The Party

On the morning of September 11, 2001, news trucks lined the driveway of Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, N.Y. Reporters were on campus covering one of the biggest stories of the day. A group of football players had thrown a party that triggered a national media storm. The story launched the suburban high school into center stage of the American Culture Wars. It would disappear hours later in the wake of 9/11, but not before the Clintons, an adult entertainment service owner, Bill O’Reilly, Jeanine Pirro, and Conan O’Brien got involved. 

Transcript

MASON LEIB 

It’s 2001. A Sunday. Late afternoon. Bill Tribou is at home prepping film for practice the next day.    

That’s when his phone rings. It’s the Newcastle Police Department.  

Music in: Borough, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

They’re calling about the Quakers – the Horace Greeley High School football team. Bill’s the head coach.

BILL TRIBOU

He said, There was a huge party, there was alcohol involved. 

MASON 

And marijuana.

BILL T.

And then he dropped the bomb on me the stripper was involved.

Music out: Borough, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

Allegedly, the performance involved whipped cream. 

Music in: Borough, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

Bill didn’t know it at the time, but members of his high school football team had thrown the most infamous party in Horace Greeley High School history. A party – which triggered a media storm that reached far beyond the New York City suburb where it took place. 

Music in: ABC 7 Eyewitness News

NEWSCASTER

Tonight. Concern and outrage from parents about a party where a stripper performed for high school football players. 

LAUREN SAGNELLA

The events that followed consumed the hamlet of Chappaqua, New York in a national controversy and launched a morality debate across the nation. 

BILL O’REILLY

Thank you for watching us tonight. Holding people accountable for their actions is the subject of this evening’s talking points memo… 

LAUREN

Even some well-connected neighbors got involved…

CONAN O’BRIEN

Speaking of politics, yesterday, Hillary Clinton criticized a neighbor in Chappaqua because the neighbor’s son threw a party for his high school football team.

LAUREN

And then a little more than a week after the party, September 10, 2001, parents and school administrators attended a meeting – which made the nightly news. 

NEWSCASTER

Our other big story tonight: Westchester parents packed a high school meeting this evening voicing shock and outrage about a private-party for high school football players. 

LAUREN

The next morning, barely anyone would remember the party. 

Music out: Borough, Blue Dot Sessions

CNN NEWSCASTER 

And there as you could see, perhaps the second tower, the front tower, the top portion of which, is collapsing. Good Lord. 

LAUREN

Suddenly, what seemed like a crisis, felt trivial. 

Music in: Borough, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

How did a high school party become national news? Did the media blow it out of proportion? Or was the world so different then – pre 9/11 –  that too much booze and a naked woman were seen as the biggest threats to the safety of the next generation?

Music out: Borough, Blue Dot Sessions

Music in: Squeegee (Shoe Leather theme)

MASON

September 10, 2001 is a big day in New York City. 

It’s Fashion Week. 

NEWSCASTER

Leather, Lace and everything in-between. It is all moving down the catwalk at Fashion Week in New York.    

MASON

There’s a mayoral election with a progressive democrat poised to win. 

MARK GREENE

I think I’ll win unless there’s a big external event that disrupts everything. Close quote. 

LAUREN

Not everyone has a cell phone but most people have beepers. 

Beeper Sound

MASON

And a suburban High School Party is being covered on national nightly news. 

LAUREN

This is Shoe Leather, an investigative podcast that digs up stories from New York City’s past to find out how yesterday’s news affects us today. 

This season we look at what was making news the day before 9/11. 

MASON

I’m Mason Leib.

LAUREN 

And I’m Lauren Sagnella.

This is Shoe Leather season three, The Day Before.  

You’re listening to The Party. 

Music out: Squeegee (Shoe Leather theme)

Pre-Training (August 2001) 

BILL T. 

On the other side of that set of lights over there that’s the school campus. 

MASON 

Okay. 

LAUREN 

Yeah. 

MASON

Do you want to head that way? Or do you want to stay at the crossing?

BILL T. 

I think we should stay over here.

MASON

Sure. 

MASON

We met Bill Tribou on a blustery February day, across the street from his former job. “I have a large gray beard,” he texts me before we meet him. He’s not lying. His beard is biblical. It covers the majority of his face and hangs down to his collarbone.

BILL T. 

As I told you, they would probably not want – you know, if it came out we were walking around that campus, the potential for opening up an old wound. 

MASON

That old wound Bill’s talking about – the party.

Bill is 67 years old. He’s been a football coach in New York for all of his adult life. 

BILL T. 

The local high school football coach came to speak at the school, of course recruiting players, and after I heard that guy talk, I said that’s what I want to be.

MASON

We’re standing in Chappaqua Crossing about 40 miles outside of New York City. Chappaqua is a hamlet – a small chunk of the larger town of Newcastle. The area is one of the wealthiest communities in New York state – maybe even America.   

BILL T. 

And, as you can see, it’s a pretty well off community. The school is one of the best there is… The way the school is run is why it has the reputation that it does.    

MASON

Ironically, Chappaqua is no stranger to the news – the town has a deep-seated history in mass media. In fact, we’re standing talking to Bill in what used to be the headquarters for “Reader’s Digest”, a New York-based magazine.  

MASON

Ironically, Chappaqua is no stranger to the news – the town has a deep-seated history in mass media. In fact, we’re standing talking to Bill in what used to be the headquarters for “Reader’s Digest”, a New York-based magazine.  

And that’s not the only media connection. Horace Greeley, a founding father of American Journalism, bought land here in the 1850’s and the town never forgot. He was the founder of the New-York Tribune. His name is plastered everywhere. From statues, to street signs, to the high school. 

The 2001 Horace Greeley Quakers football team was primed to make headlines. 

BILL T. 

We knew that we had a, we had a great group coming in, and our expectations were high. 

MASON

They were on their way to Massachusetts for summer training camp. It was late August. And it was hot. 

The camp was brutal. Almost like basic training. 

MAC BOWEN

And camp –  it was that intense kind of training atmosphere that I imagine is part of military training. And it always kind of got mythologized, for good reason, but you know, it’s definitely the hardest physical exertion that I had ever been through, probably to this day.

LAUREN 

That’s Mac Bowen. Back in 2001, he was a team captain of the Quakers – Horace Greeley’s high school football team.  

MAC 

It’s one of those things I joke about – you never – a beautiful experience you never want to go through again. You know, I think there’s a lot of a lot of like military allegory when you’re talking about football teams and like the kind of machismo of it and going into battle and all that kind of stuff.  

LAUREN

Mac remembers long summer days in Massachusetts. Sometimes four practices a day. “Country Grammar” by Nelly on repeat. 

MAC

Doing nothing but play football, eating, sleeping, and a little bit of bunk wars, and kind of messing around and having fun.

Music out: Nelly, “Country Grammar” 

LAUREN

By the end of the week, it seems like everyone had a blast.

MAC

You kind of have this euphoria, right, like just accomplished training camp is done in the rear view, like, you know, still got summer I think it’s the week before school or something like that. Right. So you’re kind of excited to go back and, you know, see all your friends.

MASON

The players party planned on the bus back from camp. 

MAC

On the bus ride back is when, you know, kind of had this like culmination of all this work and energy and want to blow off a little bit of steam.

BILL T. 

One of the players had this idea to put this party together. And they actually made the call from the bus to do this. 

Music in: Longtime Rye, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

That call was to Louis Anthony Agnello – 

A quick talking, actor in-training, turned exotic dancer, turned owner of adult entertainment service, self-proclaimed “stripper king of New York,” who went only by “Cousin Vinny.”

LOUIS “COUSIN VINNY” ANTHONY AGNELLO 

I was one of the top strippers in the country at one time. I’ve been featured in Super Teen Magazine’s “Heavenly Hunks Poem.”

Gorgeous Strippers Plus Ad. (News 12 Westchester)

MASON

A quick note: A lot’s changed since 2001 –  today we might refer to people who do this kind  of work as a stripper, an exotic dancer, a sex worker, or a performer. In this episode, you’ll hear “stripper” in the tape and interviews. The performer’s name was Nicole.  

VINNY

She was like around 30 I think at the time which in the stripping business at that time was kind of long in the tooth – that’s one of the reasons she was staying home and all the young ones we’re on our way to New Jersey.

MASON

Word began to spread onboard the southbound bus.

MAC

There began to be rumors of including that sort of entertainment and that was always you know, I guess I was just maybe a little bit more hesitant and shy. 

MASON 

Mac decided he would not be attending the party. He went home and thinks he watched a movie. 

MAC

I kind of left the the gentlemen off the bus. Just kind of went about my business. 

MASON

And the rest is history, at least in the small town of Chappaqua…

The Party (September 1, 2001)

LAUREN

The party was hosted by the backup quarterback at his home in the neighborhood. It’s a quiet part of town away from main streets. 

We visited the Chappaqua library and used high school yearbooks to guide us in our search for students and football players. We reached out to those who seemed like they might have been at the party. But, they didn’t want to speak to us. We also reached out to the host – the backup quarterback – and he said he didn’t want to be interviewed and neither did his parents. 

Music in: Grumpalo, Blue Dot Sessions

LAUREN

From what we gather, this party sounds like an urban legend in Chappaqua.

Everyone from the clerk at the courthouse to a cop at the police station, to a lawyer we spoke with, knew about the party. A high school party that happened more than 20 years ago… 

From what we can piece together from news coverage and interviews, this party seems like it could have been a scene in one of those epic teen movies. 

These films shaped our American teenage cultural identity, sparking inspiration for parties in suburbs like Chappaqua. 

In August 2001, American Pie 2 was released. It, of course, is about a party to close out summer. 

Music out: Grumpalo, Blue Dot Sessions

AMERICAN PIE 2

Guys – this is what our party’s got to be – something we’ll always remember, you know?  

LAUREN 

The Westchester District Attorney at the time, Jeanine Pirro, appeared on a local news show to report on the party. 

Yes – that Jeanine Pirro – conservative politician and the former host of “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” and current co-host of “The Five” on Fox News. 

JEANINE PIRRO

This country is going to hell in a handbasket and you know it. 

LAUREN

With a little help from an unlikely duo – Coach Bill and Jeanine Pirro – here’s what we know about the party: 

Music in: Grumpalo, Blue Dot Sessions

LAUREN

On Saturday September 1, 2001, there was a high school house party with some players from the football team and their friends. They ranged in age from freshmen to seniors. 

BILL T. 

He said, there was a huge party, there was alcohol involved. 

JEANINE

Drinking. Smoking pot. 

BILL T. 

And then he dropped the bomb on me the stripper was involved. 

LAUREN

The woman who performed – Nicole. 

Music out: Grumpalo, Blue Dot Sessions

JEANINE 

What happened was, neighbors called because there was a, you know, a noise complaint, second time around, the police respond and this time they go into the backyard and they see a group of 30 to 40 young students, highschoolers, who are surrounding a stripper as she is engaging in sexual activity.      

LAUREN

To quote the Gorgeous Strippers Plus ad, her routine fit into the category,  “too risque to say.” Here’s how Vinny explained it to us:        

VINNY

The only problem, of course, was that I guess the kids were making a whole bunch of noise. And neighbors called and complained, police came in, police see stripper butt naked on the deck and kids playing around with her… and suddenly, you know, I think a molehill got turned into a mountain.

LAUREN

We tried to get the police report from that time, but it’s sealed. Probably because minors were involved.

Then the night after the party, Coach Bill got that call from a police friend. 

BILL T. 

And that’s when I knew that, that this was not going to be a good situation, mainly because of the things that I talked about before the, the community doesn’t want those kind of things, you know, to be to be advertised all over the, the news and bad press and, and things of that nature.

LAUREN

But the community didn’t have much choice… 

In the following days, this party was not just the talk of the town…it was the talk of the nation.

Music in: La Naranja Borriana, Blue Dot Sessions

The Media Storm (September 2 – 10, 2001)

MONTAGE OF NEWS CLIPS

When police responded to noise complaints at this home Saturday night in upscale Newcastle, they were stunned at what they found. A naked stripper who was ordered by students from the yellow pages, performing sex acts at a party for members of the Horace Greeley High School Varsity Football Team… 

a teenager’s party included a stripper…. 

A high school football team party… 

booze and pot football party… 

party turns into trouble… 

the teen party…. 

Not far from the home of the former President Bill Clinton….

the Horace Greeley football quarterback hosted a party…

this shocking case has people in the community talking, that’s for sure… 

$325 cash to perform at the party…. 

Booze and pot party… 

Tracy the community there hasn’t seen this kind of attention since the Clintons moved in. Lotta talk going on…..

MASON 

The story ran on the front page of the NY Post, in the NY Times, and even Conan O’Brien joked about it…    

Music out: La Naranja Borriana, Blue Dot Sessions

CONAN 

Speaking of politics, yesterday, Hillary Clinton criticized a neighbor in Chappaqua because the neighbor’s son threw a party for his high school football team and hired a stripper to put on a nude sex show. So Hillary Clinton’s mad. Mrs. Clinton very mad, yeah. And president Clinton criticized the parents too but only cause he wasn’t invited. (Audience laughs and claps.)

