An excellent new TV documentary “9/20” tells the compelling story of a football game played 23 years ago that was, as then-Mississippi State quarterback Wayne Madkin put it, “bigger than all of us.”

The game was played on Sept. 20, 2001, at Scott Field in Starkville. Final score: South Carolina 16, Mississippi State 14. Twenty-three years later, the score seems irrelevant.

For sure, the final score was nowhere near the reason why the SEC Network will air the 30-minute MSU Films documentary at 7 p.m. on the 23rd anniversary of 9/11/2001.

That South Carolina-Mississippi State game was the first big-time college or professional football game played after terrorists killed more than 3,000 Americans, injured more than 6,000 others and changed our lives forever. It was the worst attack on our homeland in our nation’s history.

Madkin, the Bulldogs’ quarterback, remembers walking out onto the field that warm evening, along with all the State and South Carolina players and suddenly knowing the experience was something he would never forget. 

Scott Field was packed. American flags were everywhere — I mean everywhere, thousands and thousands of them. Bulldogs and Gamecocks players surrounded the biggest flag of all, each holding on to it during the playing of the national anthem. 

“At that time I knew this was bigger than football,” Madkin says. “You have a couple days in your life that you know will define you, that you are never going to forget, that you can pass on or share to your legacy. This was one of those for me.

“Once you actually got on that field and you held that enormous American flag and you saw South Carolina and Mississippi State all together as one, nobody cared if you were a Republican or a Democrat or a South Carolina fan or a Mississippi State fan. At that particular time it was bigger than all of us and we were Americans.”

All of us who were alive 23 years ago remember where we were and who we were with when we heard — or actually saw on our TVs — the horrible news of Sept. 11, 2001. Larry Templeton, then the Mississippi State athletic director, was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for an NCAA meeting. Somebody walked into the meeting room told all in attendance they needed to get to a television.

And so they did. And since they were all high-ranking athletics officials, most with programs to run hundreds or thousands of miles away, all began trying to figure out how to get home. There were no flights. All air traffic was grounded. Templeton and then-Auburn athletic director David Housel were in a group of four who decided to rent a car and and drive south.

“We got the last rental car in Philadelphia,” Templeton said. “At least that’s what we were told.”

“It was an eerie drive. Every time we would go through a big city, you could see the military presence, the security. I’ll never forget going through Washington, D.C. You would have thought we were at war.”

Their first stop, other than for gas or fast food, was the Atlanta airport, where Housel had left his car. “We couldn’t even get close,” Templeton says. “Tanks were blocking the road. We pulled up and a soldier asked what we were doing. We told them who we were and that Housel needed to get his car to drive back to Auburn. They told Housel to get his stuff and get out, that they’d drive him to his car, and for us to turn around.”

When Templeton turned in the rental at Golden Triangle Regional Airport, he says, “at least a dozen people were waiting in line to get a car.”

The next few days were filled with meetings and phone call after phone call. State was supposed to play host to BYU that Saturday. The initial plan in the SEC was to play the scheduled games. That changed when the NFL canceled the games for that weekend. The BYU game was postponed and later scheduled for December.

State’s next scheduled game was the South Carolina game the following Thursday, and it was in doubt as well. But then, the call came from the SEC office on Saturday, Sept. 15. Roy Kramer, the SEC commissioner, had been in discussions with White House staff. He told Templeton, “The president (George W. Bush) wants your game to be the first.”

That gave Templeton and his staff five days to prepare for a game that would surely be the biggest security undertaking in college football history. Again, if you’re old enough, you remember. America was basically at a standstill. Airports were still closed. Planes were still grounded. There was still great fear of another attack. A stadium filled with tens of thousands of fans seemed a likely target.

Templeton asked Kramer: “How will we get South Carolina here?”

Kramer answered, “You worry about preparing for the game. I’ll get them there.”

Before it was over, the National Guard, the Air Force, the FBI, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove’s office and still others were involved in game preparation. Security measures that have become commonplace were instituted for the first time. Among the more than 40,000 in attendance for the game were bomb sniffing dogs.

David Garraway, one of the film’s three co-producers, believes “9/20” tells an important story.

“In the very first days after 9/11 — those days of uncertainty and fear — we find a society looking for normalcy. Sports are such an indelible part of the American experience, and they became a refuge,” Garraway said. “When America needed competitive sports to move forward from this tragedy, Mississippi State rose to the occasion.”

There were hiccups. For instance, the Delta jet chartered for South Carolina the day before the game was grounded due to mechanical issues. Coach Lou Holtz and his Gamecocks flew into Starkville on a different plane on game day, highly unusual in college football.

Because of security, the lines to get into the game were unusually long. But there were no incidents and a decidedly partisan crowd, many dressed in red, white and blue instead of maroon and white, seemed to endure the delays gladly. It was as if everyone in attendance, including this writer, was just glad to be doing something somewhat normal for the first time in nine days.

In many ways, the game was a patriotic celebration of America with some football played in between. The game itself was competitive and well-played. South Carolina, the more physical team that night, won a hard-earned victory.

Templeton’s lasting memory? “A sense of accomplishment,” he answers. “Just playing the game, amid all the circumstances, was an accomplishment.”

Madkin? “I feel very blessed to have been part of it. You know, 9/11 changed everything. It changed our lives forever, but that game was part of the healing process of America. We lost the game, but we were part of history. We were part of one of the first steps of America getting back to normal.”

“9/11” will be aired on the SEC Network at 7 p.m. Wednesday. It will be available for streaming here following the broadcast. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.