![]() ![]() You just put it in your repertoire of being there.” Steve Upson: “It was just one of the go-to bands, like the Rolling Stones and The Who. It was a big thing.”Įmily Maxwell Matt Wergers survived the tragedy before The Who concert in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979. And you wanted everyone to know that you were listening to The Who. And when The Who was on the radio, you cranked your radio up and you drove around Finneytown. Matt Wergers: “They were one of the biggest bands that everybody wanted to see. And it just didn't get any bigger than The Who.” Mike Simkin: “The Who spoke directly to us. Also included are their painful memories and those of family members of their three young friends - Preston, Eckerle and Morrison - and 18-year-old Peter Bowes of Wyoming, who didn’t come home. This story tells what happened on that horrific night in their own words - what Wergers, Hart Fales, Upson and a fourth Finneytown survivor, Mike Simkin, saw and felt. “Festival seating got a lot of the blame, but to me, it was more they didn’t open enough doors.” “I would never have imagined people getting killed just getting into a concert,” Upson said. “I suspect they were all gone before the doors were opened.” “Everyone was just squeezed to death,” said David Votaw, Preston’s stepfather. And he went down to help her up and never made it up,” Votaw said. “I think Jackie went down in front of him. ![]() Preston’s mother said she thinks her son saw Eckerle in trouble and tried to save her. They were standing with Preston and the others before the crowd pulled Eckerle and Morrison away, Hart Fales said. I identified her and then I had to call home and then they brought me home.”Įmily Maxwell Annie Hagerman, Susie Eckerle and Karen Eckerle hold photos of their little sister Jackie Eckerle, who was killed in the crowd crush at Riverfront Coliseum on December 3, 1979.Įckerle and her friend Karen Morrison, both 15-year-old Finneytown sophomores, had gone to the concert together. “I said, ‘Are you looking for an address?’ And they said, 'yes,' and it was ours,” she said. One of Jackie Eckerle’s three older sisters, Annie Hagerman, had gone to her family’s house to wait for Jackie to come home when she saw a police cruiser driving slowly by. You’re just jumping to conclusions.’ And that whole night, I didn’t sleep at all, of course, because he didn’t come home.” “And when my husband got home, I told him and he said, ‘No, no. “I saw them carrying a kid out of the front and I said, ‘Those are Stephan’s shoes,’ ” Anne Votaw said. #The who trampled cincinnati tvLater, Preston’s mother, watching the TV coverage at home, recognized something and realized her worst fear. But Preston still got separated in the crowd movement. The 19-year-old Preston, who was short and had a slight build, had locked arms with his roommate, Hart Fales said. That night, 11 young people from the Cincinnati area were crushed by the crowd outside the coliseum and died of asphyxiation. She had already seen the blue face of a helpless teen in a pile of people on the ground.Įmily Maxwell Tammy Hart Fales survived the crowd crush before The Who concert on December 3, 1979. Hart Fales said she fell in the suffocating, tight crowd and feared she would be trampled. Tammy Hart Fales and Steve Upson also attended Finneytown High and were at the concert that night. ![]() Warning: The next photo may make some readers uneasy. Rock legends Peter Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who, and the band’s manager, Bill Curbishley, also spoke to WCPO to mark the anniversary. 3, 1979, along with family members of four of the 11 victims - three from Finneytown - recently shared their stories to mark the anniversary. They were among the lucky ones that night.įorty years later, four Finneytown schoolmates who survived the tragedy outside The Who concert on Dec. And multiple people running through that same glass window.” “Got her seated,” Wergers said, “and I came back down looking for the rest of the group and that’s when I found one of our friends, Cindy Meade, lying on the floor with no shoes, her purse gone, her coat gone, crying on the floor with a pile of other people’s belongings laying everywhere. But he didn’t foresee what he would encounter next. The 18-year-old Wergers had just survived a life-or-death drama on the plaza. “I hate to say this today - sorry, police officer - I slammed a cop to get us out of the way and we went running into the show,” said Wergers, who was one of several friends from Finneytown High School gathered at the coliseum for the highly anticipated concert. ![]() Then, Wergers remembers, the duo ran through the turnstiles into the arena, where they thought British rock legends The Who had started playing. The crush of an anxious crowd pressed Matt Wergers and his girlfriend through a glass door on the Riverfront Coliseum plaza in Cincinnati. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |