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B'klyn Mariners To Honor Fallen FDNY Teammate

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- As a member of one of the first units to respond to the World Trade Center scene on Sept. 11, 2001, Danny Suhr will be remembered as the first firefighter to die on that dreadful day.

Suhr was a member of FDNY Engine Company 216 and died when he was struck by a body falling from the South Tower.

LISTEN: 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reports

Suhr, of Rockaway, also played middle linebacker for the 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Mariners – a semi-pro football team in the USFA (United States Football Association).

On Saturday, the Mariners will take on the Central-Penn Piranha football team in Kings Bay Field on Avenue X at 6 p.m. Admission for the game will be $10 with all proceeds going to the Firefighter Danny Suhr Scholarship Fund.

"It keeps the memory of Danny Suhr alive, because Danny Suhr's memory and everyone's memory of 9/11 is very tough," Suhr's coach during his time with the Mariners, retired firefighter Pudgy Walsh, said.

1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria spoke with Walsh who said Suhr was "a wonderful human being" and "great father."

The Mariners have played the Piranhas three times before, and lost each match, but Walsh thinks Saturday's game will be an emotional one and it will lift the team to victory.

"From the opening whistle to the last we're going to be banging them," Walsh said. "We're definitely the underdogs and we're looking to pull off an upset, particularly for Danny."

Walsh described his former player as "one of the best human beings I've met in my time on this earth" when he gave Suhr's eulogy in 2001.

On a memorial page for Suhr on the Mariners website, his wife Nancy described her husband as her "inspiration."

"You still teach me everyday because everyday I learn something new about you to love and I remember something old. That is the reason we're still in love. You are my heart, my soul, and my life," Nancy Suhr wrote, "I will miss your presence in our lives everyday till will meet again."

Donations can also be sent to the Danny Suhr Scholarship Fund c/o Bill Ahearn, 1552 E. 57th St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11234.

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