“I wanted (the players) to be able to thank those people that protect us.”
GAINESVILLE, Va. — Rose Zhang wasn’t even born when the Twin Towers fell 23 years ago. Most of the players, and even the captains, on this year’s Solheim Cup team were too young to remember much about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, or what it meant to the nation. The average age of Team USA is 27.
But on Wednesday, in the shadow of Washington, D.C., U.S. captain Stacy Lewis did her best to honor those whose lives were lost and all the brave men and women who have served.
“Everything I’ve done this week has been because of 9/11 this week,” said Lewis as she met with the press at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. “We get to do this because of the first responders, because of the military, and I wanted these players to know that, and I wanted them to be able to thank those people that protect us.”
Lewis, whose brother-in-law is a former Navy SEAL, organized a trip to the Pentagon on Monday, where a number of three- and four-star generals asked to stop by to speak to the team. One general even walked a practice round with the U.S. team on Tuesday.
Team USA’s uniforms were inspired by the six branches of the military. The team bags are loaded with history, including script of the Constitution.
A Team USA flag and eagle golf bag logo for the 2024 Solheim Cup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. (Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, there was a moment of silence on the first tee at 8:46 a.m. to commemorate when the first plane crashed into the North Tower. Throughout the morning tee times, players Zoomed with a military base in Germany, taking questions from American kids with an interest in golf.
There’s a USO military outpost on the grounds at RTJ. ServePro also sponsored a First Responders Celebrity 9-Hole Challenge on Wednesday, where members of the fire, police and Emergency Medical Services were paired with celebrities in a nine-hole scramble. In addition, there was a driving contest for kids from the USO.
First responders receive complimentary grounds tickets during practice days and 50 percent off two grounds tickets during competition days.
“It’s super emotional, I think, for me and for everyone on the team,” said 26-year-old Andrea Lee, “to be able to represent the U.S. this week and honor them. It’s definitely a special week, and we’re definitely thinking about them today.”
Seattle #Seahawks legend Jermaine Kearse reflects on Super Bowl XLIX catch, September 11th terrorist attacks w/ @EdEastonJr
The NFL and the rest of the country stood still on September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks in the United States. Football would return the following weekend, and life began to normalize over time, but no one will ever forget the tragic day and everyone it affected.
Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Seattle Seahawks legend Jermaine Kearse and Jillian Crane, President and CEO of The First Responders Children’s Foundation, before the inaugural Golf Classic Fundraiser to honor local first responders in commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of 9/11.
“I was 11 years old, so I was probably in elementary school or middle school,” Kearse explained of his experience on 9/11. “I grew up in a military family, and so I just remember I was living on JBLM (McChord Air Force Base) out in Washington, and I just remember just how chaotic everything was, and not necessarily knowing what’s going on and having to get it explained to me.
“I was a very young age, but it was just a tragic day for our country, something none of us will forget. I remember living on base, and everything was shut down, so it was pretty chaotic. Being as young as I was, just trying to figure out what was going on, then having it explained, and seeing the impact it had everywhere in the country.”
The First Responders Children’s Foundation was established as part of the country’s rebuilding efforts following the attacks.
“The First Responders Children’s Foundation started 23 years ago,” Crane said. “So we started after really as a response to the attacks on 9/11 in the World Trade Center, 800 children lost a first responder parent, and our founder Al Kahn was in the kid’s toy and licensing business, whose father was young, thought, what’s going to take care of them? We look at it as if one family member serves as a first responder. The whole family serves, so our programs are here for those families.”
Kearse was participating in the Golf Classic Fundraiser and described his competitive energy, especially when it was displayed during his memorable Super Bowl XLIX catch against the New England Patriots.
“It was a really competitive play in one of the biggest moments, one of the year’s biggest games,” Kearse said. “You always try to go out there and compete, position everything. And so every chance we get out there, if we’re competing, it’s going to be no different. Today out there, I’m coming out to compete in this golf tournament. And so it’s built in my DNA to compete and fight for everything. And that’s kind of just what that scenario was, just fighting for the ball to make a play.”
Additional information about FRCF can be found at 1stRCF.org and on Facebook, X, and Instagram @1strcf.
PHOTOS: Remembering college football’s patriotic scenes following Sept. 11, 2001
Sept. 11, 2001 started off as a normal day, and for the Tennessee football team it was game week to take on Steve Spurrier and the Florida Gators.
The Vols and Gators were preparing for their ninth head-to-head meeting in which both schools were ranked in the top-10 since 1990.
Right after 8:45 a.m. EDT, game week changed. The country came to a standstill as the United States was attacked by terrorists in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
Terror started when a first plane hit the north tower of the Twin Towers in New York at 8:46 a.m. EDT.
