Tuscaloosa to Unveil Statues Honoring the Marshall Four

An unveiling ceremony for statues honoring the “Marshall Four” will take place at the Benjamin Barnes YMCA, located at 3011 Martin Luther King Blvd., on Wednesday, November 5, at 9 a.m., hosted by the City of Tuscaloosa.

The “Marshall Four” are Tuscaloosa natives Freddy Wilson, Larry Sanders, Joe Hood, and Robert VanHorn, “who attended Marshall University to play football as some of the first Black athletes from Tuscaloosa on athletic scholarships at a major university,” said the press release.

Community members are invited to attend the unveiling of the statue ceremony honoring the lives of these four men who tragically passed away in the Marshall University plane crash on November 14, 1970.

These statues were created in their memory as the men spent much of their childhood at the original Benjamin Barnes YMCA.

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Caleb O’Connor, renowned artist and sculptor, crafted these statues, who also sculpted the Minerva statue at Manderson Landing and the Deontay Wilder statue at the Visit Tuscaloosa Welcome Center.

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Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli