New York Yankees: Thurman Munson’s Death Still Resonates 40 Years Later

An unforgettable New York Yankees story:

To an earlier generation, it was known as “The Pearl Harbor Question.” People who were remembered December 7, 1941, could tell you where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese.

Almost four decades later, fans of the New York Yankees would experience something quite similar on August 2, 1979. It was on that day that Yankee catcher Thurman Munson died in a plane crash at the Canton-Akron airport in Ohio.

Do you remember where you were on that Thursday afternoon?

I was home having supper with my brother Pete. We were watching the five o’clock news on Channel Four in New York. It was around quarter to six when they went to the newsroom to preview the six o’clock news.

That’s when they reported that Thurman Munson had died in a plane crash while practicing takeoffs and landings at the Canton-Akron airport in Ohio. This then 17-year-old was absolutely devastated, to say the least. I just couldn’t eat or do anything the rest of