Rescuer in the Red Bandanna

A red bandanna is a symbol of courage and sacrifice. Welles Crowther, a native of Nyack, New York, wore one over his nose and mouth as he rescued innocent civilians trapped in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 after a terrorist-driven plane hit the iconic structure.

It also changed the Crowther family forever. At age 24, Welles lost his life doing what he had always wanted to do ever since he was a boy: Race into buildings and save others.

“Dad, money isn’t everything,” said Crowther. “My life was meant for something more important.”

In the 2011 documentary “Man with the Red Bandanna,” ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi told the story of a young Welles Crowther who adopted a red bandanna as a must-have wardrobe accessory. He wanted to be like his dad, who carried one.

When Welles, one of three kids, was six years old, his father gave him his own red bandanna, telling him the handkerchief in a man’s breast pocket was for show — and the bandanna in the back pocket was “for blow.”

Welles carried a red bandanna with him everywhere. He wore one under all his sports uniforms in high school, and in his helmet as a Boston College lacrosse player.

In 1999 Crowther graduated with honors from Boston College with a degree in economics. He was off to New York City, taking a job as an equities trader for Sandler O’Neill and Partners on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

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Crowther eventually came to dislike desk work, and felt a career as a firefighter would be a better fit, according to Rinaldi’s documentary.

Welles’ father says his son came to him shortly before 9/11 and said he was thinking of giving up his equities job to try and join the NYPD fire department. His father told him a firefighter’s starting salary would be around $27,000.

Welles answered, “Dad, money isn’t everything. My life was meant for something much more important.”

Crowther already knew he loved being a firefighter — he had joined his father as a volunteer firefighter at age 16, becoming a junior member of the Empire Hook and Ladder Company.

“He took to it very easily,” former Chief Paul Wanamaker of the Nyack Fire Department said in Rinaldi’s documentary. “He was good at it, and I felt he had the right stuff to be a firefighter.”

Crowther suddenly appeared, carrying a young woman on his back. He directed the group Ling was part of to follow him.

On the morning of 9/11, Crowther called his mother from his office at 9:12 a.m. He calmly left a brief message that said: “Mom, this is Welles. I wanted you to know that I’m OK.”

After piecing together Crowther’s last minutes, the authorities realized he jumped into action on behalf of others.

Based on the reports of survivors, he made his way down to the 78th floor sky lobby, where he met a group of people who were huddled together waiting for help. Ling Young, who worked on the 86th floor in New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance, was badly burned and needing assistance.

Blinded by the blood covering her glasses, she was rescued when Crowther suddenly appeared, carrying a young woman on his back. He directed the group Ling was part of to follow him.

He led the survivors 15 floors down, where he deposited the woman he was carrying before heading back up the smoky stairwell. By the time he returned to the 78th floor, he had his signature bandanna around his nose and mouth to protect him from smoke and haze.

Judy Wein, who was also trying to escape the building on 9/11, said Crowther assisted in putting out fires and in administering first aid. He directed her group downstairs as well. “If he hadn’t come back, I wouldn’t have made it,” Wein told The New York Post. “People can live 100 years and not have the compassion, the wherewithal, to do what he did.”

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As occupants of the tower headed for the street, Crowther turned and went back inside the building multiple times. He was last seen doing so with members of the FDNY — before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m.

“That last hour of his life, he was a self-actuated man,” his dad told the Post. “He took off his equity hat … and put on his fireman’s helmet and went to work.”

Crowther’s body was found on March 19, 2002, alongside those of several firefighters and emergency workers. All of them had bunched together in what authorities suspected was a command post in the South Tower lobby, according to multiple sources.

“Mom, this is Welles. I wanted you to know that I’m OK.”

Like so many other families ravaged by 9/11, Crowther’s family did not immediately know what their son’s last minutes on earth looked like. Where was he? What was he doing?

On Memorial Day weekend of 2002, Allison Crowther told Rinaldi she was reading an article in The New York Times that had references from survivors to a man wearing a red bandanna who was working to save others in the south tower, on the 78th floor, in the sky lobby.

In the only way that was possible to them, mother and son were reunited. “Oh my God, Welles,” she thought. “There you are. I’ve found you.”

Crowther said the New York medical examiner’s office told the family her son’s body was found intact, with no signs of burns, according to CNN. Authorities speculated he was acting as a civilian usher when the building collapsed.

ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi not only created the landmark documentary on Welles Crowther — he has written a new book based on Crowther’s life entitled, “The Red Bandanna.”

“Like so many children, Welles was captivated by the notion of firefighting,” Rinaldi said in a Q&A shared with LifeZette by his publisher. “In his case, the fascination was given seed by his family. As a toddler, he found a shiny red fire engine under the Christmas tree.”

Related: Pilot, Wife and Mother: 9/11 ‘Shocked Me’

“As a grade schooler,” he continued, “his father would take him to Empire’s station house around the corner, to help clean the rigs. And in high school, even with the demands of a multi-sport athlete and honors student, he became a volunteer who went on fire calls alongside his father. After his death, cleaning out his apartment, his father found his application, filled out.”

He died performing the actions of a firefighter.

Today, one of Crowther’s red bandannas is featured at the 9/11 museum in downtown Manhattan, among other Ground Zero artifacts.

At Boston College, Welles Crowther is celebrated daily, but especially in the fall — the season he died.

“Every October we do a Red Bandanna 5K run, and there are hundreds and hundreds of students who come out, and they wear red bandannas in memory of Welles,” said BC spokesman Jack Dunn. “We also honor him at a football game once a year during what we call ‘A Tribute to Military Service.'”

“People can live 100 years and not have the compassion to do what he did,” said one survivor.

Related: Our Kids’ Sad Lack of 9/11 Education

“We have a beautiful labyrinth on our campus that was constructed as a tribute to the 21 Boston College alums who were killed on 9/11,” Dunn continued. “His name is engraved there, and there are always flowers and a red bandanna there. Welles Crowther’s legacy lives on at Boston College.”

Time has passed — and the heroism of so many on 9/11 takes on a wistful sheen. They are so missed.

“A path to [the] understanding [of Sept. 11] will forever lie in the individual stories of those lost, and those saved,” Rinaldo noted in the Q&A. “Welles’ story [lies] in the heroism of his sacrifice — and in the heartbreak of his family.”

Crowther was posthumously named an honorary FDNY firefighter in 2006.