On November 14, 1970, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity lost five brothers in the plane crash that devastated the Marshall University football team: starting quarterback Ted Shoebridge and offensive linemen Jim Adams, Mike Blake, Pat Norrell, and Bob Patterson. To honor the fallen brothers and their Marshall football teammates, the fraternity established a memorial designed by student PKA John Bodo. Artist Vernon Howell, a Marshall graduate and former co-captain of the 1958-59 Marshall football team, created the sculpture and donated it to the fraternity. In 1971, head coach Jack Lengyel, who rebuilt the Marshall football program after the crash, dedicated the memorial and said the crouching football player represented the spirit of the new football squad: "We're rising off the ground for the season ahead." Present on the fraternity house grounds for 50 years, it became a symbol of hope and the indomitable spirit of the Herd Family and community. In November 2020, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Delta Iota Chapter, donated it to Marshall University, and it was relocated to the university's Huntington campus after restoration by artist Mike Sizemore of Mountain Artworks Studio and reconstruction of the memorial base by Jason Kirby of Kirby's Masonry.