I didn't become a die hard until full on adulthood. In fact after I had graduated from BYU and left Provo.

I grew up in AZ. I loved sports. My parents were very odd and we had no TVs in the house. My dad was a BYU fan but he never watched any games. I remember seeing a flyer on the bulletin board at the church for BYU games broadcast on satellite played at the stake center, and I went once at the time it said and the building was dark.
I loved sports but couldn't watch them due to no TV, so I would listen to every Suns, Cardinals, and ASU games on my boom box in my room, or while out shooting hoops. Suns vs Bulls finals, yep, on the radio. Cardinals games on my boom box in my room because it wasn't allowed on Sundays. About as quiet as needed to hear. In highschool I would take the family 12 passenger van or ride my bike the 10-12 miles to ASU and scalp a ticket for $5-10 or so after the game had started. I'd go alone and watch the game. I was a huge ASU fan. Didn't really know BYU.

In Seminary we would guess the scores to the BYU games and the closest would win a prize. This was in WAC days when it was like 56-3 over Rice or whoever. So I knew BYU scored a lot of points. BYU history I just don't really know.

I then attended BYU from 2002-2005, right after Luke Staley and Co. and in the bad Crowton era. Awful QBs, bad football, except for Matt Payne. I went to every BYU game on campus, gave it my all, but the product couldn't draw me in. It was a dream of mine to rush the field with the other students after a big win. It never came. Not once. Disappointment after disappointment.

My last game as a student I stayed to the bitter end with my fiancee at the time when BYU lost 3-0 to Utah. It was freezing and snowing and watched all the missed opportunities and the 60 yr or so scoring streak get snapped. Dejected, I remember as I left I told my fiancee, "well, I don't have to be a BYU fan anymore." We were about to move across the country.

We started grad school, naturally with a ton of other Mormon BYU loving kids and I remained a stubborn ASU/Pac10 fan. But then in hit me, the John Beck, Harvey Unga, Dennis Pitta, Max Hall era etc and I even started to entertain the idea that if BYU ever played ASU, that perhaps I wouldn't wear an ASU shirt as I watched the game, and that I'd cheer for whoever was supposed to have the best season. I hadn't grown up knowing anything BYU football but the blood was turning. My wife and I watched the updates on ESPN gamecast when Beck hit Harline in the endzone to beat Utah and danced together in our living room..only imagining what had happened. Poor students didn't even have the game on TV. Pitiful.

Then for the last four years I actually got to move back to Orem with my wife. My father in law is the biggest BYU fan and usually the topic of our conversations. He's a legacy member so I've had my fair share of hookups. Together we had season tickets to all football and basketball and so I went to every football and just about every basketball game in Provo. It was unreal. I was able to have the experience I wanted so badly as a college student at BYU. My 5 yr old son has been to more sporting events than I attended in my first 21 yrs of life. And he's eaten more stadium food than I've currently eaten in my lifetime at the stadium. I was lucky enough to go to the BYU vs Gonzaga NCAA tournament game in Denver. Jimmer was unreal. Some of the Marriott center atmospheres are unreal. So electric.

I love it. I drink the kool-aid. I hurt with all other die hards. 59-0, I turned down an awesome weekend lake trip to Lake Mead with some great friends from grad school because there wasn't a better atmosphere than BYU vs. Utah. My wife and I were so jazzed before the game. Excitement that I've rarely felt. I don't regret not going on the trip. I was at the BYU vs Utah game at RES when the yewt fans rushed the field, giving BYU another shot at the game tying football. Painfully watched last season at Utah State deflated our hopes for an undefeated season. But I finally did get to rush the field when Andrew George scored the game winning touchdown against Utah. In fact, our seats were right next to the camera and if you watch the live footage of the game, I'm the fan screaming into the camera right after George scores. I made sure I rushed the field to fulfill my dream, and I picked some stadium grass to give to my die hard brother in law Yewt fan, who had snuck his flask of alcohol into the stadium.

Thanks for letting me share my conversion story and get pumped as a new season starts; I'm as excited as I've ever been. I'm again living on the east coast but get to watch all the games this time. Not being at at LES for the games is going to be hard. I'm sad. I'm debating the $400 per seat airline tickets to fly my family back..we'll see. Maybe next year. Go Cougs.