Horrocks was first officer on United Airlines Flight 175, the second jet that hijackers steered into the World Trade Center in the act of terror that we saw on live television.
"My son, Mick, was 6," Miriam says. "Now he's 15. He'll say, 'I didn't know what was happening.' He turned very often to my daughter, who was 9, to see how she was reacting. The hard part was that there was nothing physical to hold."
Two years after 9/11, the Horrockses helped build a playground at Mick and Christa's school - Glenwood Elementary in the Rose Tree Media district - so every time they stepped outside, they could see the plaque for their father.
"It let them have something," Miriam says, "but when we heard about this, we were pretty much blown away."
That's the point behind the statue and the scholarship that West Chester's former and current players have given to their school - to show the family how much Horrocks was admired.
"He was the best of us," said Joe Walsh, one of the organizers of the tribute. "The best of us."
Saturday, the ninth anniversary of 9/11, will be Mike Horrocks Day, with speeches, a Marine flyover, and a 21-gun salute. Horrocks' daughter will speak publicly about her father for the first time. Christa is 18 and a freshman at the College of Charleston, where she won a track scholarship.
"She talks in her speech about the statue giving a physical presence that jogs people's memory and continues to tell his story," her mother says. "That way we continue to keep him alive."
This week, his old teammates told some stories about their lanky, laid-back quarterback, the sort of leader who never sought to be the center of attention but nevertheless drew people close.
