When I first started at the U, we weren’t good. Fassel was the coach and football was the furthest thing from my mind while attending that 1st quarter (spring qtr). On a day much like today, cold and drizzly, I was walking from the car to class with my roommate and noticed on the north endzone scoreboard (that you could see from S Campus drive) they were displaying names. I asked my roomy who the people were whose name were being displayed. He explained to me they were the new football recruits that had signed on. I remember distinctly asking if any of them were any good. He said, “no, not really. Only one is considered good, a QB from Spanish Fork” (Mitchell).
That fall I think they won 5 games. I didn’t follow nor care, seemingly no one else on campus did either. Basketball was the sport of choice. But over the course of the that fall and the following spring I got to know Scott and few other players on the team. I used to play hoops with a lot of them in the old HYPR building. That fall I now had an sprinkle of interest to see how some of these guys were doing. I attended one game and we got blown out. I had not intention of going back. I was talked into going back for the last game of the year. The 57-28 BYU game. One of my classmates and dare I say friend at the time, (Garland Harris), folded Sean Covey in half in that game which led to a pick 6 by Sam Tsusinga (sp?). The rest of that day is history. My love of the Utes sealed in concrete. The jubilation could never be replicated or replaced.
When I think about how far the program has come in the last 30 something years, it amazes me. We were quite literally the laughing stock of the WAC then. Now, thanks to Fassels O, Mac’s D and personality, Urban’s ingenuity and balls, and last but not least Whit’s leadership and continuity, we have become a national program that is respected and revered.
The Fiesta, Sugar and Rose bowls all were great and I wouldn’t trade them, but nothing replaces your first love, which for me was that crisp fall day in a snow field Rice Stadium watching Scott, EJ and Carl Harry dice BYU’s defense and Edwards, Knox, Harris and Tsusinga pin their ears back on Covey and later Detmer, or EJ getting a high 5 from a BYU cheerleader after scoring a TD, all while throwing snow balls at Lenny “you’ll be pumping my gas’ Gomes who took cheap shot after cheap shot on our RBs and flipped us off every chance he got.
I ran into one of the players on that team earlier this week and I’m glad I did. It’s important to remember where we came from and where we are.
Thanks for letting me share…
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