SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Billy Ross, a survivor of the 1960 plane crash that killed 16 members of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football team, has died at age 78.
A university statement says Ross died Monday in Bakersfield, Calif. The cause was not released.
Ross was an offensive tackle on the 1959 and 1960 Mustang football teams. He was 25 when the team's flight crashed at the Toledo, Ohio, airport on Oct. 29, 1960. Sixteen teammates and six other people were killed.
Ross was among 26 survivors but suffered severe burns and spent seven months in a Toledo-area hospital for skin grafts and rehabilitation.
Ross graduated from Cal Poly in 1963 and became a high school teacher and football coach until severe foot pain from crash injuries forced him out of coaching.
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