MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University community is remembering former quarterback Chris Gray who died 25 years ago Friday, the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Gray worked at the World Trade Center for Cantor Fitzgerald that occupied floors 101-105 in the North Tower, right above where American Airlines Flight 11 struck. There were no survivors.
Gray played in 13 games primarily as a backup quarterback from 1988-1991 and made his mark with the team and the community.
Longtime MetroNews Statewide Sportsline Co-Host Greg “Coach” Hunter got to know Gray through a softball league and said he had an infectious personality that could win over a room every time.
“Not because of his athletic ability, but because he was a really special person,” Hunter said. “The funniest guy I’ve ever met in my life by far and just over time in Morgantown really ingrained himself.”
The day before the attack, Gray called Hunter and left a message about setting up a meeting at the WVU-Maryland game in College Park on the weekend after September 11—that would be the last time Gray would make such a call.
On the day of the attack, Hunter said he scrambled to find out whatever he could but came up empty. He considered calling Gray’s fiancée, a Morgantown native, but declined, thinking she was overwhelmed with the situation.
“The vivid memory burned into my brain as to where I was and what I did,” Hunter said. “By the evening I had the realization of writing the story that Chris was part of a company where no one survived the attack because of where they were on the upper floors of the World Trade Center.”
Hunter said he left the message Gray left on his phone for months and months. He said Gray always had a smile to share and was never bashful about pointing out his own shortcomings.
“It’s something that is hard for me to get over, and I’m sure there are millions of Americans like that,” Hunter said. “There are thousands of people in Morgantown who have those memories of Chris—he was a great guy.”
Current Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora was one of those community members that got to know Gray through softball. Sikora said he took his family to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and was taken by surprise when he saw a picture of Gray.
Sikora said he then started to share some of the stories about Gray and their friends and they had a good laugh.
“I told the girls a lot of the stories about Chris and tried to make light of it,” Sikora said. “I thought about it as I was telling the girls stories, and they were laughing and thought that was Chris because he was famous for making fun of himself.”
On the day of the attack, Sikora was traveling to the northern part of the state work when they received the word about the attack. His first thought was to get his then one-year-old daughter from daycare and get the family home. It wasn’t until some time after the attacks that Sikora and others determined Gray was in that Cantor Fitzgerald office that had reported no survivors.
“I didn’t really find out about Chris until days or even a couple weeks later when people started piecing things together and figured out he was there,” Sikora said.