9/11 '25
I <3 NY
Hey,
So today is 24 years since Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Usually, every Thursday, there is a mix of banter, and the rest of the time, I get to write about fun stories like Guinness, sports, or music. That said, writing about New York bars or sports teams like any other day wouldn't sit right.
My memory of 9/11 is similar to that of most people my age who grew up in the Tri-State. Over the years, from talking to friends from high school and college, most of us remembered the day as one of our first memories. Some can recall they got picked up from school early, or they could pick something out that was bizarre, even from a young elementary schooler's perspective. We didn’t know what was going on, but neither did the adults. My family was living in Westwood, NJ, at the time, so we met up at my grandparents after school with my mom and aunts. It was probably one of the few times I ever watched the news on TV while we waited for my dad, grandpa, and uncles to get home. At the time, my dad was working on the GW Bridge, while my uncles and grandpa were working in Manhattan. Thankfully, they would all get home safely. I also want to add that plenty of my future classmates had parents who were cops and firefighters who stayed or headed into the city. I can only imagine how scary that must’ve felt.
With the help of 150 different vessels and 600 sailors, more than 500,000 people were rescued and evacuated from Lower Manhattan following the attacks. The only other rescue event comparable to this in scope was when Allied troops evacuated Dunkirk in 1940. Unfortunately, the 9/11 attacks left 2,977 victims dead across New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. 2,753 victims of which died in the Twin Towers, 2,312 were civilians, along with 441 first responders.
My dad worked on some of the construction cleanup of Ground Zero and I’ll never forget visiting the site the following spring. It was jarring even for a 1st grader who couldn’t comprehend everything. During that time, you could feel the emotional weight and it must’ve taken a while before anything started to feel a bit normal again. Today is still tough for many people, and my sympathies will always be with those directly affected.
The Man in the Red Bandana
Every year on 9/11, ESPN runs a feature on The Man in the Red Bandana. That man would be Welles Crowther. Welles was a 24-year-old rookie equities trader who worked in the World Trade Center’s South Tower. He grew up in Nyack, NY, and from the time he was a kid, he always kept a red bandana as a Crowther family trademark. The bandana would be in his pocket as he was a volunteer firefighter in high school and under his sports uniform when he attended Boston College to play lacrosse.
When the South Tower was struck, people on the 78th-floor sky lobby had no idea what to do. As far as they could tell, they were trapped up there with no way out. Then a man with a red bandana covering his nose and mouth appeared from the wreckage and smoke to guide them to the stairway. The Man in the Red Bandana would make 3 trips to the sky lobby, saving as many people as he could along the way before the building collapsed.
A few months after 9/11, many survivors had stories about a man wearing a red bandana. Eventually, enough word got out that the New York Times wrote an article about a mysterious man with a calm voice who helped save them. When Welles’ mother read the article, she was sure that The Man in the Red Bandana was her son. One of the survivors Welles Crowther rescued, Judy Wein, said it best, “People can live 100 years and not have the compassion, the wherewithal to do what he did.”
(Source: 9/11 Memorial)
O’Hara’s Restaurant and Pub
One of the very first bars that I ever went to for a pint with a Pen and Paper just so happened to be O’Hara’s located at 120 Cedar Street. I was planning on taking the PATH home, but right before I got to the Oculus I bumped into a group of random women who suggested I stopped there for one. As soon as you walk in, it’s easy to tell why it’s recommended.
The bar has been around since 1983 and was located in the shadows of the Twin Towers. It was badly damaged when the North Tower fell and took over a year to get back on its feet. On top of that, the pub lost some of its familiar faces. Family members of regulars would hopelessly call O’Hara’s asking if they had recently turned up for a drink to which case the answer was unfortunately often no. When they reopened, not only did Wall Street workers now visit O’Hara’s but construction workers and firefighters working on the cleanup of Ground Zero would join them. A year after the tragedy, a tradition was set when a construction worker ripped the patch off of a firefighter’s uniform and stapled it to one of the walls. It didn’t take long before thousands of other patches would fill every wall at O’Hara’s. It’s a very special place with a great mix of New Yorkers from all walks of life.
