Football and winning have been synonymous with Roger Perkins' life.

But the 1991 North Allegheny graduate and former Bradford Woods resident learned how to deal with tragedy at the same time.

Perkins, an account executive with a financial company in Atlanta, is a 1995 graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., and played right guard on the Thundering Herd's first national championship team in 1992.

Home for the holidays with family in Wexford, he planned to attend the Warner Bros. film "We Are Marshall"this weekend.

"Once you step foot on campus down there, you become a part of that,"Perkins said of the Nov. 14, 1970, plane crash that killed 75 people, all coaches, players or community supporters of the Marshall football team returning home from a 17-14 loss at East Carolina that day.

"You talk to members of the community and they tell you stories from that time,"Perkins said. "It wasn't just football players who lost their lives. There were great businessmen in town, doctors, lawyers, people who continually got on the team flights to support the football program."

Perkins was a senior on the 1990 North Allegheny football team that won the state championship. He was a freshman on the 1991 Marshall squad that finished 11-4, dropping a 25-17 decision to Youngstown State in the Division I-AAtitle game.

The Thundering Herd won a school-record 12 games in 1992, defeating Youngstown State 31-28, in the I-AA championship game.

Perkins was not on the field for that game. He was released from the hospital that day after undergoing surgery for a ruptured disc in his back.

"That's when my football career ended," he said. "But Iended it on top."

Perkins, who earned a degree in business management from Marshall, relishes his time in Huntington.

"What a positive experience,"he said. "That community is great. For such a small town to endure such a big tragedy ... those are some of the most resilient people in the world."

Randy Burnside, Marshall's assistant athletic director for media relations, said the making of the motion picture served as a healing process for the community.

"This crash was 36 years ago, but I really don't think a film could have been done on it until now,"Burnside said. "It was a tragedy that affected generations of people.

"The Warner Bros. people were sensitive to the situation. They did it right. They came on campus and talked to people. They got permission from family members and the university before they started filming anything.

"They did weeks of filming right here on campus. They told the story accurately and professionally,"Burnside said.

He added that the film returned former Marshall assistant coach Red Dawson to the university. Dawson had surrendered his seat on the ill-fated flight home to go on a separate recruiting trip.

"After the crash, Red detached himself from the university and football,"Burnside said. "We've missed him. The making of this movie brought him back."

Part of the movie was filmed in Atlanta, though Perkins did not take part in it.

"Some of my friends (in Atlanta) appear as faces of the crowd in the movie,"Perkins said.

Before Marshall began competing for national championships and having eventual NFLstars Randy Moss, Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich come through the program, Thundering Herd football was described as "the team that had that plane crash,"Burnside said.

Perkins admitted to describing the school that way himself.

"Way back when, we just didn't have any other identity,"he said. "You try to explain where you go to school and you eventually mention the plane crash. ... People remember it.

"I'm proud to be on some of those teams that gave Marshall some football tradition. Now we can describe the program as where Randy Moss and Chad Pennington went to school."

Still, the crash is remembered to this day.

Each Nov. 14, a service is held at a memorial fountain on campus, at which point the water is turned off until the following spring.

"It's something that's treated with respect. It's a family kinship people have here,"Burnside said. "Some family members come to that service every year.

"That crash claimed mothers, fathers, grandparents, community leaders. ... It will always be a part of who we are."

And Roger Perkins will always be a part of Marshall.

"There are reminders of that crash all over campus,"Perkins said. "You learn really quick how fragile life is."