Tim Benz: Colby Armstrong will never forget his 1st full day in America as a Penguin — Sept. 11, 2001

For former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, remembering Sept. 11, 2001 will always bring him back to his office on the South Side.

Hanging up the phone after speaking with his friend Marty Schottenheimer. Ruminating over tape after a season-opening loss in Jacksonville. Preparing for the Cleveland Browns in Week 2.

That’s when his offensive line coach stopped outside the door.

“Russ Grimm walked in and said, ‘Coach, have you checked the news?’ I said, ‘No, I’m looking at tape,’” Cowher recounted. “He said, ‘Check the news.’”

For Steelers owner Art Rooney II, remembering Sept. 11 also brings him back to preparations for that Browns game. It was supposed to be the first regular-season NFL contest at the newly constructed Heinz Field.

“We were actually in a staff meeting over at Heinz Field. It was going to be an exciting time.”

Until excitement turned to horror.

“Somebody came into the staff meeting and said there was a plane that hit the World Trade Center,” Rooney told TribLIVE’s Chris Adamski in a recent interview. “(We) kinda thought maybe, it was a small plane or something. So we continued the meeting and a few minutes later the guy came in and told us that there was a second plane that hit the other tower, and at that point everybody knew that something different was going on. So we stopped the meeting and walked over to my office and we put the TV on and saw the plane hit the Pentagon.”

For Pittsburgh Pirates players Jason Kendall and Kevin Young, remembering Sept. 11 actually brings them back to Sept. 13, 2001. Major League Baseball had shut down all games for Sept. 11-13 after the attacks.

But — with air travel still shutdown — the Pirates were on a charter bus that Thursday en route to Chicago in case their game against the Cubs was going to be played the next day.

“We were about halfway there,” Kendall recalls. “KY got a call. He was our player rep. He put it on speaker phone. And they said it was off.”

The Pirates wouldn’t play again until Sept. 17 when the New York Mets came to PNC Park. It was a series that was supposed to be in Queens. But Shea Stadium was being used as a staging area for recovery efforts at the World Trade Center.

“Even when we were on that bus, we still weren’t really sure what was going on. We were still kind of in shock,” Young said. “They told us the games were cancelled, and we just turned around and went home.”

But for former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Colby Armstrong, remembering Sept. 11 means remembering something else.

His first full day on his own living in America. On the day of the nation’s most tragic event.

The Penguins selected Armstrong as the 21st pick in the first round of the June 2001 entry draft. He was an 18-year-old out of Red Deer in Canada’s Western Hockey League. A native of Saskatoon, Armstrong says he barely has any recollection of flying prior to the scouting combine and the draft.

Armstrong was so naive when it came to air travel, he didn’t know he’d have to pay $100 for his hockey bag. Luckily former NHL player Rich Sutter — brother of his junior coach Brent Sutter — was standing in the same line at the airport. He floated Armstrong the cash.

“My mom mailed a check to repay him,” Armstrong laughed.

That was Sept. 10, 2001. The next day was Armstrong’s first day at Penguins camp.

Surrounded by NHLers at Southpointe. Physicals. Testing. Armstrong walked through the lounge.

“Everyone is gathered around the TV,” Armstrong recalled upon seeing the images on the screen from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “And I’m just thinking … Is this real life?”

Armstrong remembered some veterans looking particularly concerned. Jamie Pushor. Dan LaCouture. Shean Donovan.

Did they know people in the buildings? Should he say something? Should he just stay quiet?

“I couldn’t get a read on the situation … it was something to behold,” Armstrong said. “I was 18. My first day in America at an NHL camp. And chaos ensues at the rink that morning watching on TV.”

Then the fourth plane crashed “outside of Pittsburgh”— as those initial national reports loosely phrased.

“Shanksville? As soon as they mentioned Pennsylvania … is that close? I have no clue where I am. I don’t know the area. I’m following shuttle vans and the itinerary of the team,” Armstrong said.

As surreal as all of that was for Armstrong, he actually remembers his first flight back from Pittsburgh more vividly.

After being cut from the NHL camp and sent back to Red Deer, Armstrong flew to Calgary and connected in Chicago, not long after international air travel had opened up again.

“Literally nobody in the airport,” Armstrong said. “No one else in the world is flying. Laying down in the middle of the concourse with a four-hour layover … I felt like I was the only person in the entire airport.”

For as much as we see pro athletes, coaches and owners as living in different worlds, weren’t most of those stories familiar? How many of us first heard about the events on Sept. 11, 2001 in the same way Cowher did?

“Check the news.”

How many of us had a meeting interrupted like Rooney II or had business trips scuttled, rescheduled and scrapped again like the Pirates?

Few could ever speak to the same experience Armstrong had, however. Twenty years removed, he can recount it so clearly, yet is still baffled by the memories at the same time.

“I didn’t understand it,” Armstrong said.

That’s a feeling we all had. Whether you had lived in America your entire life — or just one day.