NORMAN, Okla. — For University of Oklahoma football player Danny Okoye, honoring first responders is personal.
The Tulsa native is partnering with the Tunnel to Towers Foundation as a T2T Student-Athlete Advocate, using his platform as a college football player to support first responders, military members and their families.
Okoye says his connection to service starts with his own family.
“I had opportunity to meet some really amazing people,” Okoye said. “They took me in, took me under their wing.”
Okoye says his father and other family members showed him what it means to live selflessly and help others.
His father also became a chaplain for firefighters, visiting different fire stations and sharing his faith.
“Just seeing them live out a perfect example of what it means to truly live selflessly, I’ve kind of tried to take up and do the same thing in my own life,” Okoye said.
That desire to serve eventually led Okoye to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
The organization was created in honor of FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller, who died while responding to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Tunnel to Towers supports fallen first responder and Gold Star families, catastrophically injured veterans and first responders, and veterans experiencing homelessness.
Okoye says the foundation immediately stood out to him because of its work supporting families who lost loved ones in the line of duty.
“And how many firefighters and people I have in my family, it just seemed to line up perfectly,” he said.
Okoye was born after 9/11, but says that doesn’t mean the attacks are disconnected from his generation.
“I wasn’t alive for it, but I’m still living through the results of it,” Okoye said.
As he learned about 9/11 in school, Okoye says he had questions about what happened and its lasting impact.
Now, nearly 25 years later, he believes his generation has a responsibility to continue talking about it.
For Okoye, “Never Forget” is about more than remembering the attack itself. It’s about remembering the first responders who ran toward danger.
“It’s really the fact that the firefighters who didn’t have any obligation to help those people actually took time out of their own way to sacrifice their lives, essentially, for people that they didn’t even know,” he said.
Okoye says those sacrifices — and the families left behind — deserve to be remembered and supported.
He also wants his partnership with Tunnel to Towers to be more than simply putting his name behind a cause.
This football season, Okoye is donating $100 for every tackle, $200 for every sack and $500 for every interception.
He says he and his team wanted to find a way to make the partnership meaningful rather than simply attaching his name to an organization.
“There’s one thing to play football for yourself and try to get your name out there,” Okoye said. “But when you’re playing for something a little bigger than yourself, it definitely adds a little motivation.”
Okoye says he’s already heard from people connected to families helped by Tunnel to Towers.
Some have told him they didn’t realize football players were paying attention to their stories and trying to help.
“Sometimes it’s easy to worry about, like, who sees me,” Okoye said. “But worrying about who you can make feel seen is equally as important.”
Ultimately, Okoye says he hopes the partnership reaches beyond this football season.
“As long as I’m playing football or as long as I’m even breathing, honestly, I’m never going to stop being the person I am,” he said. “And I’m going to keep helping people as long as I can.”
Okoye also credits his Christian faith for motivating his work on and off the field.
“None of this would have been possible without my relationship with my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ,” he said. “I hold him first and foremost as to why I do everything I do — football, outreach, nonprofit.”
As the country approaches the 25th anniversary of September 11, Okoye says he hopes his generation continues to remember not only what happened, but the people who chose to serve others when they were needed most.
For Okoye, the goal is simple: remember the sacrifice, support the families left behind and use whatever platform you have to help others.
