JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Sara Croft knew it wasn’t just another national anthem.
It was less than two weeks after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and the country was reeling.
The NFL made the decision two days later to postpone games for that weekend. When the league resumed play on Sept. 23, the Jaguars hosted rival Tennessee. And the team needed a singer for the national anthem.
Croft, a 16-year-old from Fernandina Beach High School, stood at midfield ready to sing the most important national anthem of her life.
And she nailed it.
Nearly 20 years later, Croft, now Sara Harris, is a mother of two working in the medical field. She performed 10 times at Jaguars games (nine anthems and “God Bless America” once) and dozens and dozens of times at other high profile events. But nothing came close to Sept. 23, 2001.
When Harris watched a replay of that anthem this week, it was a powerful reminder of that moment in history and her small role in playing it.
“What was stood out the most was that I heard more of the crowd unifying, the crowd was singing, people were chanting USA. Everybody really got into it. And it wasn’t just about a football game,”
“We didn’t just come together to watch a game. We came together to celebrate the act of being together and saying, ‘you know what, something really horrible happened. We just overcame it. And we’re better because of it, in spite of it.’ And, you know, here’s our anthem, listen to it, and you didn’t beat us.”
Harris had gotten her start in singing in front of crowds early in life, starting at Pop Warner football games when she was 11 and gradually building up from there … high school, college, professional baseball games.
She loved to sing in front of crowds. And Harris loved singing a traditional version of the national anthem. She was the All-American girl.
Pop Warner eventually led to college performances and Harris sang during a UNF volleyball game where then-Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin’s daughter, Keli was at. Harris said she had a makeshift business card that her mother, Janet, passed on to Keli. That would eventually make its way to Bo Reed and Mark Eisenstadt, who worked in special events for the Jaguars.
Harris said that they came to a Jacksonville Suns game to see her sing the anthem and her microphone cut off during the performance. When it came back on, Harris was still in synch with the music and that performance ultimately landed her a preseason game with the Jaguars in 2000.
It was the first of nine national anthems that she went on to sing for the Jaguars.
Her most important came the following year.
The NFL postponed games that week and moved them back to the end of the regular season. When games resumed, the Jaguars had a Week 3 game at home against the Titans and Harris was asked to sing the national anthem.
“I think the the benefit of doing all that when I was young was that I really didn’t have a concept of how scary it really could be how things could go wrong. Or like security measures anything like that. I was just oblivious,” she said. “I was honored more than anything that they had asked me ... on a pinch they usually called. So, I remember being very excited and nervous, but thrilled that I got to do that.”
Harris said it was unlike any anthem before or since. Security protocols were extreme. There were sharpshooters positioned around the stadium. And there was unity. Unbelievable unity in the crowd. Harris said that she recently showed her older daughter some of her anthem performances.
“She just watched, her eyes were glued to it. Mommy, whoa, that’s so cool. That was you? And it was really neat to see it through a child’s eyes,” she said.
“It’s a completely different world. And I think that’s what I saw back then, was I saw a completely different world than what we live in now. And if only we had that kind of unity, and had it naturally, not just when the time was necessary, you know?”