The game between No. 2 Florida and No. 8 Tennessee quickly became an afterthought and was eventually postponed.
College football games returned later in Sept. 2001.
Below are scenes across college football showcasing patriotism following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
@EdEastonJr spoke to Former Seahawks WR Jermaine Kearse and Jillian Crane, President and CEO of The First Responders Children’s Foundation.
The importance of leadership in the NFL or life can’t be underestimated. Guidance is essential to any level of success, whether on the field or off.
Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Jillian Crane, President and CEO of The First Responders Children’s Foundation, and former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jermaine Kearse before the inaugural Golf Classic Fundraiser to honor local first responders in commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of 9/11.
“We’ve never done any golf tournament before, and this is the inaugural First Responders Children’s Foundation Golf Classic. It all became possible because of Bryan Weeks, PLTgolf, and Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton offering to host,” Crane said of the fundraiser. “[This is an] historic, amazing Golf Club in New York, Bryan came to the organization and said I care about your mission. I love that you’re doing scholarships for children, have the mental health program, and do community engagement.”
Kearse serves on the board of PLTgolf and is proud of his involvement in the inaugural event. He shared his appreciation for the leadership he followed while playing under head coach Pete Carroll with the Seahawks.
“Our head coach, Pete Carroll, did an absolutely great job creating culture,” Kearse explained. “I think that’s one of the biggest keys when you have teams that are winning Super Bowls or success, and that’s what you see at this event today.
“It is just building a culture with the people on the same mindset, the same goals, and coming together as a collective to achieve one goal, and so Pete did such a great job of bringing people from all over the country to be able to buy into one idea and one goal and being able to get people to rally around that.”
Kearse appeared in two Super Bowls for the Seahawks under Carroll, notably winning in Super Bowl XLVIII over the Denver Broncos. He brings his leadership and commitment to winning to ensure the inaugural golf fundraiser is a success.
“We want to start here today and sort of put a flag in the ground and say, I want everyone to think of the first responders Children’s Foundation when anything happens around the country,” said Crane. “First responders, because we’re seeing it now: the fires in Chico, the shooting in Georgia, the hurricanes, the civil unrest, a lot of things happening around the country.”
Additional information about FRCF can be found at 1stRCF.org and on Facebook, X, and Instagram @1strcf.
Rutgers football visited the 9?11 Memorial and Museum on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Rutgers football and Miami toured the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, taking time to remember those who lost their lives in the most devastating terrorist attack in American history.
The trip to One World Observatory and then visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum is part of the lead-up to Thursday’s Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. The visit’s purpose was to connect both programs involved in the game with the history of New York City.
Rutgers, the closest Power Five program to New York City, has visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum on several other occasions.
“As a monument to human dignity, courage, and sacrifice, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum honors the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993, recognizes the courage of those who survived, and salutes those who risked their lives to help others.”
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Every year, Rutgers honors the victims of the World Trade Center attacks. This year, head coach Greg Schiano spoke to the impact of that day and how he remembers learning about the terror attacks during his first stint as head coach at Rutgers.
“It’s very personal. I lost neighbors from when I grew up in North Jersey. Yeah, it was very personal,” Schiano said this past September.
“We were meeting. It was — we were meeting aon third down. I remember I was up at the board, drawing on the board and one of the assistants came in and said a small plane hit one of the towers, and then as we know, 10 minutes later or whatever it was, when everybody started to realize it wasn’t a small plane and the second plane hit.
“And we had a coach on the staff whose wife was working in New York, so he was scrambling, couldn’t get ahold of her. We had two players whose parents worked in the World Trade Center and by the grace of God didn’t go to work that day. We had a bunch of people who had, obviously, connections. It was scary.”
On Wednesday, the teams participated in the ringing of the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
An feature on Sean McDermott was released, and it’s interesting to say the least:
The Buffalo Bills have had a heck of a bye week.
The season hasn’t gone well overall. The Bills are 6-6 and are on the outside looking in at the AFC playoff picture. Making matters worse is a tough matchup on the road next against the Kansas City Chiefs (8-4).
But the hits did not stop there. A feature on Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott by Tyler Dunne was released at GoLongTD.com. It did not paint McDermott in the best of lights.
Part one of the three-part series–which is based on 25 sources, some of whom remained anonymous–is titled “Blame Game.” Mentioned in initial section are critics of the coach.
“He’s a fraud and he’s a finger pointer,” one person noted.
Another source noted that McDermott “never takes accountability. For anything.”
One source said that “you’re fighting against the head coach” when working on the Bills coaching staff.
