NCAA Football Team Reveals Special Uniforms in Honor of 9/11 Anniversary
This Saturday will mark the 20th anniversary of the tragic day when planes hijacked by terrorists struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Rutgers University lost 37 alumni during the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. When the football team plays Syracuse exactly 20 years later for Saturday’s road game, they will be donning special uniforms to honor the victims.
The New Jersey university’s football team published a video Thursday revealing the commemorative uniforms its players will wear.
We will never forget the 37 Rutgers alumni and all those who lost their lives in the September 11th attacks. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/1XY2rY65JE
— Rutgers Football (@RFootball) September 9, 2021
According to NJ.com, names of alumni who lost their lives on 9/11 will be printed on players’ helmets. Each helmet will feature the number “37” on the left side to commemorate the number of alumni who were killed.
#NeverForget pic.twitter.com/m23nscVx3y
— Rutgers Football (@RFootball) September 9, 2021
The words “Never Forget” will be written on the helmets, as well as in red letters on the sides of the white jerseys. They will also be featured on the players’ gloves.
Many Twitter users praised the uniforms as a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives. One user said he attended Rutgers and is now an attorney for some of the families who lost loved ones on 9/11.
“As an alum and as a part of a nationwide team of attorneys representing about 60 of our 9/11 Families, this is a beautiful tribute,” he wrote. “The names on the helmet stickers is wonderful.”
As an alum and as a part of a nationwide team of attorneys representing about 60 of our 9/11 Families, this is a beautiful tribute. The names on the helmet stickers is wonderful.
— Jim (@philly_esq) September 9, 2021
In September 2001, Greg Schiano had just begun his 10-year tenure as the head football coach of Rutgers. He returned in December 2019 after spending time in the NFL and with other college teams as a coach, The New York Times reported.
Schiano told 247 Sports he has vivid memories of 9/11 as a young head coach.
“I remember like yesterday,” he said. “I was at the board, on the board drawing. We were game-planning third down for Cal, and it was one of the assistants outside came in and said a small commuter plane just flew into one of the towers … We had coaches who had family members and wives that were working in the city. We had some players, we actually had two players whose parent – moms – were supposed to be in the towers that day. And thank God they weren’t.
“But it was really surreal, and the only thing I knew to do, as a very young head coach in my first year, was rally the guys in here. So we met and got all the players together, and just told them, ‘This is what’s happening. I can’t tell you, I don’t know any more than you do. But we are just gonna stick together here.’ They wanted to be together and that was a good thing.”
As the Scarlet Knights take on Syracuse this week, he said his team has not forgotten the significance of that day.
“So, certainly 20 years later, we don’t forget them, and we’re going to be doing something for a tribute to 911 as a team,” he said. “I think it’s appropriate playing a New York Team – New Jersey and New York – the people that are around it the most.”
Other teams are also planning to wear special uniforms on Saturday. Boston College will wear their now-famous “red bandana” jerseys, which are meant to honor alum Welles Crowther for his actions on 9/11.
Per @CoachJeffHafley , @BCFootball will wear the Red Bandanna uniforms Saturday on the 20th anniversary of 9-11. #ForWelles
— Jason Baum (@JasonBaumPR) September 8, 2021
According to WBUR-FM, Crowther saved at least 18 people by leading them to an exit out of the south tower. He went back into the building in an attempt to rescue more people, but it collapsed before he could escape. He became known as “the man in the red bandana,” and his story was made into a documentary in 2017.
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