Tom Burnett, Mark Bingham, Jeremy Glick and Todd Beamer rightfully are forever immortalized for their role in battling a group of hijackers on United Flight 93 - a flight that ultimately took the lives of everybody on board the plane.Īfter Burnett, Bingham, Glick and Beamer, all former athletes, stormed the cockpit and battled four hijackers, the plane ended up crashing into a Pennsylvania field instead of a Washington, D.C. With each success and disappointment within the Wheaton Athletics program, two words continue to resonate as a cornerstone.Thanks to the action of some very brave men, the world won’t ever know the additional destruction it could have seen on Sept. "It keeps our guys accountable to each other." "From our standpoint, 'Let's Roll' means that our guys are ready and are ready to do their job," said head football coach Mike Swider. "It's the last thing we say before we take the floor and it has a special meaning for our guys to buy into our team framework." Current head men's basketball coach Mike Schauer was a teammate of Beamer's at Wheaton. "Let's Roll has been a part of the men's basketball program as long as I've been associated with the program," said former asssistant men's basketball coach Tony Bollier. Included in that group are the Wheaton football, wrestling, volleyball, baseball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball programs and others.
Beamer's legacy also continues to live on within the framework of several of the Athletics programs at Wheaton. When we're getting ready to go somewhere, we say, 'C'mon guys, let's roll.' That's something they picked up from Todd.".
"That's Todd," his wife, Lisa, whom Todd met while at Wheaton, said of the "Let's roll!" command in a 2001 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Etched into the mural below the scene are Beamer's famous last words, Let's Roll. Featured in the student center is an eight-foot mural (PICTURED LEFT) depicting Beamer holding hands with his two boys, a scene which had occured just a few weeks prior outside Camden Yards in Baltimore.
Beamer Student Center which is dedicated to the memories of Beamer as well as Jason Oswald ('95) who was an accountant on the 101st floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center and Jeffrey Mladenik who received his Master's Degree from Wheaton in 1995 and was on the plane that hit the North Tower. In the aftermath of September 11, Beamer and others aboard Flight 93 were celebrated as heroes. While the exact target of Flight 93 was unknown, its final destination ended up being a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. " Good athlete with good speed, batted second for us, led off sometimes. "What he did is in totally keeping with the man he was," recalled former Wheaton baseball coach Ron Frank in a 2001 interview with The Sporting News. He was also a member of the men's basketball program during his time at Wheaton. Primarily a third baseman and shortstop, Beamer hit four home runs and stole 15 bases in his career. Beamer then dropped the phone and uttered the words, "Let's Roll."Ī 1991 graduate of Wheaton, Beamer played 92 games for the Thunder baseball team. After that plan was relayed to Jefferson, she joined Beamer in reciting Psalm 23 in prayer. Unable to contact his wife Lisa, Beamer finally was able to reach GTE AirFone operator Lisa Jefferson and describe the situation.īeamer and several others aboard the plane, several of them former collegiate athletes themselves, formulated a plan to rush the cockpit and attempted to take back the plane. Aboard the plane, passengers used AirFones to contact loved ones. About an hour into the flight, hijackers took over the plane and forced the passengers to the back of the plane before circling the plane back towards Washington D.C. Taking an early flight from Newark to San Francisco, Todd Beamer was one of 38 passengers aboard United Flight 93. In the aftermath of the devastating attacks, the stories of Flight 93 began to circulate. Wheaton, Ill.- While the country reflects on the 14th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks to remember the lives lost and celebrate the acts of herosim that occured, one legacy continues to live on at Wheaton College. Story Links Click above to watch head football coach Mike Swider address his team about the significance of 'Let's Roll'.
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