It is worth noting that in the piece there are sources positive of McDermott’s leadership style.
But the oddest of parts notes how McDermott used a reference to the Sept. 11 attacks during a team meeting. According to the piece, McDermott asked, “What tactics do you think [the terrorists] used to come together?”
“I don’t know why he’s that awkward but his social skills are lacking,” an anonymous player told Dunne. “Maybe he’s just wound-up thinking about ball. You’ve got to talk to the team every day. That’s one where maybe he heard it on a podcast. Next episode! That’s not the one to lead with. He was trying to bring the team together. It was a horrible, horrible reference. He missed the mark.”
The full feature can be found at Go Long (subscribe here).
Greg Schiano remembers how his Rutgers football team reacted to the September 11 atttacks.
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — September 11, 2001 will remain a date that won’t soon be forgotten in New York and New Jersey. For Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano, the memory of that day 22 years ago is more than just ingrained in him.
In many ways, the events of that September morning changed him permanently.
While his coaching career has taken him to places including Chicago, Miami and Tampa Bay among other spots, New Jersey has always been home for Schiano. Between being born in Wyckoff and playing his high school football at Rampao, as well as the two coaching stints at Rutgers, he has spent well over half his life in the state.
New Jersey is in Schiano’s bloodstream. So when the Rutgers head coach talks about 9/11, there is a reserved passion that fills his voice.
The words are those of someone who felt the two attacks that day, senseless acts of terrorism that claimed people who had touched Schiano’s life from when he was growing up.
“It’s very personal. I lost neighbors from when I grew up in North Jersey. Yeah, it was very personal,” Schiano said.
“We were meeting. It was — we were meeting aon third down. I remember I was up at the board, drawing on the board and one of the assistants came in and said a small plane hit one of the towers, and then as we know, 10 minutes later or whatever it was, when everybody started to realize it wasn’t a small plane and the second plane hit.
“And we had a coach on the staff whose wife was working in New York, so he was scrambling, couldn’t get ahold of her. We had two players whose parents worked in the World Trade Center and by the grace of God didn’t go to work that day. We had a bunch of people who had, obviously, connections. It was scary.”
He can recall standing on the practice field and seeing the plumes of smoke as the two Twin Towers lay in ruins. The eery calm of the sky on a beautiful September day, where no airplanes were flying overhead.
The sense of not knowing what to do next.
The Rutgers athletic director at the time was Bob Mulcahy. Schiano remembers Mulcahy, who passed away last year, telling him that the decision was made to cancel the game.
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Schiano knew it was the right call without question.
In the hours after the terror strikes, television and radio reports were filled with rumors and speculation, transfixed on the empty hole in the New York City skyline. His young team, many of whom grew up in the shadows of the iconic towers, needed something in that moment.
Even against the backdrop of a city that had turned into a triage center in a matter of hours, his team voiced an opinion about what to do next.
“They wanted to go out and practice. I’ll never forget that. ‘No, let’s go out and do something.’ They didn’t want to just sit around,” Schiano said.
“We weren’t having a game but we went out and practiced and you know, the coach whose wife was working, he spent all his time trying to get ahold of her. It was scary for all of us, right, and especially in the proximity, having it be in our own backyard.”
In the attacks, 37 alums from Rutgers died. The football program reached out to many of the families to obtain permission to put the names of their loved ones on a helmet.
The families were also presented with a jersey worn in the game.
“I think we all know that that day changed our world, and — for everybody, but especially for the people who lost loved ones,” Schiano said.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh talked about how was honor to play in New York on the 21st anniversary of 9/11
The Baltimore Ravens traveled to East Rutherford, New Jersey to face off against the New York Jets on the 21st anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11. There were many emotions that went into the day, and on the football field Baltimore was able to beat New York by the final score of 24-9.
After the game, head coach John Harbaugh spoke to the media and discussed how much of an honor it was to be playing against the Jets at MetLife Stadium on 9/11. He took the time to display his gratitude for first responders, both in New York and back in Baltimore while also taking the time to thank service members all over.
“Thanks everyone for being here on a really important day. It was really an honor, we felt like, to be here on 9/11, and to be in New York City and to get a chance to take a walk last night, I did with some of the other coaches. We walked around and got a chance to see the [twin] towers [memorial] site and the lights. It was just surreal. The full moon was out, the lights were incredible, and it makes you think back to that day, what, 21 years ago? My daughter was born that year. So, it’s very meaningful for everybody, and we have the upmost respect and gratitude for our first responders, for the NYPD, FDNY and the Port Authority here in New York and everywhere … The Baltimore Police Department, the Baltimore County Police Department and Fire Departments, which are mostly volunteer, and all across the country. We have the upmost respect and gratitude for what they do and for our service members here and overseas for everything they do”.
