Like almost every American alive on Sept. 11, 2001, I have vivid memories of the events and emotions on that horrific day that forever changed the world ten years ago.

Perhaps the first thing those who lived in the Northeast remember was what a beautiful day it started off to be. The weather was perfect with high blue skies and the sun burning off an early fog as I drove to my office in Beecher House.

I remember getting there earlier than usual and wearing a tie because we had a Tuesday staff meeting scheduled later that morning with the Vice President of Advancement Leslie Folmer in North Hall.

Sometime after 9 a.m. Ann Klinger, who was the Publications Director for the public relations department, called to tell me to turn on the television. Ann, who also served as an EMT, heard the news on the scanner about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.

The morning was already a stressful one for me. The football team had opened the 2001 season with a 21-12 win over Buffalo State at Karl Van Norman Field days earlier. It was the Mountaineers first game under new head coach Chris Woods and a big win for an improving program. The win was the first over a team other than Cheyney in four years.

The next game was even bigger. Saturday we were going to host the first Josh Palmer Pigskin Classic. The Palmer Pigskin Classic was the brainchild of former Mansfield head coach Joe Gilbert – now the assistant head coach at Illinois -- and offensive coordinator Mike Cerasuolo. Mike left the following season and has served as the offensive coordinator with his alma mater Springfield College (MA) for the past 10 years.

The game would feature national power Ithaca who had shutout the Mountaineers 31-0 the previous season. But anyone who saw the opener knew this wasn't the Mounties of old and felt Mansfield had a chance against Ithaca this time around.

I was busy working on finishing the game program for the Ithaca game and getting it the printers by the next day. There's always stress in meeting the game program deadline but even more so with the advent of the first Palmer Pigskin Classic.

Josh Palmer is a personal favorite of mine. He worked in the sports information office as a student-assistant for the past couple of years and was serving as an assistant coach on Chris Woods staff after suffering a career ending knee injury in the spring game.

That injury did what even cancer failed to do by ending his playing career. But Josh, who went through a two-year battle to overcome Hodgkin's Disease with the dream of returning to the football field to play just one more game, was determined to beat all cancer. Josh had established a fund to help area youth cancer victims and the Mountaineer football program was going to help come hell or high water.

Josh was actually in the sports information office early that morning of 9/11 working on organizing all the activities for the upcoming Palmer Pigskin Classic.

It was going to be Parents & Family Day as well so we expecting one of the largest crowds in years.

All of us in the PR office were watching the television trying to make sense of how a plane could fly into the World Trade Center. All of us except Terry Day, my good friend who was the popular sports director at WETM-TV before taking the position as assistant director of public relations at Mansfield two years earlier, thought it had to be an accident – some form of human error.

Terry, who worked on jets while in the air force, knew right away it was an attack and just moments later, to our horror, we all watched live as Flight 175 slammed into the South Tower at 590 miles per hour. I haven't seen anything that stunned me as much as that image. I still wanted to believe it was an accident but by then we all realized it was an attack.

A short time later we got the news of Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon. Riveted to CNN and Wolf Blitzer, we now heard talk of another flight rumored to be heading to the White house.

Well before there was facebook and twitter, word spread quickly on campus and it seemed everyone's phone was busy. Not knowing if our meeting was cancelled, the public relations office as a group walked over to North Hall and Leslie informed us there would be no staff meeting, but Terry and Dennis Miller, our longtime Public Relations Director, should be ready in a moment's notice for a crisis management meeting.

Just before 10 a.m. we were jolted to see the South Tower starting to collapse – it was just so difficult to comprehend everything. As the screen filled with the white ash cloud from the collapse of the building and people were scrambling to get away from the scene of the carnage, I had an overwhelming desire to check on my family.

My wife Pam was out of phone contact with a field trip for her 6th grade class to Ives Run and my then 4-year old daughter Katey Grace and her 2-year old brother Zach were at the Dr. Sandra Linck Child Care Center which Katey Grace had help christen earlier.

Pam call me later in the office asking me what was happening because they suddenly ended the program at Ives Run , instructing everyone back on the bus to return to school. The teachers heard rumors of planes falling into buildings.

I knew Pam and the kids were, of course, safe, but I couldn't fight the urge of stopping by Scott's Day Care to look in through the window just to see Katey Grace and Zach with my own eyes.

