Goofs for
We Are Marshall (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: During shots of a conversation between Nate Ruffin and one of the other varsity players on the roof of a campus building, the new Library and Football Stadium (both built in the 1990s) appear in the background. The Stadium appears only once and is edited out of subsequent shots. However, the stadium is gone completely in the DVD version.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Shortly after the crash in a locker room scene where there is a discussion over whether to continue with the football program or not, there is clearly a new 1971 football helmet hanging there.
  
  
• Continuity: During the Morehead State game, when the Morehead player scores a touchdown the shot zooms in to the scoreboard reading 28. It then goes to a shot of the player in the end-zone and the scoreboard reads 22.
  
  

• Anachronisms: When Coach Lengyel talks to President Dedmon about getting the NCAA to let them play Football (1971), they are in a basketball gym. The court has a three-point line which was not adopted in NCAA basketball until the 1983 season. The National Federation of High School Rules did not include the three-point line until the 1984 season.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Coach Lengyel talks to President Dedmon about getting the NCAA to let them play Football (April, 1971), they are in a basketball gym. President Dedmon mentions he will be married 25 years in May. In actuality President Dedmon was 39 years old in April of '71, to be married 25 years he would have to be married at the age of 14. Even though he is from the South, this is highly unlikely.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Anne's hand is shaking pretty hard when she reaches out to give Paul the engagement ring back (the shot is from Paul's point of view). The camera cuts to a view from behind Anne and her hand is suddenly very still for the duration of that shot. The shot changes back 10 seconds later to be from Paul's view and Anne's hand is shaking again.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Nate places the football on the tee at the ceremony there is a voice speaking over the loud speaker through the microphone. The camera angle rises above Nate and no one is at the microphone.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the tall player is recruited off the basketball court, the basketball hoop is a portable hoop with breakaway rims, as are the rims in Marshall's basketball gym. Breakaway rims were not invented until after 1981 when Darryl Dawkins (Philidelphia 76ers) broke two backboards in consecutive nights.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the President of Marshall was calling potential coaches, he crosses out a 910 area code. The area code 910 wasn't established until 1993.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the President of Marshall was calling potential coaches, he crosses out a 336 area code. Area code 336 wasn't established until 1997.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Lengyel runs out of the house chasing his son and sees Marshall fans walking to the first 1971 home game against Xavier you can see the pink and white blooms on the dogwood trees in the background. The scene for the film was shot in April, a time when dogwoods are in bloom in W.Va. In reality, however, the actual game was played in the fall (September 25, 1971) a time when dogwoods are clearly not in bloom, only the green leaves are visible.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the campus church scene where Jack is talking to Red he says the word "darn" but his lips clearly look like they are saying "damn". They probably edited the word damn out due to them being in a church.
  
  
• Anachronisms: There is a scene with a train in the background. One of the freight cars has the CONRAIL logo on it. CONRAIL was not formed until 1976.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the scene where Nate and Tom are walking out of the Keith Albee, the emergency vehicles (and the truck Nate and Tom get into) are headed towards the right (which, geographically, would be east). The crash actually took place near the airport, which is located approximately twelve miles southwest of the Keith Albee.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the same scene where the Conrail train car is seen, there is also a CSX train car seen. CSX didn't come into existence until 1980.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Jack Lengyel and Red Dawson are reviewing the Black and White 16mm footage of the "Veer" plays, graciously loaned to them by the WVU coach, the footage is 'pixelated' like a streaming video. There are large square pixels indicating a video blow up from a lower resolution digital source. That sort of distortion would not be possible in 1971 where the only flaws in blowing up a movie would be the 'grains' in the film. This particular optical flaw is specific to the Internet and web casting and is most commonly seen in low resolution user uploaded videos.
  
  
• Factual errors: The helmet logos on the WVU team was not a basic black WVU, but was instead a small w with a large looping v and a small u.
  
  
• Continuity: After they've recruited all the new players they talk about having a quarterback named John Cady. Then when they go to the field to practice, Lengyl is asking what is options are for quarterback and no one mentions any John Cady.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the 1970's, the field goal posts were 23 feet, 4 inches wide. The rule makers in 1991 narrowed the goal post width to 18 feet, 6 inches. The posts in the film are the narrow, modern version of the goal posts.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): As a native of Wooster, OH, Jack Lengyel would not have pronounced the word Wooster to rhyme with "rooster". Instead, he would have pronounced the first syllable with a short double-O as in "book".
  
  
• Anachronisms: The lead locomotive on the train is painted in the current Union Pacific paint scheme and is a modern 'comfort cab' model (sometimes called Canadian Cab, or Safety Cab). These did not exist in the 1970s. Also, since Union Pacific had no trackage east of Kansas City in 1971, this scene would be unlikely since run-through locomotives from other railroads was not very common in the early 1970s. As others goofs illustrate, this is a 2006 era freight train.
  
  
• Factual errors: In spring 1971, Marshall U. football coaches Jack Lengyel and Red Dawson approach WVU football coach Bobby Bowden for use of his "veer" formation, with Dawson protesting that the two schools "are rivals." Bowden agrees to help: "We don't play y'all this year." In fact, while WVU and Marshall are basketball rivals, they had not played each other in football since 1923 and would not again until 1997.
  
  
• Continuity: When coach is talking he also does so out of the right side of his mouth. In one scene, while visiting West Virginia University, when the camera shows his reflection in a trophy he starts talking out of the left side of his mouth and then switches, as if he realized his mistake. When the shot first shows Coack Llengel looking at the trophy, he is talking out of the side of his face. In the next shot coach Llengel is being seen through the reflection of the trophy and he is mouth is flat.
  
  
• Factual errors: The orange/white pickup truck that Nate and his teammate ride to the plane crash in is a 1972 GMC and would not have been sold yet on Nov. 14, 1970. This can be confirmed by the front grill of the pickup.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene showing a crowd of people walking past a residence to the first football game (1971 season), one woman has a tattoo on her left ankle. A woman wearing a visible tattoo was highly improbable during that era, especially in an ultra-conservative town like Huntington, W.Va.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The stadium in which they are shown playing didn't exist at that point and time in history. The stadium in use would have been Fairfield Stadium.
  
  
• Factual errors: At halftime of the Xavier Vs. Marshall game the radio announcer refers to the Xavier Pirates. They are really the Xavier Musketeers.
  
  

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