This Jersey boy will never forget

He was teaching World History 2 at St. Benedict’s Prep on Sept. 11, 2001 when he looked out the window and saw world history. The worst, most tragic and hideous kind of world history.

“You could see the smoke,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “Being in Newark, you look out and you see Manhattan. I remember within 10 minutes of seeing the smoke, being called into the auditorium. Just the chaos of what was happening on the way to the assembly. Everyone got dismissed.”

Islamic terrorists, history’s cowards, had forced American Airlines Flight 11 and United Flight 175 into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. And when it was over, nearly 3,000 people were dead, more than 6,000 were injured, and a nation was shaken.

“We had international students and because they closed the school down, two or three of them came home with me,” Hurley said. “There were parents of students who

lived and worked in the city. International students, who literally a week or two earlier, got into the country and didn’t know what was going on. Their families had a hard time getting in touch.”

Hurley will coach UConn against No. 11 Florida State Saturday in the Never Forget Tribute Classic at Prudential Center in Newark. Seventeen years later, entering a major college basketball event only blocks from where he taught and coached high school, Hurley still grows emotional.

“Yeah, because we all have people related to us who perished that day, husbands or fathers, daughters,” Hurley said. “Everyone was affected by it and is still affected by it.”

For Hurley, it is the Keating family.

“Jeff Keating’s a friend of me and my brother, more adult, post-college,” Hurley said. “His brother was a fireman. He was (at) home as the first plane hit, went back and ended up dying that day as a hero.”

According to a report in the Staten Island Advance, Paul Keating was awakened in his Cedar Street apartment when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. He called his sister to tell her he was OK. Debris and glass were flying all around him. He told her that he was going to the firehouse, Ladder Co. 5 in SoHo, behind his building. “I’m going to the World Trade Center to help my brothers,” he said, according to the Advance.

Paul Keating was 38. “There are so many of those stories,” Hurley said. “You get a chill when you enter into Saturday. The emotion is good. Laughing, being sad, happy, running the emotional gamut is a good thing. I’m no stoic.”

So many stories. While with The Hartford Courant, I remember driving down to Greenwich High. Offensive lineman Zack Zion had lost his dad Chuck, an executive vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald. Talking to Zack, as he returned to football, talking to former coach Rich Albonizio, I drove home thinking I’ll never forget this. I haven’t.

I remember talking to Bonnie McEneaney on the phone from her New Canaan home. She had lost her man, Eamon, a senior vice president at Cantor, father of four and one of the great lacrosse players in college history. Through the tears of her unspeakable tragedy, I remember how she had managed to laugh when she talked about how she met Eamon at Cornell. It was at a streaking rally. Eamon was wearing a towel.

“Love your outfit.” Bonnie told him.

Eamon McEneaney was 46.

I remember talking to Judy Keane for a column in the Courant in 2001 and again on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. She had lost her husband, a senior vice president at Marsh & McLennan. Dick Keane was a former Marine and a UConn fan. In the face of her deepest agony in 2001 she had sent President George W. Bush a letter and a banner. The banner read, “Peace on Earth.” She did not want rash reprisal and even 10 years later she would ask me, “Is it possible to tell a story of something good that emerged from that horrible day?”

Hurley is right. Most everyone in the tri-state region has some tie to Sept. 11. I told Judy Keane about how my wife’s brother Ed — my son’s godfather — was alive through God’s goodness and the luck of the Port Authority Police schedule. Had it happened that night or the following week, when schedules reversed, he would have been a dead man. Those from his unit who rushed into the World Trade Center did not return. Ed Woods would work the rubble along with so many, hoping for survivors, later searching for remains. He would meet his future wife at an Irish pub. A law student at Temple in Philly, Jen had volunteered with the Salvation Army at a Sept. 11 respite center. Fate brought them together and the good that emerged from that horrible day are two great children. Judy Keane loved that story. Next weekend Aidan Woods will have his bar mitzvah.

In its third year, the Never Forget Tribute Classic is a fundraiser for the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund. According to its website, the Fund has raised more than $150 million in postsecondary education for dependents of those killed or permanently disabled in the attacks and their aftermath. This is not something good to emerge from the horror. This is something great.

As part of the tournament, Hurley said his players will be presented with a short talk. UConn graduate transfer Tarin Smith, who played for Dan’s father, Bob Sr., at St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, was

5 and in kindergarten on Sept. 11. Both his parents were working in Manhattan that day, he said, and forced to evacuate.

“It was more history for me,” Smith said. “Now it’s more real for me, because I know my parents were part of it.”

Yes, it is history. And it is real.

For Hurley, this weekend will be chance to reflect on the tragedy yet also to see people he grew up with in Jersey City, who coached him, his St. Benedict’s family, his own family and friends.

“We should all take the time to appreciate how far we’ve come,” Hurley said. “We’re staying in a hotel in Jersey City and playing a couple of blocks down from where I coached high school ball. Jersey City and Newark are probably the two places that mean the most to me in the place that means everything to me. I’m going to take the time to appreciate the journey. Probably during the anthem look around and say, ‘Wow, coaching UConn. 12 years ago, I was coaching against Peddie School in front of 200 people.’ ”

Like Dan Hurley said, it’s good to laugh and cry and not be a stoic. His mom and dad, Christine and Bob Sr., will arrive at Prudential Center from Jersey City. From their apartment, they have a view of Freedom Tower, built from the rubble of the horrible day. They also have an excellent view of the Statue of Liberty, unbowed in New York Harbor since its dedication in 1886.