Carlton's Corner: Decorative Concrete: Why we do it
A story of tragedy, courage, and a concrete countertop.
by Doug Carlton

A young Cal Poly team boarded the plane from Toledo to San Luis Obispo after a deflating loss to Bowling Green's football team. A fullback named Roger Kelly took his seat somewhere near the middle, having no idea this choice would save his life. Scoring his team's only touchdown was little consolation; he knew this was a team sport and his team lost. It's hard to say what he was thinking about as the rest of the team found their seats around him. He was probably thinking of his new family and a five-day-old daughter back home. A new baby, work, college, and football are a lot for anyone to balance. He may have been thinking about how good it was going to be to wipe this day, this loss, off the books and start fresh and new Monday morning. I'm sure whatever he was contemplating was nowhere close to what was about to happen in the next few minutes.

Shortly after take-off, all the aviation advances the Wright brothers had created went wrong. With a loss of power and a partial inversion of the plane, gravity won as it usually does. In less time than the average person can hold their breath, it was over. Nearly half the coaches, teammates, and crew were lost. Most of the ones to survive were severely injured. A long healing process both in body and spirit was the new Cal Poly game plan. Bad news of no survivors was initially reported back home, and then better news of some survivors. News in 1960 traveled at a much slower pace than today. The small community on the central coast of California had suffered a great loss.