Bill O'Brien, Boston College Football Captain Talk Welles Crowther on 24th Anniversary of 9/11

Sept. 11, 2001, is a day that all Americans remember with a heavy heart. It marks the day that the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Penn., were attacked by Islamist terrorists who were members of the group al-Qaeda in a murder-suicide mission.

The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history, causing the deaths of 2,996 people, including 19 hijackers who committed the murder-suicide actions.

On the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Boston College football head coach Bill O’Brien took a moment to reflect on the tragic, horrific day that made the entire world fully pause—and change forever.

“I mean, you know, today being the anniversary of 9/11, all of us that experienced that, it was a horrendous day, right?” O’Brien said. “And it, obviously, it hits close to home here at Boston College with the memory of Welles Crowther.”

Welles Crowther, a former Boston College lacrosse player who had a trademark red bandana, was working in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

This is the story of how he led people to safety after terrorists struck the World Trade Center. pic.twitter.com/Q7gouyqlwz
— ESPN (@espn) September 11, 2025

Crowther, a former Boston College men’s lacrosse player who graduated from BC with honors with a degree in economics in 1999, took a job as an equities trader for Sandler O’Neil and Partners following his graduation, settling into an office on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

A former junior member of the Empire Hook and Ladder Company in downtown New York City, N.Y., Crowther entertained the idea of joining the FDNY (Fire Department of New York), the FBI, or the CIA. That was his dream.

But on Sept. 11, 2001, when the Towers were attacked, Crowther tragically went down with them.

However, Crowther was credited with saving over one dozen lives in the attacks, using the skills he learned as a junior firefighter to help victims safely exit the building for as long as he could. The last time anyone saw Crowther, he was carrying a red bandanna, which he had wrapped around his face as a smoke mask. Thus, he was named “The Man in the Red Bandanna.”

The red bandanna has become a symbol that Boston College as a University—and an athletics department—uses to honor the heroic actions of Crowther. Crowther is the epitome of the Boston College motto “Men and Women for others,” and the memory of his life lives on with the University itself.

Every year, the BC football program plays a home game in honor of Crowther, “The Red Bandanna Game.” The Eagles wear a custom-designed red bandanna uniform, and Crowther’s mother, Allison, gives a speech to every fan, person and attendant of the game at Alumni Stadium to remember what Crowther sacrificed his life for—others.

“We'll play that game later on in the season here,” O’Brien said.

For O’Brien, remembering Sept. 11 means thinking about his beloved friend Ray Rocha, who played football with the Eagles’ skipper at Brown University in the early 1990s. Rocha was also a victim of the attacks.

“You know, I was at Georgia Tech,” O’Brien said. “I was an assistant coach. I told the team this. I lost one of my closest friends. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. He was right there in the flight, you know, the flight line there. Ray Rocha from Melrose, Mass. Played football with me at Brown. So it hits close to home.”

O’Brien remembers the day vividly, and one of the difficulties of that day was not knowing what would happen next—if the attacks would continue, and who would be in danger next.

Nobody knew then.

“For me, I was, you know, they evacuated the city of Atlanta that day,” O’Brien said. “I'll never forget it. You know, you'll never forget that day. And, you know, it's just, it's a brutal memory.”

BC wide receiver Luke McLaughlin, who has played in four Red Bandanna games in his career on the Heights, also attested to how much the collective memory of Crowther and what he did on Sept. 11 serves as a beacon of light in the BC community and beyond.

"I mean, it's such a significant day,” McLaughlin said. “Not just for this football team—for the whole University. We take it very seriously. ... We always look forward to [the Red Bandanna game]."

Every year when the anniversary of Sept. 11 comes around, McLaughlin said that he takes it upon himself to reflect on the events which unfolded and how Crowther’s actions set a precedent which he can look up to. That is true of the entire BC community, alumni included.

Today and every day, we remember the lives lost and the heroes of September 11, 2001. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/G4WmaifrW2
— Boston College Football (@BCFootball) September 11, 2025

"We'll always remember the lost ones, everything that happened on that day,” McLaughlin said. “It's a big day of reflection. It's a huge day for this campus, and I'm sure everywhere around the world."

O’Brien also mentioned that he addressed the team about the current climate of the United States, assumedly in a political sense.

This doesn’t come as a surprise—one day earlier, Charlie Kirk, an American political activist and author who connected deeply with the youth Conservative movement in the U.S., unexpectedly passed from a bullet wound to his neck from an assasination.

“Just having respect for each other, respecting each other's opinions,” O’Brien said. “[I] think that's huge about a football team. We all come from different places. West Coast, we have a guy from Africa, the Netherlands, Canada, all over the country, South Midwest, East Coast, Texas, West Coast. Everybody comes from different backgrounds, and I think it's important that our team does a great job of respecting each other's opinions. And I think that's a big part of football.”

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