MASON

The Clintons lived about 10 minutes from where the party took place. They purchased their Chappaqua home in 1999 – right after President Clinton’s impeachment, and before Hillary Clinton became a NY Senator in 2001. 

Another TV personality spoke about the Clinton connection, and devoted an entire segment of his show to the party… 

BILL O. 

(Intro Music) Hi I’m Bill O’Reilly. Thank you for watching us tonight. Holding people accountable for their actions is the subject of this evening’s talking points. 

LAUREN

Bill O’Reilly’s Fox news show, “The O’Reilly Factor”, was huge at the time. According to his publisher, it was the “highest-rated cable news broadcast in the nation for 16 consecutive years.”

O’Reilly brought up a previous incident at Horace Greeley High School – one that happened the spring before. Male students posted personal and sexual information about their female classmates on the internet. 

And O’Reilly argued that the party displayed a pattern of inappropriate behavior in Chappaqua. 

O’REILLY 

Now, we can’t blame this on the Clintons, who live nearby, but you can blame it on school authorities who are now running away from the press.  

LAUREN

The producers from the O’Reilly Factor reached out to the school administrators, politicians and other officials including Coach Bill.       

BILL T. 

They wanted me to come down there and he wanted to interview me, he was incensed. He was just, you know, he was having a tough time with it. 

LAUREN

Coach Bill did not participate in the O’Reilly show. Neither did the other administrators. 

But the producers were persistent in their search for Chappaqua residents. 

Over 800 miles away from Chappaqua, Bob Eber was on vacation with his family in South Carolina. 

BOB EBER

And we turn on the news one night and I don’t remember what channel, and we heard on the national news about this party … I don’t know why it was a national story, but it was.

LAUREN

Bob did not have a direct affiliation with the party, or those involved. But it didn’t matter. Even he got a call from a producer on the “O’Reilly Factor.” They seemed a bit desperate since they got Bob’s number from the phonebook.

BOB

So they started looking for attorneys in yellow pages and since my last name begins with an E, I came up fairly prominently.

LAUREN

The producers did a pre-screening phone call that took at least an hour. They determined he was good enough. 

And on Monday, September 10, 2001, they sent a car to pick him up from Chappaqua to take him to the studio in New York City. 

BOB

I had done a lot of preparation for that interview. I knew immediately, not that he was a bull, that he was going to attack me, but I knew it was a sham issue. 

LAUREN 

Bob wore a dark suit and tie and wire-rimmed glasses for the interview. He was mostly poised, but they got into it… 

BOB

If this case came out of Bensonhurst. 

BILL O.

Yeah? 

BOB (Overlapping)

If this case came out of Brooklyn…

BILL O. (Overlapping) 

If this came out of anywhere, I would be on it. 

BOB (Overlapping)

and this case came out, would you be on it? Or is it because you have a nice leafy Tony’s cul de sac…  

BILL O. (Overlapping)

Oh No! I’m prejudiced against rich people up in Chappaqua now? Come on!

BOB (Overlapping)

And because the Clintons are up there. 

Bill O. 

Bologna. 

LAUREN

Joining Bob on the show was Phil Reisman who at the time was a local reporter for The Journal News. Like Bob, Phil had no direct connection to the party or those involved with it. Throughout the segment, Phil sided with Bob…

PHIL REISMAN

I think it’s, I think it’s dangerous to make a blanket assumption that Chappaqua has got some kind of systemic problem. I think that this is something that probably is seen in a lot of different places and maybe, maybe, something that you see often in wealthier communities.

LAUREN

And, of course, O’Reilly pushes back. 

Bill O.

You guys are making the same argument that Democrats made to me about President Clinton’s conduct. Everybody does. It happens all the time. But let me tell you what you’re wrong. Both of you. Let me be the usual obnoxious guy that I am… 

LAUREN

That’s Phil chuckling in the background. He was wearing a white button down with a tie, not a full suit. He was a bit more relaxed than Bob and chuckled again when O’Reilly mispronounced his name. Here’s Phil today: 

PHIL

The show was really weird because O’Reilly kept trying to, it seemed to me, he kept trying to get us to say this, this, this debauchery, this you know this, you know this decadent party was an outcome of somehow connecting it with the lack of moral centeredness of the Clintons. And it was just like, yeah, it just seemed like a real reach. 

Music in: La Naranja Borriana, Blue Dot Sessions

LAUREN

At about this point, it seemed to us that this segment was not about a highschool party. This was about the Culture Wars in the early 2000s.

