Sponsored by
Hello and welcome to another edition of Cus Words Sports!
Today we continue the Tressel Tales, a weekly feature recapping the first season of Jim Tressel’s tenure as Ohio State football head coach.
The second game of the Jim Tressel’s tenure as Ohio State’s head football coach was supposed to be played on Sept. 15, 2001, but that did not happen.
A visit from San Diego State had to be pushed to October because of the national tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001, when planes flown by terrorists took down the World Trade Center towers in New York City, another went into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
The sports world paused throughout the country, including in Ohio where the Buckeyes were touched by the tragedy in multiple ways.
Want chef-crafted, dietitian-designed meals ready in 2 minutes?
Try Factor, America's #1 ready-to-eat meal delivery service.
Made from ingredients you recognize. Whole food. Nothing unnecessary. Let’s eat real.
Get 50% off your first Factor box + Free Breakfast for a year *1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year while subscription active.
Tragedy hits close to home for 4 Buckeyes
The 2001 Ohio State football roster included four players from the New York City metro area, but one was more directly affected by the tragedy than the others.
Andrew Maxwell, a freshman walk-on offensive lineman, was unable to connect with his mother, Olga, for much of that terrible Tuesday that shook the nation.
She was scheduled to be at work at the World Trade Center that morning.
“She is supposed to be at work between 9-10 a.m.,” Maxwell later explained. “She was running late and wasn’t in the building yet when everything started to happen.”
Maxwell finally connected with her thanks to Adrien Clarke’s cell phone nearly 12 hours after the attack to learn she was safe.
“It was just a huge sense of relief to hear her voice,” Maxwell said. “She was trying to reach me all day but because of the phone problems in New York, she as unable to.”
Another offensive lineman, Shane Olivea of Cedarhurst, N.Y., was also closely affected as his sister worked near the Empire State Building, but she was ok.
“The devastation it caused was traumatic and tremendous,” Olivea said. “It lets you know at a time like this people should be with their families and loved ones.”
David Thompson, a defensive tackle from Patterson, N.J., grew up just across the river from NYC.
“Looking over there, you’d see the twin towers,” Thompson said. “I was mad at how it happened, how they let it happen.”
The other Buckeye from the area was running back Sammy Maldonado of Harrison, just north of the city.
To play or not to play?
Like just about everyone in the country, people at Ohio State were unsure how to react as the attacks were unfolding that Tuesday morning.
Tressel still held his weekly press luncheon at the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe, but practice was canceled and the players had not started classes yet.
“There are a lot of emotions,” Tressel said. “You are mad at the people who are doing it. You don’t want them to ruin this country, but then you also have to be compassionate and think of the families and the people. We can’t even visualize what’s taken place, the disaster. As we sit here, that puts a lot les importance on Saturday.”
Ultimately, the SDSU game was postponed until October when both teams had the same open date in the schedule.
“It was very clear that trying to play this game would be the wrong thing to do,” OSU director of athletics Andy Geiger said. “I cannot imagine, feeling the way I feel right now and seeing the pictures on television that we’ve seen all day long, bringing 100,000 people to Ohio Stadium in four days.”
As the sports world grappled with what happened, there was initially some debate about whether or not the games should be go on as a matter of national pride.
Ohio State ultimately was among the first schools to announce it would not play the following weekend, though the Buckeyes did have practice on Sept. 12.
“Yesterday was not a good practice,” tailback Jonathan Wells said on Sept. 13. “We weren’t really focused out there and we had good reason not to be, but today we came in and had a team meeting before practice and realized that we have to move on with our lives. Our thoughts and prayers are still with the victims, but w’still go to go forward and try to get better.”
Given the nature of the attacks — four commercial flights were hi-jacked from different locations — the players naturally had some trepidation about getting on a plane for UCLA a week later.
Some of those concerns were allayed by the fact they traveled via private charter, but there was also the prospect of being in a huge stadium full of people.
“It makes you think,” linebacker Joe Cooper said. “On Saturday, especially at a school like Ohio State, there’s going to be a lot of people. I’m no genius. I don’t know anything, but to me it seems like they’d try to attack where there's a lot of people. There’s over 100,000 people in the Horseshoe on Saturday, so it’s in the back of your mind.”
Unify Your Teams and Tech Stack With HubSpot
Connect your customer data, teams, and tools without the hassle of complex integrations or lengthy setups. One easy platform gives marketing, sales, and service teams a unified customer view and the tools to turn it into growth.
Why HubSpot and what's new
• Generate leads and automate marketing with Marketing Hub
• Build your pipeline and close more deals with Sales Hub
• Scale customer support and drive retention with Service Hub
• Keep customer data clean, connected, and actionable with one, unified platform
Join 306,000+ in over 135 countries using HubSpot to grow their businesses.
See what a more connected approach to growth can do for you and your team. Get setup quickly and start checking off your hardest tasks.
Rally raises thousands for charity
Before the games resumed, Ohio Stadium was the site of a rally attended by an estimate 15,000 on Sept. 15.
Speakers included Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Ohio State president William “Brit” Kirwan, Columbus mayor Michael Coleman, Tressel and Geiger.
The OSU Marching Band plays patriotic songs, but a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” was one of the highlights as it rang out through an otherwise silent stadium.
WBNS reported taking in more than $500,000 via donations at the stadium and a telethon held in conjunction with the rally.
“A week ago today, we came out in front of 100,000 fans, and I wasn’t sure there would ever be a more glorious day in Ohio Stadium,” Tressel said during the rally. “But once again, Central Ohio proved us wrong. There’s never been a more glorious day in Ohio Stadium than today.”
Ohio State returned to play Sept. 22 at UCLA, a game we will recap next week in Tressel Tales.
Previous editions of the Tressel Tales:
Like what you see? Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss another edition. It’s free and includes my weekly roundup of what’s going on with the current Ohio State football team — This Week in Ohio State Football — as well as other new editions of the Cus Words Sports newsletter.
