LAST IMAGES: A Life on the Sidelines

According to a family member arrangements are incomplete. Klingle Carpenter will be in charge; burial will be at Woodmere. His mother, father and sister preceded him in death.

Spencer is best remembered for having shot the game winning catch in the Marshall University-Xavier game, which was the Young Thundering Herd’s first victory since the November 14, 1970 plane crash. The play which is featured in the Warner Bros movie, “We Are Marshall,” gave the Herd its first and only win of the 1971 season.

Photographing the lives of famous athletics , notable politicians, beauty queens, cheerleaders, fans, and celebrities, Spencer spent games walking up and down the sidelines of athletic fields, whether at the former Fairfield Stadium , Joan C. Edwards , Gullickson Hall, Cam Henderson Center, Veterans Memorial Field House,  

Although sources indicated that Chris Spencer played football at Huntington High School, the award-winning photographer’s biggest battle came with diabetes. The disease eventually claimed his left foot. He made his way along the fields, courts, halls, roadways, and sidelines on a prosthesis.

Marshall Communications Director David Wellman described the photographers come back from the amputation as remarkable. Some doubted that he would return to the sidelines, but he did.

Huntington Mayor Kim Wolfe called him a “friend,” although they had not had dinner together. Kim remembered Chris on the Marshall football sidelines when he was a Huntington police officer, Cabell County Sheriff and now Mayor.