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By Noah Trister
The Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy and Air Force have played football since 1960, and this is the first meeting between the teams.
When the two service academies announced late last year that the game was being moved from its usual location in early October, no explanation was needed.
On September 11, the Navy-Air Force took center stage as the American sports world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Players from both teams carried flags on the pitch before kick-off. There was a moment of silence before the national anthem, then a flyby with two Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning and two Boeing F / A-18 Hornets.
During a halftime signing of America the Beautiful, Midshipmen flew a large American flag and the names of Navy and Air Force graduates lost on September 11 were displayed on the video panel.
Elsewhere, Army players also carried flags on the field for their home game against Western Kentucky. In Nebraska, former Navy SEAL Damian Jackson, a 29-year-old linebacker, led the Cornhuskers onto the field wearing a flag and flanked by first responders, including a health worker.
Nebraska coach Scott Frost introduced the family to Marine Cpl. Daegan Page with a Cornhuskers jersey before the match. Page was one of 13 US servicemen killed on August 26 in a terrorist bombing at Kabul airport in Afghanistan. The 23-year-old page was from Omaha.
In Minnesota’s game against Miami of Ohio, the family of the late Tom Burnett Jr. were honored on the field after the first quarter. Burnett, a native of Minnesota, was one of the passengers on Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania on September 11.
In a ceremony ahead of its game against Kennesaw State, Georgia Tech paid tribute to Atlanta Police Officer and former New York Paramedic Jay Pagan, who worked at the Twin Towers for search and rescue following the attacks. and was trapped in the debris. Pagan was awarded the game ball in a pre-game Heroes Day ceremony.
Boston College wore its red bandana uniforms against Massachusetts, and the names were changed to “For Welles”. Since 2014, the Eagles have occasionally worn uniforms with a red bandana in memory of Welles Crowther, a former British Columbia lacrosse player who died helping rescue people from the World Trade Center in the 2001 attack. Survivors identified Crowther by the red bandana he was known to wear at all times.
At the US Open in New York, before the start of a women’s final between two players who were not even born on September 11, cadets from the US Military Academy unfurled a giant American flag that covered almost -total Arthur’s land. Ashe Stadium. While Britain’s Emma Raducanu, 18, and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, 19, played, “9/11/01” was written on the side of the pitch.
At Richmond Raceway, Virginia, a 1,100-pound piece of steel from the Twin Towers was on display halfway, along with a memorial wall. The Cubs led the pledge of allegiance before the afternoon NASCAR Xfinity race kicked off a double race schedule.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was competing in the Xfinity race for his only race of the year before heading to the NBC booth for the Cup race later on Saturday. Earnhardt won the first NASCAR Cup race when the series resumed after the week off of September 11.
Earnhardt, who also lost his father in February of that year, waved the American flag out of his car window during celebratory burnouts in an image associated with the sport and its 9/11 tributes.
“I feel a little connected on that date because of what happened in our sport when we returned to Dover and with what was going on in my own life that year,” Earnhardt Jr. said on September 10. year. I think it’s important that we continue to remember and honor all those affected by September 11 all these years later.
As of September 11, 2001, IndyCar was already in Germany (as the CART Series) preparing for its weekend race – and was the only US-based series to compete that weekend. On Saturday at Portland International Raceway, the teams were called to the grid for a 15-second minute of silence.
Attention turns to the baseball field on Saturday night when the Mets host the Yankees. This is the first time the Subway series has straddled 9/11.
Bobby Valentine, who led the Mets in 2001, planned to throw a ceremonial first pitch for Joe Torre, the Yankees’ skipper at the time. Mike Piazza and more than a dozen other 2001 Mets players are also expected. Piazza memorably scored a home run for the Mets on September 21, 2001, in the team’s opener at Shea Stadium.
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