“Offensive, disrespectful,” Strada said of the LIV event, which is paid for in part by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
BEDMINSTER, New Jersey — After nearly 21 years and what seems to be an endless river of pain, this is what the 9/11 story has come to.
Three relatives of victims of America’s deadliest terror attack — a wife who lost her husband; a mother who lost her son; a son who lost his father — stood Tuesday on a patch of grass by the local public library in this community of rolling hills and horse pastures. Two miles away sat a golf course owned by former President Donald Trump.
It was 9:20 a.m. The humidity and 90-degree temperatures of recent days had softened. But tempers still steamed over Trump’s decision to host a golf tournament financed by Saudi Arabia despite new declassified FBI files with evidence that at least a dozen Saudi officials provided financial and logistical support to the team of Islamists who pulled off the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
The LIV Golf tournament, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, begins Thursday with a one-day pro-am competition, followed on Friday by a three-day, 54-hole tournament featuring such stars as Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.
The LIV Golf series, which features several tournaments in the coming months, culminating at Trump’s Doral course in Miami, describes itself as “golf as you’ve never seen it.” That may be one of the most prophetic understatements of sports — in this case, with the additional controversy of 9/11 and Saudi Arabia’s alleged links to Islamist terrorism lurking in the shadows.
None of the golfers signed up to play have commented in depth about accusations that they are wrongfully taking money from a regime that also supported the 9/11 attacks, in which 19 operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network — 15 of whom were Saudi citizens — hijacked four commercial jetliners on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The hijackers crashed two jets into the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon and a fourth into a farm field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, on the lawn outside Bedminster’s Clarence Dillon Public Library, here was Terry Strada, who lost her husband, Tom, in the rubble of the trade center’s twin towers, which collapsed after the hijacked jets crashed into them. Only four days before Tom perished, Strada, who lived at the time in nearby Basking Ridge, gave birth to the couple’s youngest child.
“Offensive, disrespectful,” Strada said of the golf tournament, which is paid for in part with some $2 billion from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
“A multibillion-dollar public relations stunt,” she added — all aimed to “sports-wash” the Saudi connection from 9/11.
‘Golf, but louder’
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Two miles down Lamington Road, past the Rocking Horse Farm and a sign that advertised sheep and lambs for sale, you heard another story at Trump’s golf course. It was the story of a business transaction, with scores of workers making final arrangements for the LIV Golf tournament.
Some workers drove golf carts. Others checked on the LIV marketing signs that proclaimed “Golf, but louder” and “Don’t blink.” The front steps of the mansion, where Trump posed between American flags with prospective Cabinet members in the weeks after he won the presidential election in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton, were now adorned with signs offering instructions for caddies.
Trump was not there. On Tuesday, he flew to Washington, D.C. — his first trip to the nation’s capital since leaving office 18 months ago — for a speech at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank formed by a group of his former aides to promote his policies.
In his speech, Trump, who has hinted that he plans to run for the White House again in 2024, did not talk about Saudi Arabia’s link to 9/11. But in an interview beforehand with the Wall Street Journal, Trump praised what he believes is positive publicity for Saudi Arabia for funding the LIV Golf series.
“I do think that the publicity that they’ve gotten, more than anything, has been a great thing for them,” Trump told the Journal. “I think the publicity they’ve gotten is worth billions of dollars. It’s one of the hottest things to have happened in sports, and sports is a big part of life.”
Of the 9/11 victims and their relatives, Trump said: “I don’t know much about the 9/11 families, I don’t know what is the relationship to this, and their very strong feelings, and I can understand their feelings. I can’t really comment on that because I don’t know exactly what they’re saying, and what they’re saying who did what.”
A week ago, amid growing criticism of the Saudi link to the LIV tournament, Trump posted a message for pro-golfers: “Take the money” from LIV. Trump did not address the Saudi connection to 9/11.
But on Monday, in response to a letter mailed to Trump at his Bedminster golf course by 9/11 victims’ relatives, a woman identifying herself as an aide to the former president called Brett Eagleson, who lost his father, Bruce, in the rubble of the trade center and has emerged as an ardent critic of Trump and Saudi Arabia.
“I was riding my lawn mower,” said Eagleson, who lives in Middletown, Connecticut. “The call came from a blocked number. I thought it was spam. I took it anyway.”
Eagleson told NorthJersey.com in an interview that he did not “catch the woman’s name.” He said she told him that Trump wanted him to know that 9/11 victims were “very near and dear to him.”
