Alyssa GregoryIn the aftermath of September 11th, while big time athletics sat on the sidelines, Washington University teams played. Yes, WU played.
At the time of the tragedies I was dead set against the Bears taking the field. I thought it was a time to mourn, not a time to play. I felt it was a time to take stock of friends and family, not a time to stare down the opposing team. I pondered how the coaches could make their teams play just days after life as we know it in America had been altered forever. Yet, in retrospect, I was a na‹ve freshman.
I didn’t understand the nature of WU athletics. I did not grasp, as head football coach Larry Kindbom put it, “The goals of major programs are very different from those of WU which are to give the players a chance to pursue a passion, a love for the game.” I did not see that WU athletes play their respective sports not for money or fame, but instead for the love of the game.
Needless to say, I was angered when approached by my editor and asked to write a recap of the football game the upcoming weekend. I was outraged that we, Student Life, would even cover WU sports.
Still in shock that WU teams were actually going to play, I rebuffed Dan Boyd, the former sports editor, repeatedly telling him that I did not feel comfortable covering the story. Yet, to his credit, Dan persisted and eventually, being the ever dedicated freshman reporter, I reluctantly agreed to do the story, but with many reservations.
As I mulled over what I would write, I thought about how I would attack Kindbom for making his kids play when I felt that they should have been home in the company of friends or family. I went over the pointed questions I was going to ask him in my head. I plotted how I would angrily voice my displeasure that WU football played while every other sports entity took a much needed weekend off.
Questions prepared, I dialed Kindbom’s extension, ready for a showdown with one of the most respected people in the athletic department. Yet, what transpired was not what I had planned. Far from it.
Instead, Kindbom detailed that the decision to play had wholly been the players. They wanted to play. They wanted to move forward. Even though, as Kindbom said, “The [events] definitely affected this very young squad.”
If you think only football chose to play, think again. All of the in-season WU sports played out their schedules that weekend and all WU teams ended the weekend victorious.
The aforementioned football team rolled over Case Western Reserve 24-14 to extend their record at the time to 3-0. The record was even more amazing at the time because they had key injuries at virtually all of the offensive positions.
Volleyball went 3-0, to stay a perfect 10-0, en route to winning the Washington University National Tournament. While women’s soccer canceled one game against Carleton, they played out their second game against Fontbonne and prevailed 6-0. Men’s soccer eked out a close 2-0 victory over MacMurray College.
In short, athletes across the WU campus banded together to play through the adversity of the times. They played to put salve on the wounds that terrible Tuesday in September had opened for the country. Yet, did any team savor its victories? Did any team feel joy at its latest conquest?
No. For the football team, just getting to Cleveland was a logistical nightmare, which forced the Bears to bus the 11 hours to Case Western. However, this would prove beneficial for the team moral.
“The ride got the players away from the TV and that allowed them to come together,” said Kindbom.
WU played after September 11th, and was right to play. After all, what the entire sports world needed was to get back to business (however hard it was).
Eventually, I wrote the story. It was a story of overcoming adversity and banding together as a team. When I finished typing the piece, I realized it was the most American and patriotic thing WU football or any sport could have done.
To play meant to stand for everything that was American, everything that was right.