BERKELEY – The solemn anniversary of 9/11 is an opportunity to remember former Golden Bear Mark Bingham, a co-recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2002 ESPYs. Bingham posthumously received the award with three other Americans "not for their victories on the field, but for their heroic efforts on United Flight 93."
 
At California, Bingham was a member of the 1991 national championship rugby team and a 1993 recipient of a bachelor's degree in social sciences with an emphasis in international relations. Having launched the Bingham Group, a public relations firm serving the tech industry, Bingham resided in New York and made frequent trips back to the Bay Area.
 
Bingham never knew his co-recipients, Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett or Jeremy Glick.  "Then, one morning," narrated actor Tom Hanks at the award presentation, "they met on an airplane."
 
United Flight 93 was hijacked shortly after takeoff from Newark International Airport on Sept. 11, 2001. When passengers on board learned that other hijacked planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Bingham, Beamer, Burnett and Glick are believed to have taken action.
 
"We're not supposed to talk about the contents of the cockpit voice recording," said Bingham's mother, Alice Hoagland. "But it did confirm for us that there was a heroic team effort mounted on that aircraft. It was beautiful to know that they were pulling it together and doing what they could to try to seize back a measure of control over their own lives and over that doomed airplane, and in so doing they were able to save many, many lives on the ground."
 
United Flight 93 met its end in Shanksville, Pa. The plane's passengers and crew are remembered at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoyston, Pa., and in New York City, where their names are etched at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. A charcoal impression of Bingham's name from the memorial is framed in the Doc Hudson Fieldhouse on campus at Cal.
 
"It is indeed a very personal day of remembrance for us," said head coach Jack Clark. "A day filled with great sorrow, yet a day to remember the heroism of Mark and so many others."
 
Bingham also continues to be honored annually by the University through the California Alumni Association, which recognizes a young alumnus or alumna with the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement at its Charter Gala each spring.
 
"Mark loved Cal," Ms. Hoagland has said of her son's alma mater. "Go Bears was his mantra. Mark wore the blue and gold rugby jersey proudly and played his heart out for his teammates."
 
Named for the tennis legend and given each year at the ESPYs, the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage is for individuals whose bravery "transcends sports … possessing strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost."
 
As preparations continue for the first competition of this academic year, the Rugby Bears bow their heads in memory of Mark Bingham, his fellow passengers, all those who were lost and those who responded, 18 years ago today.