If that’s so, Eagleson said, he wonders why Trump would play host to the LIV Golf tournament, knowing that it is sponsored by the official Saudi investment fund.
Eagleson said the Trump aide told him the “LIV contract was binding.”
“Trump is known for breaking contracts,” Eagleson said. “The call was essentially a b.s. call that left me more frustrated than ever. Clearly we are not getting through to the president.”
Celebrities claim ‘fake outrage’
Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley talk on the eighth green during Capital One’s The Match: Champions For Change at Stone Canyon Golf Club on November 27, 2020, in Oro Valley, Arizona. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images for The Match
Trump is not the only source of frustration for 9/11 families, though.
Former basketball star Charles Barkley, who is openly marketing himself as a possible TV analyst for upcoming LIV Golf tournaments, told a Philadelphia sports talk radio interviewer on Saturday that the relatives of 9/11 victims and other critics of the Saudi support for LIV Golf were expressing “fake outrage.”
“All this noise I hear about sports-washing and blood money — I think these people are so disingenuous with their fake outrage,” Barkley told radio host Howard Eskin. “Everybody in sports has taken blood money.”
Eagleson quickly fired off a response to Barkley.
“Your comments on Saudi Arabia 9/11 LIV outrage are ignorant,” he said, sharing his sentiments with NorthJersey.com. “Perhaps you think our outrage is fake because you haven’t seen the dead bodies. Unfortunately, I haven’t either as my dad was burned alive when the towers fell on him. We never recovered his remains. Never got to say goodbye.”
Barkley did not respond. He is scheduled on Thursday to headline the LIV-sponsored pro-am tournament.
What took place Tuesday morning in Bedminster — and in the previous weeks — illustrates the continuing disconnect between those who want to pull back the layers of secrecy that have long clouded the 9/11 story and those who want to move on — or conveniently forget.
What troubles many 9/11 victims and their relatives is the thousands of pages of newly released evidence linking Saudi Arabia to the 9/11 attacks. This includes reports that Saudi officials — including at least one connected to the Saudi intelligence service — helped several of the 11 Islamists who carried out the attacks and hid in North Jersey before that fateful day, renting apartments, opening bank accounts and even joining local gyms.
To highlight some of this evidence and criticize the golf tournament at Trump’s course, a group of relatives of 9/11 victims, including Dennis McGinley of Haworth, who lost his brother, Dan, of Ridgewood, filmed a TV commercial in which they referred to the Saudis as offering “blood money.”
“This golf tournament is taking place 50 miles from Ground Zero,” McGinley said in the 30-second spot, which is scheduled to be broadcast on the Fox network and cable channels catering to golf fans. Ground Zero was the nickname given by rescue workers to the seven-story pile of rubble left behind after the collapse of the trade center’s twin towers.
Standing on the lawn outside the Dillon Library in Bedminster on Tuesday, Alison Crowther wondered when the full truth about the attacks that killed her son, Welles, will be known.
Crowther drove nearly 70 miles from her home in Upper Nyack, New York. She pleaded with a gaggle of TV crews and other journalists to plumb the newly released FBI files that offer a compelling litany of evidence that links at least a dozen Saudi officials — including a former ambassador to the U.S. — to the 9/11 attacks.
Crowther even brought a red bandana to remind onlookers that her son, Welles, became known as the “man in the red bandana” after he was spotted leading office workers to safety on Sept. 11, 2001.
After helping one group of workers out of the burning South Tower, Welles went back inside to search for others. But the tower collapsed.
She pulled the bandana from her purse and stared at it silently for a few seconds.
“Sometimes I think our government is more interested in protecting everyone else and has forgotten us,” she said.
A few steps away, Matthew Bocchi of New Vernon sat silently in a chair as he waited to speak. He was just 9 years old when his father, John, died at the trade center’s North Tower.
Bocchi pulled out his wallet and showed a photo of his father — then just 38, and, like his son now, sporting a bushy head of jet-black hair.
“People say I look like him,” Bocchi said.
The memories, he said, keep him strong. And while the LIV Golf tournament is certainly distressing — and Trump’s lack of response disheartening — Bocchi said he plans to keep pressing for the full truth on the 9/11 attacks.
Moments later, he rose to speak to the crowd. He told of what it was like to watch the video footage of the burning towers on that fateful September Tuesday in 2001. He spoke of what it was like to grow up without a father. He accused the golfers who play in the LIV tournament of taking “blood money.”
Then he paused and looked at the crowd. An even larger group of relatives of 9/11 victims plans to meet on the lawn at the library on Friday when the tournament begins.
“We, as 9/11 families, are not going away,” Bocchi said.
Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com as well as the author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer.
