Part I - Provo, UT (1993)

After a last-second defeat to the Utes, a miserable throng of BYU fans trudges out of the Marriott Center into the snowy January night. Angry and depressed, my friends and I pile into the car and weave our way through the mob of angry and depressed pedestrians. Some fellow students take exception to our driving and begin pelting the car with snowballs. We stop the car in the middle of the street and get out.

I confront them with "Why you gotta be such ******s?" and we yell other non-HC-compliant pleasantries at each other. The verbal assaults are turning physical when I and the other ringleader allow our respective groups to hold us back. We rush back to the car and take off before the police arrive.

A couple years later I'm relating this incident in an EQ meeting when a quorum member raises his hand and says "Were you driving a white Accord?" I suddenly realize why his face seems vaguely familiar. The quorum has a great laugh at our expense and I'm glad to have the chance to apologize in person. We both blame a heartbreaking loss to the Utes as the primary culprit.

Part II - Salt Lake City (2006)

The short version of this story (which I wrote up for CB at the time) is that a foul-mouthed Ute fan nicknamed Alex starts early with the ****** Mormons! chants and won't let it go even when other season ticket holders tell him to stop. Eventually he relents and sits sulking in his seat until halftime, when he gets in the face of his chief critic, jabs the Ute logo on his chest and says "You might as well put a Y on there!"

It was on. "Bishop Ute" knocks the hat off Alex's head, Alex knocks Bishop down the stairs, Bishop clocks Alex in the face. Alex's glasses get broken. Security escorts them out, then Beck to Harline happens.

So my journey goes from losing to the Utes, to accosting fellow BYU fans, to making peace with them, to venturing into enemy territory and enjoying Ute-on-Ute violence. If that isn't a tale of redemption and progress I don't know what is.