By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Saturday’s much-anticipated football game between No. 13 Washington and No. 1 Miami has been postponed because of Tuesday morning’s terrorist attacks on the East Coast.
Pacific-10 Conference athletic directors unanimously agreed during a conference call Tuesday afternoon to postpone all Pac-10 sports competitions through the weekend. Participation in non-conference competition was left to the discretion of each school.
The Huskies and Hurricanes jointly opted not to play their non-conference game at Miami.
“The enormity of what has happened in the United States, the concern of our student-athletes, the concern of traveling anywhere, the desire to respect what has happened (led us to determine) that we should not go ahead with these athletic events,” UW athletic director Barbara Hedges said.
The ADs said it would be inappropriate to hold athletic competitions just four days after the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
Hedges said she and Miami AD Paul Dee hoped to determine a date for the football game in the next two weeks. Television also will be a factor in the decision, Hedges said. The game was to have been regionally telecast by ABC.
A likely date, Hedges said, would be Nov. 24, one week after the Huskies’ regular-season finale against Washington State. Miami has a bye scheduled on that date, one week before its final regular-season game at Virginia Tech.
Saturday’s football game scheduled for the Rose Bowl between Arizona State and UCLA has been postponed. The status of others – Cal at Rutgers; Montana State at Oregon State; Stanford at San Jose State; and Colorado at Washington State – will be up to the individual schools.
Hedges said she didn’t believe there would be any football games this weekend.
Arizona, Oregon and USC have byes Saturday.
Washington also postponed contests in men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.
Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen issued a statement urging postponement of all competition nationally over the weekend.
“In light of the tragic events which occurred in our nation today, it would be inappropriate to continue our scheduled conference competitions,” Hansen said. “The safety and welfare of our student-athletes is our first priority, along with the safety of our fans.”
Before the announcement, Washington football players said they still wanted to play Miami, but not on Saturday.
“This close to a tragedy like this, I don’t think it’s going to help anyone (playing Saturday),” center Kyle Benn said. “I don’t think it’ll be a benefit and I don’t think it would be respectful to the people involved to go out and try to play a game when our country just got attacked.”
UW coach Rick Neuheisel agreed.
“I think it would be appropriate to wait a week,” he said.
Miami coach Larry Coker said, “We’ve had cancellations a couple of times, with hurricanes, and we’ll just keep the game plan in the book and save it and they will reschedule it and we’ll get ready to play again.”
Washington canceled football practice Tuesday. The Huskies will resume practice today.
An advance party was scheduled to leave for Miami Tuesday but had to stay in Seattle because all flights were grounded. Three UW representatives, including Director of Football Operations Jerry Nevin, typically fly to a site ahead of the team to coordinate accommodations, meals, buses and meeting rooms.
Neuheisel said some of his players were trying to contact friends and relatives who worked in the World Trade Center. He declined to name the players.
Neuheisel himself was touched by the tragedy. His youngest sister, Deborah, has a friend, a man who was in her wedding party, who was in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack. Neuheisel said she has not heard from the man.
Another UW connection is Erin Chiarelli, program coordinator for the Huskies’ offensive coaches. Chiarelli’s father, Pete Chiarelli, is a U.S. Army general who works at the Pentagon. Chiarelli called his wife to tell her he was unhurt, Neuheisel said.
Postponements are not unprecedented for Washington. The 1963 Apple Cup game was postponed a week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
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