ESPN College Football

KENOVA, W.Va. -- A charter plane carrying the Marshall University football team to a game against East Carolina was evacuated Friday after smoke was reported in an engine, emergency officials said.

No injuries were reported among the 200 people aboard, but the timing was eerie.

Almost 36 years ago, on Nov. 14, 1970, a plane carrying the Marshall football team home from a game against East Carolina crashed, killing 75 people, including most of the team. A movie about the rebuilding of Marshall's football program after that crash is scheduled to open nationwide on Dec. 22.

Marshall's sports information director at the time, Gene Morehouse, died in that crash.

On Friday, his son Keith Morehouse was aboard the plane headed for the game in Greenville, N.C.

Morehouse, now sports director of WSAZ-TV in Huntington, and the other passengers calmly left the plane Friday and walked into the terminal. The team's departure was delayed for more than an hour.

"I don't think it's as big a deal as some people are trying to make," Morehouse said.

Marshall's current sports information director, Randy Burnside, said it was a mechanical problem with the plane.

"It was a minor thing," Burnside said. "They should have this fixed. Everybody's fine."

A spokeswoman with the Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately return a telephone message.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press