September 11, 2001, started out like any other Tuesday. At that time the Hutchinson City Council met every week, rather than the twice a month schedule they now use. Also, back in 2001 Reno County District Court had their first appearance criminal docket each morning at 8:15.
On that morning, I stopped by City Hall to pick up something before going to the Courthouse. It was there that I first learned about what was going on in New York. The first look at what was going was on a small TV in one of the Judge’s offices. I never made it back to City Hall that morning, as there was much to be done back at the station.
This also was in the middle of the Kansas State Fair, and then-Governor Bill Graves was at the fair that day. As word of the attack came, the place where most people gathered who could was the KWCH 12 booth where the CBS coverage of the attacks was being shown on the big screen TV’s they had on display.
At the fair, there was already talk about whether it should continue. Discussions like that were happening all over the country, especially for any events that involved people traveling. Early that afternoon, with Governor Graves on hand, it was announced the Fair would continue though it would be a more subdued kind of event.
The memories for me that stand out from that week were more sports related than anything.
Earlier, I had been contacted by Bill Fry, who at the time was the radio voice for Scott City High School, who asked me if I could cover a game for them that Saturday at Wichita Collegiate. I told him I would.
While many sports events were called off around the country, there were some games still played, notably many high school games and, locally, those in the KCAC. No major college sports, no baseball, no NFL. Almost nothing.
The NFL was very sensitive about this if for no other reason that they did play their full schedule the Sunday following the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Though they did play, there was no TV coverage of any games, and probably no radio either. The league was widely criticized for that decision.
Now to that Saturday.
The Scott City Beavers were scheduled to play at Wichita Collegiate that afternoon. On the way down to Wichita I tuned into KQAM, which at the time was an all-sports station. That day, they were talking about anything but sports. The traffic on I-135 was to some degree a lot less than you would usually see on a Saturday.
I got to the Collegiate campus in east Wichita about an hour and a half before kickoff to get everything set up for the broadcast and to check in with the board operator in Garden City where the game was being broadcast from. As people were coming in, it for the most part seemed like any normal football game. The moods of everyone, whether from west Kansas or east Wichita, was pretty much like you would see at any sporting event, and as I look back to that day, I realized just how important this was.
The events of New York, Washington, and Shanksville on Tuesday were still, of course, on the minds of everyone. That was pretty much all you got from the national media, much like what took place on four days in November,1963.
Even in a situation such as the terrorist attacks, there comes a time when people want to step back and think about something different. Just a little piece or normalcy. Not unlike in the current digital world, where there comes a time when you just need to step back and get away from it all.
But the present still has to be acknowledged. At Collegiate, this came right before the game kicked off, as they took time to remember those lost that day. People who were living their lives as normal, until it ended, as a Don Henley song that has become associated with that day, “In a New York Minute.”
The National Anthem that day was sung by a man who had a powerful singing voice to begin with, but on this day, it was sung with just a little more pride, a little more emotion, standing strong even in the darkest of days for our nation.
From there, it was just another football game between two teams that then as now have enjoyed much success. Collegiate won the game, but what was really important that day was two communities, about as opposite as you can get, coming together to preserve at least some sense of normalcy.
Going home later that day, the events of September 11th were still evident just about every place you tuned on the radio. But for about three hours that afternoon, I was able to give people in western Kansas at least a few hours of escape.
A high school classmate of mine who we lost last year had a frequent saying, which was a theme at his memorial service, and which thinking about a high school football game 24 years ago comes to mind now. Four words that we should always keep in mind in times like this.
“It will be OK.”
