Pittsburgh Steelers fans react to President Bush's address to the nation shown on the Hienz Field Jumbotron during halftime Sunday Oct. 7, 2001, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers and the Bengals faced off to open the Steelers home season in front of the largest football crowd in Steelers history, 62,335
Pittsburgh Steelers fans react to President Bush's address to the nation shown on the Hienz Field Jumbotron during halftime Sunday Oct. 7, 2001, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers and the Bengals faced off to open the Steelers home season in front of the largest football crowd in Steelers history, 62,335
The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, was a busy one for all three Pittsburgh major pro sports teams.
The Penguins had just reported for the first day of training camp, hoping to build on a trip to the Eastern Conference finals from the season prior.
The Pirates, in the middle of another losing season, were set to begin a three-game series at home against the New York Mets.
Kordell Stewart and the Steelers were preparing to play the Cincinnati Bengals in the first NFL regular season game at Heinz Field that coming Sunday.
But when tragedy struck that morning in New York, Washington, D.C. and Somerset County, all three teams — along with the rest of the world — found themselves in a state of bewilderment.
“I’ve lived through some major events,” former Penguins vice president of communications Tom McMillan said. “A lot of times, they’re a major event in the moment, but two or three years later, they’re very well forgotten.
“This one you knew wouldn’t be that.”
The memories remain fresh in the minds of those who were with the Penguins, Pirates and Steelers during one of the most unsettling times in the nation’s history.
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, three executives detailed how their teams responded in the immediate aftermath, helping to uplift the community while also preparing to play again.
A citywide ‘fire drill’
McMillan has published two books about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has no shortage of words when it comes to reflecting on that morning.
It was Day 1 of Penguins training camp — their first without Jaromir Jagr, who was traded to Washington that July. There was no on-ice activity on Sept. 11. Instead, the players reported to the team’s old facility in Southpointe to take physicals and shoot photos for promotional content for the season.
McMillan was at the team’s offices near the old Civic Arena, excited for the new season to begin. That quickly vanished just before 9 a.m. when a receptionist greeted him with a look of concern followed by a quick point toward a conference room.
“She didn’t even say anything,” McMillan recalled. “That’s when I first realized something was off.”
Penguins employees were huddled around a television. They told him a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York. A few minutes later, the second plane struck. They originally believed it to be a replay. The thought of two planes hitting the twin towers was unfathomable.
Reality set in fast. The Penguins were unsure what to do next.
The first day of camp had always been a massive day for business. After another plane struck the Pentagon, ticket sales were no longer the priority.
“That’s when I got scared,” McMillan recalled. “That’s when I realized that this was a complete attack on our country.”
McMillan’s coworkers made their way out of the building at about 10 a.m. He walked toward a window overlooking the parking lots surrounding the Civic Arena.
“It looked like the city had a fire drill,” McMillan said. “There were thousands of people marching up those streets toward their cars. ... I’ll never forget that image.”
McMillan battled through heavy traffic to get home to his family, where he watched the news. He returned to work the next morning, looking at the city’s skyline as he came into town wondering what things would’ve been like had the planes chosen Pittsburgh as a target.
He wasn’t the only one with such worries, either.
He remembers downtown Pittsburgh being close to a “ghost town” for the remainder of the week, so much so that city leaders had to make a pitch to the public to resume business as normal.
Normal, however, would take quite some time to achieve.
McMillan understood sports would play a large factor in regaining that feeling. And with the Penguins still a month away from their opener, he turned his focus toward the Pirates and Steelers to see how they would operate under such uncertain times.
‘Guys were crying’
Pirates team historian Jim Trdinich has been with the organization for decades. In 2001, he was the director of baseball communications, watching the team limp through yet another disappointing campaign.
After an off day on Sept. 10, the Pirates were set to host the Mets the following evening. As he watched from afar as the twin towers collapsed, Trdinich quickly realized there would be no baseball being played anywhere.
“We watched it on my office TV,” Trdinich recalled. “I watched it right from where I’m sitting right now.”
Then-Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy sent all team employees home. Soon, it was announced the game was postponed. Baseball was put on pause. The Pirates were unsure when they would play again.
They hosted a team workout at PNC Park the following morning. But things still felt off, and that feeling wasn’t going away any time soon.
After MLB rescheduled the Pirates’ series against the Mets for the following week, the team turned its attention to a weekend series at Wrigley Field. With air traffic shut down, the team boarded a charter bus to Chicago. Halfway into the trip, the Pirates learned that series, too, had been postponed.
“Kevin Young, who was our rep for the MLBPA, got the call,” Trdinich said. “We turned around at a rest stop near Sandusky, Ohio. I remember us all stopping in to grab lunch — just an entire MLB team getting food at a rest area before we made the trip back to Pittsburgh.”
The Pirates resumed play on Sept. 17 against the Mets. Bishop Donald Wuerl gave a blessing before the game, followed by a moment of silence. Trdinich remembers the fear he felt as a plane flew by PNC Park during the game, something he’d never worried about before.
The Pirates lost 4-1 in a game players would later describe as “emotional.”
“You looked over on that side — guys were crying,” former Pirates player Brian Giles told the Post-Gazette in 2021. “You’re starting to get emotional. It was a tough time for our country and us as players.”
That feeling persisted for the rest of the season.
In early October, the Pirates traveled to New York to face the Mets.
“I remember walking around Manhattan by a Gap store, and all the windows were blown out,” Trdinich said. “That was surreal. It was like, ‘Wow, this really happened.’”
Rallying around sports
Steelers owner Art Rooney II’s meeting at Heinz Field on the morning of 9/11 — the focus was on final preparations for the first official game at the new stadium — came to an abrupt end.
For the second time in just 10 minutes, a team employee informed the room that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
Rooney and his father, Dan, crossed the hall and turned on a television in his office.
Dan Rooney had been scheduled to fly to New York that afternoon. That wasn’t happening.
The rapid pace of everything unfolding was hard to digest. It took a conversation with his father-in-law that afternoon for Rooney to finally grasp the gravity of the day.
“He compared it to the attacks on Pearl Harbor,” Art Rooney II said. “That put it into a little bit of perspective.”
Difficult conversations took place over the next few days. NFL owners spoke with then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue about next steps. Some wanted the season to be paused. Some advocated for it to continue because suspending play would be “giving in to the terrorists,” Rooney said.
In the end, that weekend of games was postponed.
“I think the right decision was made to cancel the games,” Rooney said. “We were obviously disappointed that we weren’t able to play our first game at Heinz Field, but other plans had to be made.”
The Steelers sought out ways to provide community support. They learned of a candlelight vigil in Somerset, Pa., for the victims of Flight 93. They organized a bus trip so players and coaches could attend. The service took place on Sept. 14, Rooney’s birthday.
The Rooney family understood the Steelers were something the community could rally around. Art II hoped the franchise, along with the rest of the NFL, could provide support.
The Steelers played their first game at Heinz Field on Oct. 7.
Before kickoff, President George W. Bush delivered a prerecorded message on the video boards and the crowd of 62,335 roared when a massive American flag was spread across the field.
The Steelers beat the Bengals that afternoon. They ended up going 13-3 that season and reached the AFC championship, losing to the New England Patriots.
Rooney takes pride in the role the Steelers, along with the Pirates and the Penguins, played in Pittsburgh in helping the nation move forward at one of its most difficult moments.
“It really was an amazing time, in terms of how the whole country united,” Rooney said. “It was a time when the whole country was united and coming together in a way that I hadn’t really experienced before.”
First Published: September 8, 2026, 8:00 a.m.