‘Sad. Angry. Disappointed.’ UK’s Mark Stoops reflects on Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Kentucky will host Missouri on Saturday night. That day will mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
On Sept. 11, 2001, four coordinated attacks involving domestic airplanes hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists were carried out across the eastern United States. Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center towers, both of which later collapsed that day. A third plane was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth plane, en route for Washington, D.C., crashed into a vacant field in Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 2,977 people.
University of Kentucky football head coach Mark Stoops was in his first year as the defensive backs coach at Miami. Three days before the Sept. 11 attacks, his Hurricanes had defeated Rutgers, 61-0, to improve to 2-0 in a season that would eventually end with them as the BCS National Champion. They were preparing for a game against Washington scheduled for that weekend.
That game wasn’t played until Nov. 24, as the Big East Conference, of which Miami was a part, was among the first in college sports to postpone its sporting events in the wake of the attacks. Miami didn’t play another football game until Sept. 27, at Pittsburgh.
“I know exactly where I was,” Stoops said of that day. “I was in my office and one of the GA’s, or quality control coaches at the time, had saw that it happened. We were in our defensive meeting and obviously went over to his office and watched it. We saw the (second) plane hit as we watched it.
“Obviously, just shock at that point in time. Shock and a lot of different reactions. Sad. Angry. Disappointed. I think after a short amount of time we knew we weren’t going to play a football game that week.”
Kentucky’s annual Military Appreciation/Heroes Day promotion is active for its home game on Saturday. Military veterans along with police officers, firefighters and first responders are eligible to receive one complimentary ticket for the game and reduced pricing for guest tickets via a partnership with GovX.
