Duquesne University basketball coach Danny Nee was strapped into his seat on an airplane in Wichita, Kan., at about the time terrorists steered two planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York last Tuesday.
'Everyone was on their cell phones. The whole situation made me very uncomfortable,' Nee said. 'We were on the runway when the first plane hit, and my wife called to tell me about the second one. The first thing I thought about was that I should be with my family.'
Nee was set to return home from a recruiting trip that began when he and assistant coach Charles Cunningham flew to Chicago the previous weekend. While Cunningham traveled on to Texas, Nee visited eight junior colleges in Kansas. He and Cunningham were to arrive back home at around the same time, but both were detained because of a nationwide shutdown of air traffic.
'I just thought, 'This is out of control. It's mind-boggling,' ' Nee said.
While the plane in which Nee was riding sat motionless on the runway, it became apparent that something terribly was wrong. Nee had an uneasy feeling, as he watched numerous airplanes arrive in what he later learned were emergency landings.
'My mindset was it's a war,' said Nee, a Vietman veteran who served two years in the United State Marine Corps. 'There's no rules in war. They (terrorists) took the gloves off.
'America is the greatest country in the world, and I think we've got great leadership. Colin Powell is a former general, and President Bush has stepped up strong. I just want him to take his time.'
When Nee finally deplaned in Wichita, he remained in the the city until Friday morning, when he was able to catch a flight back to Pittsburgh.
Cunningham also returned home after first making his way to Chicago.
And while the two Duquesne coaches were having their problems, not far away in Nebraska, Robert Morris coach Mark Schmidt and assistant Steve Curran also found themselves without a flight after wrapping up recruiting work in Nebraska. Like Nee and Cunningham, the two men also had flown to Chicago before driving farther west.
But neither Schmidt nor Curran wanted to stick around any longer, so they held onto their rental car and drove back to Pittsburgh. They covered the trip in two days, stopping for an extended rest at about the midway point and arriving home Thursday night.
'It was an ordeal for us, but not as big of an ordeal as those in New York. I'm very grateful I remained in the same spot,' Nee said.