If you’re ever in the area around the World Trade Center, I highly recommend checking it out. Not only do they have the best Guinness in Lower Manhattan but even better company with great people. I need to go back for a 3rd pint.
Here are a handful of stories from the local New York sports teams at the time…
Jets
In the aftermath of 9/11, the Jets, led by their starting QB and Long Island native, Vinny Testeverde, decided they would forfeit their road game the following week. Curtis Martin told ESPN, "Vinny Testaverde stood up the next day, on a Wednesday, in our team meeting, and said, 'Guys, I love you all, but I'm from New York and I've had people die in the World Trade Center, so I won't be on that trip to Oakland with you guys.’ We, as a team, decided that if he wasn't playing, we weren't playing.” Thankfully the NFL decided to postpone the entire Week 2 of ‘01 slate in large part to the Jets players’ movement. The next time the Jets were to take the field, it was against the New England Patriots.
The game was played up in Foxboro and the Patriot crowd was also very welcoming of the Jets much like the crowd at Arrowhead for the Giants. The Patriots guard, Joe Andruzzi, is a New Yorker who grew up in Brooklyn. Andruzzi has 3 brothers, Billy, Jimmy, and Marc, all of whom were in the FDNY and were first responders on 9/11. The Andruzzi brothers joined Joe on the field for the Jets-Pats game, with Joe running out of the tunnel holding two American flags.
(Source: Patriots)
Giants
Jim Fassel was then the Giants’ coach and he urged the players to find a new purpose in their work. Former Giants WR, Amani Toomer recalls, "He said, 'What we can do as football players to help this country is to give them something to cheer about, give them something to talk about, give them a couple of hours of reprieve from what's going on in the world, just a couple hours. I think that was kind of our mantra the whole year." When the Giants returned to the football field, they were set to play the Chiefs in Kansas City. Arrowhead Stadium is a notoriously tough place for opposing players to play, but Toomer said, "We got a standing ovation…It was weird, because everybody talks about that as a tough place to play, and I remember it being a very friendly place to play." Chiefs fans also passed firefighters' boots through the crowd to collect money for the relief effort.
(Source: Giants)
Mets
Baseball in New York had been suspended for 10 days. The Mets played the Braves on September 21, 2001, the 1st sporting event to take place in The City since the attacks. Mike Piazza came to the plate with a runner on in the 8th inning with the Mets down 2-1. Piazza crushed a 2-run shot to left-center as 41,000 New Yorkers erupted in joy. Piazza would later tell MLB Network, “When you have a lot of people pulling for you, you feel it. It was just this incredible release of emotion. And I think, you know, it became evidently clear that people just wanted to cheer about something."
Yankees
Lastly, the Yankees after 9/11 tried to do their part in giving New Yorkers a distraction and a helping hand. Many of the teams in the area did what they could to help in any way possible. Yankee players in particular would go to Ground Zero as well as meet with families of victims. Derek Jeter remembers being speechless. "It was awkward because you meet people who just lost family members. What do you say?” (ESPN)
Bernie Williams recalled being unsure what to do or whether the team should even be there. “I don’t know what to say, but can I give you a hug? I remember looking everybody in the eyes and asking them, ‘You OK? How are you doing? They said, ‘We’ve got our hopes on you guys. You’re gonna do this for us.’ It was like this kinetic energy that I couldn’t really explain sort of passed on to me. And I felt it. I really, really felt it.” (MLB)
The Yankees in 2001 were 1 Out away from winning a 4th World Series in a row and 5th in 6 years. After going down 2-0 in the World Series, they won 3 straight in the Bronx which included two 9th inning two outs in the bottom game-tying homers on back-to-back nights. More importantly, that team was able to provide at least a little bit of normalcy at a time when New York and the United States needed it.
“I think we gave people something to cheer for for three hours a day, which was good. Especially in the playoffs, I thought a lot of people were watching us and pulling for us. I was playing a game. It didn't change anything, but it had people's minds off of it for a couple of hours per day.” - Derek Jeter
