Dave Doeren’s memory of 9/11 is personal, vivid, and tied to a fear that lasted for hours.
During his weekly press conference, the NC State coach рассказал about where he was on the morning of the attacks and why the day has stayed with him. In 2001, Doeren was 29 and working as a secondary coach at Montana in his second season with the Grizzlies. He was in a position meeting when word of the attacks started to spread.
He said the reason the day hit so hard was simple: his father was supposed to be on one of the flights out of Boston.
“I remember it vividly because my father, at the time, was in Boston and was supposed to get on one of those flights,” Doeren said. “I don’t remember the flight number, but he was supposed to be on one of those flights that ended up crashing.”
American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 left Boston Logan bound for Los Angeles. Both were hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers in New York.
Doeren said the panic reached him quickly through a call from his sister, who was trying to find out what had happened. The office secretary told him the news.
“Your sister’s calling,” Doeren said. “She’s freaking out. And you know, of course, she thought he had crashed because, at that time, you know, cell reception was nothing.”
With phone networks jammed along the East Coast, it took Doeren four or five hours to get confirmation that his father was safe.
“What happened was the cab that picked him up that morning didn’t show up, and so he missed the flight,” Doeren said. “Thank God that he missed that flight, but I’ll never forget that day because, you know, for four or five hours, we thought we had lost my father in a plane crash. It was crazy.”
Like so many others, he and the Montana staff spent the day watching the news unfold on television. One image in particular stayed with him.
“I remember seeing the first tower on fire, and then you see this plane coming in and hitting the second tower, and you’re just in shock,” Doeren said.
He also reflected on how hard it is to explain that kind of moment to younger players who didn’t live through it.
“How could something like this be happening in our country?” Doeren asked.
“I try to describe that to the team, and when you’re 18, 19, you’re like, yeah, it’s a good story. But for those of us that witnessed it, I mean, it was intense.
And the things that came out of that with our country was crazy, you know, and the war that followed and everything else.”
NC State will mark the 9/11 home opener against Richmond by debuting its black camo “Wolfpack Warriors” uniform, a tribute to those who have served.
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