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.”
Two years ago on the twentieth anniversary of September 11, Adidas created special patriotic jerseys and helmets for Rutgers to wear in their game at Syracuse.
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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.
