Ohio’s football team was scheduled to play at North Carolina State in a rare Thursday night game Sept. 13, 2001. After that Tuesday morning’s attacks, however, the contest was postponed for more than two months.
There were several reasons for the delay, but one was simply that the team members had other things on their mind, then-coach Brian Knorr said.
“A lot of guys on our staff have friends and family that work at the Pentagon,” Knorr said, according to the Sept. 12, 2001, issue of The Post. “Our thoughts definitely moved away from football.”
Chad Brinker, a running back on the 2001 team, said the cancellation had been necessary.
“It’s not important considering the tragedy that has to be dealt with,” he told The Post in 2001. “There’s more to life than football.”
Then-Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh said he did not believe OU was the only university to postpone athletic events, according to the Post article. In addition to the football game, the university canceled cross-country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball contests originally scheduled for the weekend after 9/11.
“Our thoughts should be with the victims and their families,” Boeh told The Post Sept. 13, 2001. “Our responsibility, as we see it, is to take the safe measure. At some point in time, everyone will agree, life goes on. You have to try to regain some level of normalcy, but at the same time it’s going to take some folks a few days to absorb things.”
The decision to postpone OU games in light of the attacks has been lauded by current coaches.
“Should we have canceled games then? Yes, I think so, to reflect on our people that we’ve lost and then see if there is anything we all can do to help at this time,” baseball coach Joe Carbone said. “But then after that … I think we have to move on and learn from what happened in the past.”
Current OU football coach Frank Solich, who was head coach at the University of Nebraska at the time, voiced some of the same beliefs.
“There were so many more important things going on at that time than football games,” Solich said. “It all came back to the personnel at these schools making sound decisions.”
After hearing of the attacks, Carbone gathered his team together as the day’s events came into focus.
“I remember talking to my team about what had happened,” Carbone said, “about how vulnerable we are now and how much we have to fight to protect our country and some of those things. You realize in today’s society how vulnerable everyone is, no matter where they are. It was a wake-up call for all of us, I think.”
Carbone’s cousin’s son is a New York City fireman, and the coach said 9/11 was particularly trying for his family as they waited to hear whether their relative was safe.
“Things mean more to you when there are people close to you that are in harm’s way,” Carbone said.
rm279109@ohiou.edu
