Boston College annual red bandana game held on 25th anniversary of 9/11

BOSTON — The Boston College Eagles hosted the annual Red Bandana game against Rutgers on Friday, honoring the legacy of “The Man in the Red Bandana” 25 years later.

“I do think he would’ve thought this was pretty great,” Alison Crowther, Welles’ mother, said.

Crowther was working in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He was trained as a volunteer firefighter and became known as “The Man in the Red Bandanna” for the handkerchief he wore as a protective mask while organizing a rescue effort to guide survivors down the stairwells of the tower to safety. He is believed to have saved as many as 18 people that day.

Alison said she’s touched by the continued showing of support for her son 25 years later, with fans in the stadium wearing red bandannas and shirts stating “For Welles” on them.

“On a day that is so solemn and can feel so heavy, to be able to be in this environment and to feel uplifted and to feel a sense of positivity by being here I knew there was no place that I’d rather be,” Marielle Bush, a friend and classmate of Welles’ from the class ’99, said.

“I remember the moment I heard Welles was missing and how upsetting that was,” Bush said.

Bush and Jessica Alberti, another friend and classmate of Welles’, shared what they felt when they heard how he stepped up that day.

“Not surprising... he was a person that you would say, ‘Oh, if he was trained to do that, he absolutely would have stayed and helped,” Alberti said.

“It was just such a gift that his family was able to know what he was doing and that he was such a hero up until his very final moments,” Bush said.

Knowing how helped so many others that day, something Alison also acknowledges as a gift.

“We’re a rare family that we have a story like this. Most people lost their loved ones with nothing... so we’re very sensitive to that,” Alison said.

It’s a legacy that’s become part of a bigger message as the years go on.

“It helps you remember that there were a lot of people who we don’t know the stories, who were heroes... and his family was lucky enough to know, but it just makes you reflect... it was a terrible day, but there were so many good people who went in and helped,” Alberti said.

The sacrifice Welles and countless others made that day is a lesson Alison hopes will resonate for generations to come.

“I just would like them to really think about the power they have within each and every one of them to bring good into the world, and that’s what we need a lot of now,” Alison said.

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