A battle of beliefs and politics, moral and immoral, left and right, right and wrong. 

And if our American Culture was at war, then Bill O’Reilly was a general. On his side, morality was the guiding compass.           

Bill O.

And you know, the stripper guy who rented the stripper, he told me that he sent a lot of strippers over there. This isn’t the first time this happened.  

MASON

“The stipper guy” O’Reilly is referring to, is, of course, Cousin Vinny. 

VINNY

And, you know, this wasn’t the first time that I had I guess, accidentally sent strippers to Horace Greeley High School students. It was the only time we ever got caught doing it. 

Music out: La Naranja Borriana, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

As far as we could tell, Vinny is the only person who welcomed the media attention. 

VINNY

So they left me basically carrying a bag and I’m pretty good at carrying a bag you know, publicity and public relations is something that I score high marks in. 

Music in: Calisson, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

In the span of ten days, he appeared on a different segment of the “O’Reilly Factor,”

VINNY 

And a lot of crazy stuff goes on… 

BILL O. 

And I don’t feel sorry for you if you get busted. 

MASON

“Hannity & Colmes” on Fox News,

SEAN HANNITY

This is not the first time that this has probably happened. 

VINNY

No – It’s the first time we’ve ever been on national TV over it. 

HANNITY 

Right. 

MASON

News 12 Westchester, 

VINNY

Jeanine, go lock up a real criminal. 

MASON

CNN,

VINNY

The only reason we got any news here is because it’s Chappaqua, home of Bill Clinton…

MASON

WB 11,

VINNY

Some girls are born with silver spoons in their mouth and get college educations and law schools paid for. Okay? Other people gotta… don’t have it so easy.  

MASON

And “Judith Regan Tonight.”

VINNY

This happens in private parties all over this great nation of ours. 

Music out: Calisson, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

We know Vinny appeared on these shows because he has the videos compiled on his YouTube page. 

The news segments are pretty much the same. There’s footage of the house where the party took place. High School yearbook photos of the party host, and the HS football team. There’s the ad in the phone book – the supposed one that the boys called from the bus. 

And there are photos of Nicole – the woman who performed at the party.

According to Vinny, Nicole didn’t like being in the spotlight. Because of the media attention, he says Nicole was asked to appear in “Playboy”. Vinny says she turned it down. 

In all these TV segments, Vinny wears a sports jersey or a T-shirt. He always has on a silver chain. 

Mostly, he defends his business. And himself…

HANNITY (overlapping): 

But But But But you’re not taking your clothes off – you’re hiring someone else to take their clothes off. 

VINNY (overlapping): 

Oh but I did take my clothes off for thirteen years. 

HANNITY

You did!? 

VINNY

Absolutely. 

HANNITY

You just shocked Alan Colmes. 

VINNY

Okay? I was the top male stripper in the country in the 80s. I was in “Super Teen Magazine.”

HANNITY

Would you want your son to do that? 

VINNY 

Would I? Yes! 

MASON

From all the stories we read and TV segments we watched, it seems like the nation was most shocked because of Nicole’s risque performance.  

That was the thing that separated it from other high school parties. 

But there was something else that ignited the media firestorm – the kid that hosted the party –

well his parents were home. 

The parents were arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and unlawfully dealing with a child. That’s why Jeanine Pirro, the Westchester District Attorney at the time, got involved. 

JEANINE 

Here parents were supervising. But the reality is that not only did they use poor judgment, they violated the criminal law of the state of New York. 

BILL T. 

Oh, it was a big deal. I don’t I don’t think that it was not a big deal. It was a big deal. I think it was a big deal for the those parents who, who made this mistake. They were really good people. I don’t know what they were thinking at the time. Hopefully, it was something that was positive. As I said before, they wanted to look out for the kids or whatever.

MASON

Coach Bill, and most of the people we spoke to, were confused by the parents being at the party. But he puts his finger on something – did the parents believe they were keeping their kids safe by being there?

Here’s Phil – the reporter:

PHIL 

I’ll just put myself. let me just say, I’m not necessarily, I don’t necessarily believe this, but I’ll play the other side. How about that? So the other side could say this harmed no one, that this was just kids having fun and it was in a controlled environment, And if I was, you know, and no one was gonna go home driving drunk cause we’re gonna be there to make sure they got home safely. 

Music in: Calisson, Blue Dot Sessions

MASON

The parents never spoke publicly about their role in the party. 

