University of Houston student partaking in the Rec Centers 9/11 Memorial Step Tribute, on Friday, September 11, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Gillian Wisniewski/The Cougar
Campus Recreation held its first Memorial Step Tribute in honor of first responders who served on 9/11 at the Recreation Center today.Using a StairMaster in the Rec Center lobby, the tribute served as a unique version of the Fireman’s Challenge.
“You do the floors that they climbed on that day, 110 floors or 2200 steps,” said Fitness Program Manager Victor Ramirez. “It’s a modification of it where we’re just going all day and people are signing up for timeslots.”
Each person who attended picked one or more slots of three minute intervals and switched off continuously from the beginning of the day to the end of the day.
“To give tribute is the main thing. To walk at least a little bit of what others sacrificed for us, is a blessing,” said psychology sophomore Naomi Chavera.
For Ramirez, who was responsible for initiating the idea, the tribute is not just to commemorate those fallen, but to act as a reminder, too.
“We’re starting to see the effects of time where people are thinking about 9/11 as the past, but it’s still a huge part of our history,” Ramirez said.
As time goes on, it is easy for younger generations to lose sight of the impact that an event like 9/11 created, Ramirez said.
Nonetheless, there are still many students who take it seriously.
“I think that it’s a terrible, terrible event that occurred, not just something that happened,” said optometry sophomore Daniel Maguadog. “I was lucky enough to grow up a few years before most of the undergraduates here, but I hate when it gets watered down.”
To Maguadog, the people who recognize the day as what it is have not gone unseen.
“I feel like the act of doing it is great, symbolic and gives light to what people climbed that day,” Maguadog said. “But the true power of the event they got here is the people walking by and not letting today be another random Friday.”
Not only did the students pay their tribute, but the University itself has permanently commemorated the event with a steel beam from the Twin Towers from “Ground Zero” on display outside of Student Center South.
UH is the first and only campus to have a piece of the World Trade Center in Texas.
The Rec Center made their own accessible memorial to those whose lives were lost, displaying names in the lobby and on TVs.
“I’m hoping that it becomes more real to the participants,” Ramirez said. “Reading it and seeing that, knowing that we’re going to continue to make a priority in our nation to remember this day.”
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