer and load the snowmobiles and drive to another point where they would then get the snowmobiles out again and ride again. They were planning to do this about three times. However, during the very first thirty-five mile ride from Montana into Wyoming, they were caught in a blizzard! The group contained a Minnesota reporter, two members of the Vikings (Marshall and his teammate, Paul Dickson), a Minneapolis insurance salesman and his teenage son, a Yellowstone Park Ranger, a director of a school for problem boys, a grocer, a bank president, two photographers, two snowmobile mechanics and a husband and wife guide from the nearest lodge (the Red Lodge). The group encountered issues even before the blizzard became a major factor, as Marshall's snowmobile rode off of the cliffs they were traveling on. Luckily, the cliffs were sloped and did not just go straight down, so Marshall was able to grab hold of rocks before he slid 800 feet to the bottom. He climbed back up and continued the journey. The key problem in the journey is that the blizzard conditions ultimately split the sixteen people into four separate groups. This was a big mistake because it kept the mechanics apart from each other, so that when the awful weather eventually broke down most of the snowmobiles, the mechanics were unable to get to them to fix them. Now do note that this wasn't a mistake of planning, but rather a freak weather situation that split the group up - so it was no one's "fault," but it eventually led to most of the groups ending up on foot and, when it got dark, being forced to make camp in the wilderness. In one of those camps, Hugh Galusha, the 51-year-old president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, ended up dying from exposure. Marshall was in a group that was further ahead than most of the others. It was he, his teammate Paul Dickson, Bob Leiviska Jr (the son of the insurance salesman mentioned before) and Vern and Marilyn Waples, the aforementioned guides from the Red Lodge. The two gigantic football players had particularly difficult time walking in the snow, as while the teenager and the wife were able to walk on top of the snow, Marshall and Dickson sank into the snow every time they took a step. Leiviska found a patch of trees and they chose there to make their camp. The snow was about 10 to 15 feet deep in this area. Dickson had his lighter, so they began to make a fire starting with cash from Marshall's wallet, candy wrappers plus Marshall's checkbook and his billfold. The snow began to melt a bit, giving them a sort of cave-like environment. They kept the fire going with more cash and later with stripped bark and branches from nearby trees. After spending Saturday night hunched together, Leiviska and Marilyn Waples set out to get help (since they could traverse the snow easiest) on Sunday. After some time passed after their compatriots had left for help and with night growing closer, the men feared their chances of lasting another night, so they decided to try to set out on foot themselves. Luckily, after a mile or so of walking they discovered the rescue crews that had been sent out for them. In an interview with Sid Hartman, discussing whether his football training helped him survive, Marshall responded: It was more the lessons of determination and competition one learns in football that helped me the most. I never worked so hard in my life to stay alive. It reached a point where I thought it was virtually impossible to go on. Yet I was able to catch my second, third and fourth wind and go on another two or three miles when the going was the toughest. This is where football helped. - See more at:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/spo...a-blizzard-by-burni.html#sthash.d6t54KrR.dpuf