As far as we know, there were no injuries the night of the party, no drunken car accidents involving the students, no one taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning or an overdose…

But It didn’t seem to matter.

The country waited to see how the school would respond. 

And so a little more than a week after the party, on September 10, 2001, while Bob, Phil, and Bill O’Reilly were hashing it on FOX News, and “World Famous Cousin Vinny” was carrying the publicity bag on local TV,  parents and school administrators attended a meeting – which made the nightly news.  

WABC TV 

We’ve got to instill in them, not a morals, uh, curriculum. A basic moral compass is the word I used, about what is decent, and what is not. 

MASON

But just what the moral compass would look like and how the school would go about instilling it – there would be no follow up to that story.

Just when the kids at Horace Greeley High School thought they were in the worst trouble  of their lives – the thing that no one could have imagined happened. 

In a second, the controversy went from a national fascination to exactly what it was: A high school party. 

Music out: Calisson, Blue Dot Sessions

The Next Day (September 11, 2001) 

LAUREN

OK this looks more like a campus. 

MASON

Yes. Here we go. There you go – Horace Greeley High School. 

LAUREN

To get to Horace Greeley High School, you turn off a main road to a mostly secluded campus. 

MASON

So beyond the school is kind of this wide open clearing where it just looks like brush and a few hills but no developments.  

LAUREN

There’s a long winding street to get to the main building, and on the way you pass sporting fields. 

LAUREN

I will say on these little banners that they have, they have key words, like this says trust. This other one here says balance. Oh Discipline. 

MASON

Discipline. 

LAUREN

Along the drive are banners in the school’s colors: orange and blue. They have the initials on them – HG – and words like “Courage” and “Commitment.”

MASON

Caring. And Dedication. Community. Courage.   

LAUREN

Along the side of the road are backyards of a few houses, but other than that, there are no other buildings.  

On the morning of September 11, 2001, TV trucks lined this winding road with the hopes of getting footage for news segments about the party. 

Coach Bill had just come back from visiting his sick father in Massachusetts. He had a lot on his mind. He was thinking about his family. And the next move for his football team – they had just lost a game.

And they were still in hot water over the party. 

BILL T.

So I had gone for a walk on the campus, I was in the backfields 100 yards from where we are right now. And two reporters popped out of the bushes. And they were photographing me. They had one of those, you know, they had an electric shutter on their camera and it was going off like great, I could still hear the sound of the of the, you know, they must have taken 100 pictures of me and they’re just looking for, for anything. They were actually photographing my tattoos, I have some tattoos on my arms. And they were photographing them up close. And the thing is, you know, just guys just leave me alone. I mean, I don’t have anything to say, I love my players. I love what I’m doing. I want to do what I do best. Just give me a break. I need, I need a little time to think. And they still were harassing me. In the middle of that. One of them had either a beeper or something in his ear. And they took off like a bat out of hell they had to run. There were seven, or six or seven satellite trucks right across the street here, where we’re from where we’re sitting. And all of those trucks took off within a half an hour.

LAUREN

Suddenly, the party was old news.  

MAC

I first found out about it in homeroom. 

LAUREN

That’s Mac again – the team captain – the player who did not go to the party. 

MAC

So we were we had a homeroom period after two classes. So you started to hear rumors of this and then we actually turned on the TV and were able to watch the the towers burning and it was terrifying. I mean, we watched people jump out of that building real time. And my dad worked six blocks away. And my uncle’s best friend was in the building. So it was just, sorry, I don’t know, I haven’t really talked about it much. But obviously still emotional. 

Music in: Four Count, Blue Dot Sessions

LAUREN

Mac lived in one of the houses along the winding road that leads to Horace Greeley High School. Students congregated there, mostly the football team, glued to the television like the rest of the world.  

Chappaqua is a commuter town nearly 40 miles away from downtown Manhattan. For people in these suburban communities, the smoke from Ground Zero was tangible. 

Music out: Four Count, Blue Dot Sessions

MAC

It was just, it was really very, very, very scary and traumatizing. And I don’t think people realize what it was like to be in New York at that time. Like it was just really, really scary. And you didn’t know, you didn’t know if you were safe. And you didn’t know if the people that you loved were safe. 

LAUREN

It was 5 or 6 hours before Mac’s father was able to call his family and tell them he was safe. He didn’t get home until around 8pm that evening. 

Mac and one of his best friends drove to a street in Chappaqua where the skyline was visible. From his friend’s mountaineer truck, Mac watched the smoke.  

