See the uniforms Rutgers football will wear to honor lives lost on 9/11

PISCATAWAY – Greg Schiano was in his first year as Rutgers football’s head coach when the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 occurred.

“This is very real to us,” Schiano said Tuesday at his news conference to preview his team’s next game against Boston College. “Just outside this door, we were standing on the practice field and you could see the smoke on the horizon 25 years ago. We had coaches and players who didn’t know where their wives or their mothers or fathers were.”

It’s for that reason that anytime Schiano’s team has a chance to play on Sept. 11 and honor the lives would were lost, it’s significant.

And it’ll be even more significant this year.

The Scarlet Knights will play the Eagles at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts in the Red Bandanna Game, which honors Boston College alumnus Welles Crowther, who died while saving 12 people in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

“Welles Crowther is one of the many heroes that stood up on 9/11,” Schiano said. “The stories are legendary of him carrying people out of the building. People owe their lives to him. There’s a lot of those people.”

Rutgers during the game will wear special uniforms that honor the tragic events of 9/11 and the 37 alumni who lost their lives on that day.

The numbers on their helmets will include Stars and Stripes, and the words “Never Forget” will be written down the side of their right pants leg.

 “Anybody who grew up around here or lived around here lost people they loved, dealt with what is a national tragedy,” Schiano said. “To be part of the game that commemorates that is an honor. We’re looking forward to it. We lost 37 Rutgers alums in that tragedy. Certainly it hits home with us.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: See the uniforms Rutgers football will wear to honor lives lost on 9/11