I started at BYU in 1989. I'm from Washington and grew up a Huskies fan, but never a diehard. I enjoy when they are successful and watch when I can but my heart totally belongs to the Y. I became a full fledged BYU fan once I started as a student. Being there for the Detmer years was an amazing experience and my love of watching Utah lose was cemented then. That has never changed.

In December of 1996 I started a new job and the first thing I did was put a BYU flag up in my office. I guy in the office stopped by and told me how much of a BYU fan he was and our friendship began then over our mutual love of BYU and disdain of Utah. I can't express how much he hated Utah but I have never met anyone who hated them more than he did. He had an annual tradition of getting chocolate milk at the BYU creamery before the BYU/Utah game each year and one year was standing in line at the creamery in front of a couple of yewts. They made some comment about not being able to get caffeine (I think, can't remember for sure what they were complaining about) and he turned around and told them to deal with it or shut up. They made some comment and he then challenged them to a fight. He went outside and waiting for them and they didn't come out. Not sure how long he waited but he said that he got pretty cold before it was over. Needless to say, my friend was very emotionally invested in his love for the Y and his hatred of the yewts. You can see that it clouded his judgement at times.

He also spent a lot of money supporting the team and traveling to away games. I can probably count on one hand how many days I saw him at work without a BYU shirt on. That was pretty much the only thing that he wore.

I changed companies and we stayed in touch, but not as much as we had before. Each fall we would connect again over BYU football and basketball. Over the past few years or so we have talked less but BYU football/basketball was always a strong connection.

Two years ago in November, Utah lost a game that they should have won and my nephew sent me a picture of headline in the paper that said, "Heartbreaking loss for the Utes" and he had crossed off Heartbreaking and wrote in Heartwarming. I thought that was funny and naturally sent that to my friend. He responded that he was sending me and email.

In the email he said that he couldn't cheer for the Y anymore. I'll spare you the long details but mainly two reasons: The way they handle the Davies suspension and going Indy/Not getting into the BigXII. He then went on to say that he would be cheering for Utah in the game against BYU that week.

To say I was shocked is putting it mildly.  I never thought that would happen. Ever. Of all the people that I knew that were BYU fans, there was no way he would switch sides. Yet it was happening. 

After processing that for a long time I came to the conclusion that his anger over how the honor code issues with Davies were handled and how BYU going independent and Utah going to the Pac12 made him so angry, that the only option he had from his perspective was to switch sides. It was the only way to show how angry he was/is. I truly believe it was an emotional decision because of the pain he was feeling about his perspective Utah getting better and BYU was regressing. Right or not, that was his perspective

We can talk all day about how he let his emotions get the best of him and how dumb that is. I don't care to have the debate. Like it or not, BYU is losing die-hard, life long fans. We can say it isn't happening but it is. I have seen it first hand.