NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — On Monday morning, the Illinois State Redbird community honored the lives of the ‘Redbird 7.’

On this day a decade ago, seven men connected to the Redbird community died in a plane crash when they were returning to Bloomington.

Those men were Scott Bittner, owner of Bittner’s Meat Locker in Eureka, Terry Stralow, owner of Pub II in Normal, ISU Booster Andy Butler, former Illinois Wesleyan basketball player and Wells Fargo representative Jason Jones, Deputy Director of Athletics Aaron Leetch, assistant men’s basketball coach Torrey Ward and the pilot Tom Hileman.

No matter their positions, these men had a love for the Redbirds.

Their flight was returning to Bloomington from Indianapolis after watching the 2015 Final Four Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.

On Monday morning, the community, family members and former staff, including former head coach Dan Muller and former athletic director Larry Lyons gathered around the Redbird Remembrance Memorial, sharing stories, tears and laughter about their missed loved ones.

“It’s certainly not the way that you want to see some of those people. But it was great to be together this morning and there were a lot of hugs, a lot of tears, a lot of stories being told,” said Mike Williams, associate athletic director for communications. “Hopefully, it helped the families in some way to further know their legacies are never going to be forgotten, at least by us here in the athletic department.”

After the plane crash, families of the victims joined together to create ‘Project 7’. It encourages people to do seven random acts of kindness on April 7.

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