As the nation gets set to mark 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a University of Oklahoma football player is honoring that fateful day with his own financial campaign.
Oklahoma Sooners defensive end Danny Okoye is matching every tackle, sack or interception this season with donated dollars to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a charity dedicated to the military and first responders.
“I have two family members who are first responders, and one is a firefighter, so this cause is personal to me,” Okoye told Military.com. “When I learned about the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the work they do, providing mortgage-free homes to fallen first responders’ families and injured veterans, I knew I had to do whatever I could to help. It felt like the right opportunity to turn my platform into something meaningful.”
In a formal announcement, Okoye was named as a Tunnel to Towers (T2T) Student-Athlete Advocate.
Launched in September 2021, the program empowers student athletes to use their name, image and likeness, as well as their sporting abilities, to donate to the foundation as a way to ensure that other young Americans “never forget” the sacrifices made by our nation’s first responders, military veterans, and their families.
To date, nearly 30 student-athletes and young professionals have collaborated with the foundation to participate in the initiative. The foundation was created in memory of Stephen Siller Sr., a firefighter who died trying to save others in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
He was also a sibling of Tunnel to Towers Foundation CEO Frank Siller.
“We are excited to grow the Tunnel to Towers Foundation Student-Athlete Advocate Program and bring on these amazing athletes to continue the foundation’s mission to do good,” Siller said in a statement. “Their inspiration to honor the lives of America’s heroes and spread awareness amongst their peers makes them a perfect fit for the program.
“We hope they will influence younger generations to do the same.”
Dollars For Positive Plays
For more than 20 years, the foundation has supported the nation’s first responders, veterans, and their families by providing these heroes and the families they leave behind with mortgage-free homes.
Children of the foundation’s recipients are offered full scholarships for undergraduate degrees and accredited trade school programs.
Okoye, a Tulsa native and junior pass rusher for OU, has committed to donating $100 for every tackle, $200 for every sack, and $500 for every interception during the 2026 football season. The team’s first game was Friday, Sept. 4, at home against the University of Texas at El Paso.
Military.com asked Okoye about his mission to combine football with philanthropy through the T2T Athlete Advocate program.
“It feels like this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing with this platform,” he said. “Football gave me an opportunity, and I want to make sure that opportunity translates into something that matters beyond the game itself.”
Sept. 11, 2001, is a day that lives in infamy. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were a coordinated series of four suicide hijackings of planes carried out by the extremist group al-Qaeda against the United States.
Two planes were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City, causing both structures to collapse. A third plane struck the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a fourth plane crashed in a rural field in Shanksville, Pa. after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.
Honoring 9/11 Victims Through Service
Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the hijackings, making it the deadliest foreign attack on U.S. soil in history.
At 22 years old, Okoye wasn’t even born yet.
“I don’t have any personal memories of that day,” he said. “What I do have is everything I’ve learned since then. This summer I got to stand in front of a steel beam from the World Trade Center during the Foundation’s Steel Across America tour and hear firsthand stories from firefighters and family members who lost loved ones.”
As Tunnel to Towers Foundation CEO, Siller said Okoye is exactly the kind of student athlete the organization wants on the foundation’s team.
“We are so proud and grateful to welcome Danny to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation family,” Siller said. “He is an exceptional athlete, but more importantly, he is an exceptional young man who is dedicated to his community and is committed to showing up for others.
“My brother, Stephen, gave his life running toward danger so that others could live. And it is people like Danny who feel that same sense of duty and responsibility, that keeps his legacy alive every single day.”
But Okoye said exchanging donated dollars for tackles, sacks and interceptions on the gridiron is the least he can do.
“I’ll be donating throughout the season based on my performance and using my platform to help my peers and the college football community learn more about the foundation’s mission,” he said. “I hope to encourage my peers to remember that even small acts of service can make a big difference.
“Supporting those who have sacrificed for our country and communities is a responsibility we all share.”