Through all the chaos, we still had a deadline to meet on the game program. The TV continued to provide additional news, and sometimes rumor, now including the heroic efforts of the passengers on Flight 93.

Although it was just noon, the world it seemed, had gone crazy.

I remember finishing the game program and sending it to the printer and then remembered that our assistant football coach Joe Braico's fiancée worked in the World Trade Center. She had just been in town the week before for the Buffalo State game and I remember talking with her about her work at the WTC.

I tried to get a hold of Joe but he was already long gone. With phone and cell service out and no planes flying, Joe took off in his car determined to find his future wife. It would be a day or two before we heard they were both safe.

Concerned about Joe, I went up to football practice where head coach Chris Woods was working hard to keep the team focused on practice and the upcoming game against Ithaca. He confirmed Joe had indeed left but had no further information and quickly went back to overseeing practice.

When I got home as dusk was descending, I grabbed Pam and the kids and we had a long group hug. Then it was back to the television watching coverage until the morning light.

Decisions had to be made the next couple of days. Some schools had already postponed or cancelled their football games and other athletic events for Saturday, Sept. 15 and Major League Baseball cancelled games for a day and then postponed all games until Sept. 16.

That made sense for Division I programs and major league sports, as much for mourning as for the fact no planes were allowed to fly so there was no way to get to games even if they decided to play.

A decision had to be made at Mansfield also and I believed then, and still do today, that we made the correct decision of playing our regular scheduled games for the week.

President Bush had addressed the nation urging us not to let the terrorist win by disrupting our lives. Our administration heeded that advice and decided to play games as scheduled.

That evening, the university community came together for a well-attended candlelight ceremony on the newly completed student mall. It was a dignified and emotional event that left hundreds of mounds of melted wax staining the pavers. Those stains, dubbed “the tears of Angels” by many, remained visible for years to come.

Field hockey, which had won two of its first three games, was scheduled to host Marywood in the 2001 home opener on Thursday. The game drew a large crowd and featured a solemn moment of silence prior to the start of play.

Mansfield won the contest 2-1 with junior Terri Tressler, who also appeared on the cover of the game day program, scoring the winning goal in the second half. Two weeks later the Mountaineers would be ranked 5th in the country – then the highest ranking in school history – and go on to a school-record 13-7 record while capturing the ECAC Championship.

Plans were made to honor the victims and heroes of 9/11 prior to kickoff of Saturday's football game. Dr. Adam Brennan quickly put together a playlist of patriotic selections for the marching band for the pregame ceremony. I was standing on the field, behind the band, along with Terry Day when Chris Vaughn read, with conviction and dignity, a stirring tribute and then asked -- not for a moment -- but a full-minute of silence in honor of those who had fallen.

For a full minute the only sounds coming from the overflow crowd of more than 3,200 were sniffles trying to suppress tears. That was it – not another sound except the wind.

For that eerily majestic minute we were all one -- bloodied but not bowed and determined to prevail. It is truly the most memorable experience in my Mansfield career.

I managed to make it through the minute but couldn't prevent tears from streaming down my face when the silence was ended with the halting sound of a solo trumpet playing taps. That sound seemed to capture the collective pain of all 3200 of us. It was an exceptional feeling.

The game was exceptional as well. Dan Bennett caught two Travis Motley passes for touchdowns to give Mansfield a 14-13 lead midway through the third quarter before Ithaca rallied with two scores to take a 26-14 lead into the fourth quarter.

Bennett caught his third TD pass from Motley early in the fourth to pull the Mounties to 26-21 before Ithaca extended the lead to 29-21 on a field goal with just over two minutes to play.

Mansfield had one last shot driving down to the Ithaca 25 but on fourth- and-one, Motley's pass into the end zone fell incomplete and Ithaca held on for the win.

Still it was a remarkable effort for the underdog Mountaineers with Motley passing for 193 yards and James Tillman, a transfer from Fresno State, rushing for 129 yards. Two years later, many of the Mansfield players on the field that day would go on to post a school-record 8-3 record earning the Mountaineers a place in the national rankings.

Just as importantly the Josh Palmer Pigskin Classic raffle was a success raising thousands of dollars with a large portion that year donated to NYC Firemen and Police Relief Fund.

9/11 changed all of our lives, but it didn't change who we are and that spirit of resolve was strong that day. For that, I will always be proud to be a Mountaineer.