MASON

Dr. Robin Gurwitch, is a researcher at Duke University. She is a child psychologist who specializes in terror and trauma. 

ROBIN GURWITCH

When we think about the impact of traumatic events, initially and still I think for the most part, think about it as a pebble in a pond. And the closer you are to that to the pebble the higher the risk for you to have reactions.

There was a time that watching it on News didn’t really have any kind of impact. Now that’s not true. The science is telling us no, you can be anywhere if you’re watching this, you can certainly have reactions that are significant. 

MASON

Safety. Family. Fear. Terror. These are the words that we hear when we speak about 9/11. 

It seems like the party was the furthest thing from everyone’s minds. Well mostly everyone… 

VINNY

In fact, I’ll tell you the saddest part for me. The saddest part about those stinking terrorists hitting the World Trade Center from my personal perspective. Okay. Was that they knocked me out of a feature in Rolling Stone magazine. 

LAUREN

In the days, months and years following the media storm surrounding the party and 9/11 there was only one thing for the students of Horace Greeley, and the rest of the world to do: rebuild. 

The Aftermath (September 12, 2001 – June 2002) 

MASON

The world was never the same after 9/11. And almost every American can give you concrete examples of how their lives changed on that day.

But for a small group in Chappaqua, NY, the attack on American soil just 40 miles away, may have actually brought back to their lives something they’d longed for a day earlier. 

MASON

Did you get the sense that you or any of your players, strictly from a media perspective, like, felt a sense of relief for a second?

BILL T.

Oh, I do. I know, it would be only natural to, you know, I’m sure that some of these parents are saying, ‘Oh, my God, it finally got us off the front page,’ you know, I mean, that’s natural. It just, you can’t you can’t hide from those kinds of things. And, anybody who says that they they – that didn’t happen is not telling the truth.

MASON

More than just relief, Mac says the tragedy gave everyone perspective. 

MAC

The scandal was just like, put in just this incredible contrast right to such an important historically important event. 

MASON

There was a team meeting to discuss how they were going to move forward. 

MAC

It was at my house. And I don’t know if Bill described this. But like I said, we live right next to the high school, everybody came over. And we have 50 meathead dudes in my living room just all over the place. Some parents were there. But not many. Bill was there. 

MASON

The scene he describes is straight out of Friday Night Lights: 

MAC

It was just a like –  everyone messed up, this is an embarrassment to the whole team, the whole town,  everybody involved. You know, again, we’re not pointing fingers, we’re not, you know, we’re not making anybody feel bad for their choices, but how do we? How do we show the town, our parents, our community? Everybody’s watching how we respond to this. How are we going to kind of set the tone as a team?

Music in: Valantis, Blue Dot Sessions 

BILL T.

They started to make their act of contrition. They collected money, they collected water, they collected everything that they possibly could, that they could go down and, and help out at the at the crash site. And, you know, it was it was important to them. I think that some of it was intrinsic, but I think some of it was extrinsic.

MASON

The redemption tour didn’t stop with gaining back the community trust. There was still work to do on the football field. 

BILL T.

I mean, it was like coaching college kids again, because I had seen that, that kind of focus. And they came in we, they, they just want us to coach tell me show me what what I need to do. And I’m going to get it done. 

MASON

With a newfound purpose, the Quakers won their next game… 

and then the next one…

…. and the one after that too. 

They ended up winning the next 10 straight games…

Mac remembers the moment the team won their 10th game. It was a big deal. It meant that they were going to advance to the state championship for the first time in school history. 

MAC

I literally, I could not stop crying for like 40 minutes, it was just like insane amount of emotion just pouring out. And here we are, like tough, you know, tough football players – not supposed to cry – and it was so a beautiful human experience in terms of that sense of achievement and victory. 

MASON

The championship was in Syracuse at the Carrier Dome – where the Syracuse College football team plays. To get there, the team boarded a bus from Chappaqua. 

MAC

A lot of parents were lining the entrance of Greeley. And they had, you know, huge signs. A lot of my buddies were there that weren’t on the team like signs that say, “bring it home from the dome.” Made us feel really special. 

Music out: Valantis, Blue Dot Sessions 

MASON

They lost the championship that day but it didn’t matter. 

The town that they had let down – 

The community who had been embarrassed on a national scale – 

The people who the team took it upon themselves to redeem their reputation with – 

Still had their back. 

