Philadelphia ? For Dan Pidcock, a onetime football player at Wichita State, every Thanksgiving is more meaningful than most people’s.

Fact is, every day is more meaningful.

Pidcock, who attended high school in Delaware County and is the longtime football coach at Clearview High in Mullica Hill, Gloucester County, could have been on the ill-fated plane that carried numerous Wichita State football players, school administrators and supporters on Oct. 2, 1970.

The chartered plane, one of two that was en route to Wichita State’s game at Utah State, crashed into a Colorado mountain and killed 31 passengers, including 14 football players. Nine survived ” a copilot and eight Wichita State football players, three of whom happened to be Pidcock’s roommates.

Pidcock, who was attending Wichita State on a football scholarship, knows that if it wasn’t for a medical condition that forced him to the sideline he probably would have also been on that plane.

At the time of the crash, Pidcock’s parents were in England, where his father had been transferred because of his job at Sun Oil.

Pidcock’s mother didn’t see her son until Christmas ” nearly three months after the crash. It was an emotional reunion.

“She said, ‘We were always upset when you couldn’t play because of your blood pressure, but maybe there was a reason for it,’ ” Pidcock said.

Even now, 32 years after the crash, Pidcock finds it difficult to talk about the tragedy. He says he has never mentioned it to any of the football teams he has coached at Clearview since 1974.

Known for his upbeat personality and enthusiasm, Pidcock, 54, becomes somber and somewhat withdrawn when the tragedy is revisited.

“It’s something you think about, but you move on,” he said. “But you don’t forget about it. You reflect to yourself.”

Especially on Thanksgiving.

While he attended Wichita State, Pidcock fondly recalls enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of the Colemans, who were among the school’s biggest boosters. They died in the plane crash.

In the mid-1960s, Pidcock was a top-notch fullback at Nether Providence in Wallingford, Delaware County.

He was also a starter on the school’s basketball team.

After graduation, he attended Kilgore Junior College in Texas and helped the football team win a national junior college championship. He landed a scholarship to Wichita State, coached by his former junior college coach, Boyd Converse.

Wichita State’s staff also included Jimmy Johnson.

At Wichita State, Pidcock was moved to defense. He started for the Shockers in 1968 and 1969. After the ’69 season, however, he was diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on medication.

When the 1970 football season rolled around, Pidcock’s condition grew worse.

“The headaches were incredible,” he said.

As Wichita State’s season started, Pidcock was in the hospital. He remained there for nearly three weeks before returning to classes on a Monday.

“The doctor said I couldn’t fly the rest of the year and that I should sit out” the remainder of the season, he said.

Four days after he was released from the hospital, the plane crashed.

Pidcock, who is still taking blood-pressure medication, never played football again. The next year, he concentrated on earning his degree. He graduated from Wichita State in May of 1971 with a degree in health and physical education.

Four months later, he was working as a physical-education teacher at Clearview. He became a football assistant in 1973 and the Pioneers’ head coach in 1974.

In 29 seasons, his teams have compiled a 123-138-7 record, including a 6-3 mark this season ” a year in which the Pioneers qualified for the South Jersey Group 3 playoffs.

Pidcock, say those associated with the program, is a man of deep principles, a man with a deep character. Part of that character was created by the tragic events of Oct. 2, 1970.

“Dan doesn’t like to talk about it, but from what others tell me, from that day on, he knew he was meant to be a football coach,” Clearview athletic director Greg Horton said. “And he’s dedicated his life to it.”