ESPN.com - Giving voice to those left behind

ESPN.com: ESPN

Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Giving voice to those left behind

By Greg Garber
ESPN.com

For every life that was lost in the World Trade Center tragedy, there is another left behind. Take Olivia Lynch, a curious, bright-eyed 2-year-old girl.

Her grandfather is Dick Lynch, the New York Giants defensive back from 1959-66. Her father, Richard, was one of the many people who worked in the complex and insular financial world in lower Manhattan.

	“	It's tragic, in the manner of how they went down. There were 3,000 people involved, and maybe 9,000, 10,000 family members that were left behind. It's the kids I worry about the most & the kids. ”
		— Giants broadcaster Dick Lynch, who lost his son on Sept. 11

As the one-year anniversary of Richard Lynch's death loomed, Dick Lynch was asked if he had come to terms with it all.

"No," he said softly from his Douglaston, Long Island home. "You'll never come to terms with it. It's brutal, is what it is. You realize that Richie's not coming back.

"It's really tough on my wife. We have five other children. Roz says we have six. She fed him and &"

Lynch's voice, laden with pain, trailed off. You could hear him sniffle.

"And that's sad enough," he said. "It's tragic, in the manner of how they went down. There were 3,000 people involved, and maybe 9,000, 10,000 family members that were left behind. It's the kids I worry about the most & the kids.

"We need to try and help these kids. Everybody's giving out college scholarships, right? We'll many of these kids, they're young. We've got to get them into the right grammar schools, the private schools that they deserve. I hope they all get what they need."

Lynch, who broadcasts the Giants games on radio, has done more than his part. For starters, he established the Richard D. Lynch II Memorial Foundation (116 Central Park South, Suite 6, New York, N.Y. 10019).

He held a charity golf tournament over the summer in Great Rock Golf Club on Long Island. It sold out in three days and featured former Giants Frank Gifford, Alex Webster, Kyle Rote, Phil Simms, Jim Burt and Michael Strahan. The Giants, Mets and Yankees all contributed. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Lynch said, came up particularly big.

"Everyone has stepped up, but we have a long way to go," Lynch said. "My thoughts are with the 3,000 people. Let's get behind them and help them out as much as we can. We need to give them food and education - all of the things their fathers or mothers would have wanted them to have."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com