Where are they now? (2002 – Today) 

LAUREN

As the fall faded, so did the memory of the party. 9/11 was the nation’s focus now, and with the football season over, the Horace Greeley students moved on to other things:  

Prom. Graduation. College.

Police records and court records about the party are sealed. According to the New York Times, in May 2002 the parents pled guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and disorderly conduct. One hundred hours community service, and probation.  

MASON

We reached out to Bill O’Reilly to hear whether his thoughts about the party had changed, 20 years later. And despite an initial response from his publisher, we weren’t able to set up an interview. 

When O’Reilly’s book “Old School” was published among his sexual harassment allegations in 2017, Phil – the reporter – wrote a piece about his experience on “The O’Reilly Factor” – it’s in Westchester Magazine. 

This is, as far as we could tell, the last piece of media coverage about the party. Here are the last lines:

“Somehow, I can see O’Reilly in his youth. He’s at the party. His hormones are raging. He’s laughing along with the rest of the red-blooded American boys.    

And he’s shaking a can of Reddi-wip.”  

VINNY

That whole thing was so contrived you know, it was –  in the scale of importance in life, it was like nothing. And on September 11, the next day, on the scale of importance, that was 100 okay – our story was a five. Their – the next day –  the story was 100 Okay?

LAUREN

Vinny’s fame faded.  

Things went south for him in New York, and he got involved in legal battles and shady business dealings. He moved out of state to get his life back on track.

And he did.

In 2013 he published a book, “The Devil’s Glove.”  

Music In: The Lambs, “Time Bridge”  

It’s message seems fitting:

VINNY

You know, just because someone brands you as one thing doesn’t mean you always got to be that thing. Okay? And that’s kind of what the book’s about, it’s a book about, you know, evolving. 

LAUREN

These days, World Famous Cousin Vinny, Stripper King of NY, has a new nickname: Tony Lamb of the Christian rock band, The Lambs. On his YouTube page, there’s a video from April 2020 of Vinny singing a song. His wife wrote it. It’s called “Time Bridge” and it’s about the prodigal son. 

Music out: The Lambs, “Time Bridge”  

LAUREN

We wanted to talk to Nicole – the woman who performed – about her experience – what the media coverage must have felt like –  her thoughts about what happened that night at the party – 

But we couldn’t. 

She died in 2014 and is buried next to her mother and grandmother. 

Music in: A Pleasant Strike, Blue Dot Sessions 

LAUREN

When the football season was over, Coach Bill grieved with his family. His father passed away over a week before the championship game. 

In the past 20 years, Coach Bill has survived cancer twice. He and his wife take in rescue dogs. He’s still a high school football coach – and he guides his players in the choices they make on and off the field. 

When we met Coach Bill in person, he was wearing a baseball hat with the words, “Embrace the Suck.” 

BILL T.

So we would always say embrace the suck in the Marine Corps. It was the Marine Corps sucks you in and then sucks the life out of you. So it was it was it’s tough. You know, it’s a tough, tough world. So that’s where that came from.

Make the best of every possible situation. And then keep moving forward.

Music out: A Pleasant Strike, Blue Dot Sessions 

LAUREN

Mac thanks someone else in the high school yearbook – Coach Bill. “Tribou” he writes – “You taught me what it means to be a man, thanks.” 

Today, Mac reflects on the lessons learned from September 2001. About the party, and 9/11. 

MAC

You know, how do you begin to kind of walk through that and show people that you’re about more. That’s what I learned.

LAUREN

The “embrace the suck” mentality. 

MASON

An adult entertainment company, a football coach, a group of teenagers and a raging culture war, took center stage on September 10, 2001. It was a simpler time, when a high school party was national news. 

And then the next day, it wasn’t. 

Music in: Squeegee (Shoe Leather theme)

CREDITS 

LAUREN

Shoe Leather is a production of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. This episode was reported, written and produced by Mason Leib and Lauren Sagnella.

MASON

Joanne Faryon is our executive producer and professor. Rachel Quester and Peter Leonard are our co-professors. Special thanks to Columbia Digital Librarian Michelle Wilson and Professor Dale Maharidge.

LAUREN

Shoe Leather’s theme music – ‘Squeegees’ – is by Ben Lewis,  Doron Zounes (zoo nez) and Camille Miller, remixed by Peter Leonard.

MASON

Other Music by Blue dot sessions. Our Season three graphic was created by Maria Fernanda Erives. 

LAUREN

To learn more about Shoe Leather, and this episode, go to our website shoeleather.org. 

Music out: Squeegee (Shoe Leather theme)