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MC to honor first responders during Sept. 11 home football game

Sept. 1, 2021

Maryville College will honor first responders during its first home football game against Centre College on Sat., Sept. 11.

The recognition on “First Responders Day” will take place just before kick-off, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Honaker Field.

The College is inviting local MC alumni and community members who are current or retired first responders – police officers, firefighters, paramedics, nurses and doctors – to attend the game, free of charge (with valid identification), and be recognized for their service.

“Sept. 11, 2001 was a day that is burned into the memories of those of us old enough to remember it,” said Dave Daniels, veteran recruiting and outreach counselor at Maryville College. “If you were alive on that day, I’m certain you can remember exactly what you were doing/eating/wearing. Twenty years have gone by, and while the towers have been rebuilt, the lives and livelihoods of the first responders are dwindling because of the devastation those conditions took on their bodies. I feel it is imperative that ‘Never Forget’ be more than the remembrance of the day. We should never forget that without the first responders’ initial and continuing sacrifice, we would be a nation that is less safe.”

Maryville College Head Football Coach Ben Fox said: “We are thrilled to welcome local first responders and veterans to Maryville College for our home opener on the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11. Everyone who was alive at that time remembers what the world was like and what our country was like after it happened. The sacrifices of the first responders in New York and across the nation and the sacrifices first responders make here in Blount County every day deserve to be recognized, and we are thrilled to have them.”

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”