NEW HAVEN – Jimmy Quinn loved basketball. He played in high school and managed the team at his alma mater, Manhattan College. He was also a devoted New York Mets fan.
In 2001, Bobby Valentine’s Mets took third place in the National League East and missed the playoffs, but they became a symbol of hope for New York City when they played the first game after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2, thanks to a two-run homer from Mike Piazza in the eighth inning.
Jimmy never saw that game. He worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and was among those killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
A member of Knights Council 126 in Brooklyn, he is one of the 46 Knights of Columbus memorialized in an exhibit at the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven for the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Jimmy, 23, was the youngest; the oldest was 71.
The exhibit, which is open until October 11, remembers their heroism on 9/11, when four planes were hijacked and two of them flew into the twin towers in New York City. Another crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field after the passengers revolted against the hijackers.
In total, 2977 people were killed, thousands were injured, and many more died in the years that followed because of health issues.
The exhibit honors all the victims, their families and those heroes who risked their lives to save countless others, according to Bethany J. Sheffer, curator/registrar of the center.
“This tragedy is part of our history, and it’s important for us to remember those whose lives were lost,” Sheffer said. “And it’s equally important for us because we are honoring those Knights who died and who played a role in the relief efforts.”
The exhibit uses photos to narrate the events of 9/11. It recognizes each individual, including firefighters, police officers and civilians, by providing biographical information on the 46 Knights, who were killed in both towers, the Pentagon and two of the flights.
Among the items are a fragment from one of the towers, a firefighter helmet given to the Knights by the Fire Department of New York and a FDNY cap that belonged to Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan Friar, who was chaplain of the department and the first officially recorded fatality of the attacks.
There are rosaries that were distributed to the firefighters and law enforcement officers during the rescue response, and a gas mask worn by then Supreme Chaplain Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn, who toured Ground Zero.
Also on display are a prayer book and a program from a Mass of Remembrance at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which was attended by 1,100 Fourth Degree Knights on the first anniversary of the attacks.
The exhibit includes two twisted beams from the World Trade Center, which are part of the museum’s permanent Wall of History gallery, and a severed street lamppost from a neighborhood close to the attack site.
Sheffer said that in keeping with the Knights’ core value of charity, it began the $1 million Heroes Fund the day after the attacks to provide financial support for the families of all fallen first responders, including law enforcement, firefighters and emergency medical personnel who lost their lives in the rescue and recovery efforts.
When the fund ended, 419 families had been given financial support and an existing scholarship fund was expanded to include children of first responders who were killed.
Sheffer, who was in graduate school when 9/11 occurred, said, “It was definitely a very emotional exhibit to put together, but it’s so important that we are able to keep their stories alive and tell them to younger generations.”
