Peterson: Iowa State football game at Ohio brings back memories of how 9/11 and football intersected

AMES – You may not remember the last time Iowa State played a football game in Athens, Ohio – against Ohio University – but certainly you may recall the life-altering events leading up to it.

Odds are, many of you still know exactly where you were when terrorists struck our country.

Of course, we remember Sept. 11, 2001. Matt Campbell was a star player at Mount Union, preparing for a game against Otterbein University when planes intentionally crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

We who exist in the college sports world remember most major college games that weekend being postponed. That included the annual Cy-Hawk game. Practices were either canceled or became nothing more than a mundane walk-thru. Players and coaches joined the whole world watching in stunned silence at what was happening.

How does all that tie together to the present? The Cyclones’ first game after the attack was on Sept. 22 at Ohio University. This Saturday, the Cyclones return to Athens for the first time since the world changed 22 years ago.

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“It stopped time for a moment,” defensive coordinator Jon Heacock told me after his press conference Tuesday. “It was very surreal to sit there and watch what was happening, and who it was happening to.”

I made that trip for the Des Moines Register, and yes, flew for the first time since the attack – it was subdued. Des Moines International Airport was quiet. So was Chicago’s O’Hare, where I caught a connecting flight to Ohio. My wife even suggested I might want to reconsider my plan to fly to the game.

Ironically, Saturday’s 11 a.m., game falls almost as close to the 9/11 anniversary as you can get. Thankfully, the days leading up to the game won’t be under the type of pall that stopped us in our tracks two decades ago.

Iowa State practices will be focused. They’ll be crisp, unlike practices back when our world changed.

"For the first time in my life, I realized the freedom we probably took for granted in our country was challenged," Campbell said during a 2021 press conference. "There was a lot of emotion when you watched our nation respond and rally. It was part of the growth time in my life about who I wanted to become, and who I wanted to stand for."

Heacock was preparing for his second game as the Youngstown State head coach – against Toledo (where he would eventually work for Campbell) – when the terrorists struck. That game eventually would be canceled.

“I was sitting in the office,” Heacock recalled this week. “We were working on the game plan. Somebody came in and said, 'Hey coach, did you see what went on? A plane flew into the twin towers.”

Like coaches everywhere during game week, Heacock was focused, maybe more so in his case, because he was a first-year head coach.

“You initially think it was an accident,” Heacock said. “As the day went on, you began to realize what was going on. Nobody had a handle on it. You’re just trying to work yourself through it.”

Dan McCarney coached Iowa State back then. At some point during the week, he learned that Cy-Hawk had been pushed to the end of the season. He didn’t know for sure if the next game – the trip to Ohio University – would even happen, although he proceeded as if it would. The later the week got, the more it looked like the Sept. 22, 2001 game would go on.

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"We're glad we're back into a game week," McCarney said that week. "Now we can try to focus our energy and effort into a game on Saturday. To me, it's more of a comfort zone being out there on game day, being around a lot of people."

Iowa State won that game 31-28, behind Ennis Haywood’s 219 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 33 carries.

"I don't know of any great practices Tuesday through Friday," McCarney said, “but we got through it. It was all just so surreal.”

Fast forward to this team, this Saturday, and the trip to Ohio. Campbell expects practices to be crisp. Distractions? Nothing out of the usual. The team will stay Friday night at a Columbus, Ohio hotel, then bus 80 or so miles to Athens – just like in 2001.

Everything will be normal, thankfully, very unlike the team’s last time there.

“We were talking among the staff that (most current players) really don’t even have any idea what 9/11 is,” Heacock said Tuesday. “Maybe they’ve seen a video.

“I think that’s true of history. I probably never understood the depression, even though my dad was telling me about it, and he lived through it and all the experiences that went with it.

“I wasn’t there. You hear about it, but man, that – I lived (9/11) this, so you get it. It’s hard to explain to folks sometimes, but it’s important they all understand what happened.”

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, and on X @RandyPete

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State's first game after 9/11 was at Ohio, bringing back memories