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Apr 10, 2006
4:21:51pm
My 1st Blog entry
It has been over 20 years since I became a BYU Cougar fan. I remember my oldest brother coming home from school and talking about how BYU beat a Top 10 team called Texas A&M University in Texas, but although that whetted my appetite for more athletic feats from my Church's school, it wasn't until the Heroic Era of Ainge, Young, and National Championships that I became a true-blue, dyed in the wool BYU fan.

It was hard to follow BYU sports in those day, before ESPN and before the Internet. Usually, my BYU coverage was reduced to looking in the Sunday LA Times sports page for a score (and too often it would read: "BYU v Hawaii--night", and I'd have to look again on Monday).

For a while there was a 900 number that promised "real time scores", but thankfully for my parent's bank balance, that service quickly went away. I do remember pulling in Paul James in all his stat quoting glory for a time when I lived in Northern California, but that was short lived, also.

So, why do I preface this post with that long-winded, nostalgic opening? Only because no matter how limited my week to week coverage of BYU sports was through the years, I have gained 20 years of perspective, and I thought that this would be a good arena to discuss where BYU is today, versus where they once were.

Twenty years ago, BYU was the nouveau riche, the bratty teenager on the college sports scene. BYU had recently expanded the campus to its present size of 30K students, and we used that size to announce our presence to the rest of the nation.

Thanks to one of the finest football coaches to ever walk a sideline--and a brand new type of explosive offense later adapted and renamed the "West Coast Offense"--BYU football was reborn as a competitive team who liked to crash the highbrow, country club parties of the "traditional powers". As is standard operating procedure for nouveau riche, we ruffled a few feathers along the way, and we were called things like "Bo Diddley Tech" and "a gimmick team with a gimmick offense".

We kept winning, however, until we finally dropped a stink bomb on the most hallowed part of college football, winning a National Championship in a (say it ain't so!) non New Year's Day Bowl game. Michigan was the sacrificial lamb traditional power who was sacrificed on our altar that day, and I'm sure they were not invited to all the highbrow, country club parties hosted by other "traditional powers" that Winter in retribution for letting us track mud all over their silk carpets at their club.

Our fans, new to this "football power" stuff, thought we could beat anybody, anyday, and weren't shy about telling anyone who would listen about it. For all the embarrassment caused by their boasting, though, they put their money where their mouths were, and financed a stadium expansion that put us in the first rank of college stadiums. They also put their selves on the line, and packed that 65K seat stadium every week--whether we were playing UCLA or UTEP--propelling us to a ranking in the Top 25 for attendance for decades.

Our fans were also a puzzle to bowl organizers. Our fans would pack a bowl game (as long as it was in the West), but the organizers rarely saw us at bowl rallies or at the hotels in town. It was likely in response to questions about this that LaVell, in typical self deprecation, first mouthed his "$10 and the Ten commandments" crack which has been linked with us even today.

We were in our dot.com days of athletics, with explosive growth and few institutionalized procedures to manage it--and everyone was along for the ride. Although we were serious about following NCAA rules, there were rumors about lax Honor Code enforcement among athletes, and there were other issues, including sad reports about how a few football player became addicted to pain medication prescribed by BYU trainers.

Nevertheless, it was a hopeful time, and we thought it would continue on forever, as long as LaVell stuck around, and as long as we kept throwing the ball.

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In my next installment, I'll talk about the Heroic Era of BYU basketball, and where we are today.
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Originally posted on Apr 10, 2006 at 4:21:51pm
Message modified by on Apr 10, 2006 at 4:21:51pm
Jiminy Cricket
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Jiminy Cricket
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