Weave a Single Thread: The Return of College Football Following the 9/11 Attacks

Weave a Single Thread 

The Return of College Football Following the 9/11 Attacks 

By Denis M. Crawford, College Football Hall of Fame Historian 

Two teams 500 miles apart had similar questions on the morning of September 11, 2001: What next? 

As members of the South Carolina Gamecocks and Mississippi State Bulldogs went to class and/or workouts, news reports of the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the routine of a game week. These two Top 20 programs, each coming off wins against border rivals, should have been preparing for non-conference foes: South Carolina against Bowling Green and Mississippi State against BYU. Within minutes, however, the world as we all knew it had been shattered and the future was uncertain.  

At first, the SEC, along with the Big Ten and Big 12, elected to play the upcoming weekend, so players and coaches at both schools went back to work. The three conferences reversed their decision at the end of the week when the National Football League announced it was postponing all games that weekend. September 15 became the first time in the history of college football that a full slate of regularly scheduled Saturday games would not be played. Even in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, some games were played just two days later including the annual Oklahoma-Nebraska game.  

Heading into the weekend, no one knew when the college game would come back as air travel restrictions blanketed the nation and closed campuses dotted the landscape. 

Over the weekend, SEC commissioner and Hall of Fame coach Roy Kramer communicated with the White House and confirmed that President George W. Bush wanted the games to go on the following week so the nation could “move forward in a very positive way.” 

The first such game would be #18 South Carolina facing #17 Mississippi State at Scott Field in Starkville on Thursday, September 20, just nine days after the attacks. Both teams began their game prep on Sunday, although they recall it was still hard to concentrate on football. “You prepare for it as best you can, but your mind is on so many other things,” South Carolina Hall of Fame head coach Lou Holtz said in a 2021 interview. “We had one or two players that lost relatives.” 

In addition to players and coaches preparing for the game, the quick turnaround required a rapid response by Mississippi State as hosting a mass attendance event on September 20 was now radically different than those in a pre-9/11 America. In addition to typical security, Scott Field required the attention of the United State military and the FBI to ensure the safety of 40,000 spectators. Also, South Carolina had to travel by air while there were still no fly zones in a significant portion of the nation.  

South Carolina flew on the day of the game. While happy to be playing, Gamecock wide receiver Ryan Brewer remembered there was no frivolity on board. “There were nerves,” Brewer said in 2021. “I could feel it.” 

After 40,000 fans patiently filed into the stadium through enhanced security that required leaving metal cowbells at home, ESPN’s Mark Jones opened his play-by-play duties by setting the scene with an eloquent opening monologue: 

“College football has always been inextricably and distinctively woven into the fabric of America. A fabric that was temporarily severed but not irreparably on September 11…We are here simply to document the game and perhaps weave a single thread into the diverse fabric and quilt that is the greatness and the pride of our nation.” 

Instead of the typical playing of the national anthem, the Mississippi State marching band executed a new opening designed specifically for the occasion. The band moved to one side of the field to allow room for a giant American flag which was held aloft by the full South Carolina and Mississippi State squads as “God Bless America” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” were played. 

Holtz had his team well-prepared and they engineered a 16-14 victory behind a ground attack that churned for 238 yards. While not an aesthetically pleasing game (Holtz was quoted as saying: “It was like winning a watermelon contest. You take the win, but you don’t go to the beauty pageant with it.), the game did prove that college football could still go on.  

South Carolina’s hard-fought victory is now a footnote. The important thing wasn’t who won or lost, but that the game was simply played and that for three hours on a Thursday night in September, Americans could take a breath, sit back, and allow themselves a dose of “normalcy.” 25 years later, the players, coaches and staffers at South Carolina and Mississippi State should still be remembered and appreciated for helping bring that about.