This is a long story. TLDR version: I attended Lavell's final rivalry game at Utah in 2000, almost got beat up by a bunch of Utes, and got rescued by my BIL who is a huge Ute fan

My senior year my twin bro and I scored a sweet pair of tickets to Lavell’s last rivalry game against Utah in 2000. We were roughly at the 50 yard line in the 4th of 5th row in a sea of red.

We attended the game with my dad, my sister, and my Ute alum brother-in-law who had recently graduated from the U. and played O-line for them. He is Tongan, about 6’3” and about 340 at the time, and just built like a tank. Keep this mental image in mind for later on in the story.

My dad, sister, and BIL sat in the nosebleeds on the opposite side of the stadium and me and my twin were decked out in our Cougar blue, in a sea of red with our prime seats that had been given to us by a family friend for our birthday. One of the great parts of this story is that my twin was being recruited by Utah at the time and got three tickets which he passed on to my dad, sister, and BIL because he and I already had sweet tickets. My twin was there on a recruiting visit, wearing Cougar blue haha. Love it!

As you remember, BYU controlled most of the game, and was up 26-10 late in the 3rd quarter. Utah, as Utah does against us, rallied for 17 straight points, going ahead by 1 with about 2 minutes left. You all know the rest of the story..Doman’s incredible 4th down completion and his touchdown run with a few seconds left to give BYU the win…Lavell being carried of the field. It was incredible! Utah fans went through the emotional rollercoaster of thinking the game was out of reach, being euphoric at their incredible comeback, and then just getting their hearts ripped out by our incredible comeback. This is another important detail because my BIL is among the biggest U fans, having played there, and was obviously fuming by the game’s outcome.

Anyway, once BYU won, my bro and I started to make our way across the stadium to meet up with my dad, sister, and BIL. We finally found them and my dad was ahead of them and had a bewildered look on his face and started telling us a crazy story. Apparently, as the three of them were making their way down from their seats, some idiotic Yewt fan was trying to get out of the stadium really fast and had pushed my sister who was in his way. She told him to stop pushing her and he called her a B%*##. My BIL, who was already fuming because of the close loss his team had just taken, was behind her a little bit when he heard this moron swear at my sister (his wife) and he ran up there, and in my dad’s own words, “grabbed this guy by the shirt with one hand and threw him to the ground."

My dad had seen that and was ahead of them a bit and filling me and my twin in on the story as they make their way over to us. My dad, my twin and me are in our BYU gear and my sister and BIL are in red. My sister is a bit mad at my BIL for losing his cool and the 5 of us start walking to our car. BTW, my BIL was super cool and gracious to us and congratulated us on the win, but we could tell he was in the doghouse for losing his cool and was devastated by the outcome of the game.

As we are walking out to our car, my dad, my twin and me walk ahead of my sister and BIL a bit, quietly discussing the glorious outcome and giving them some time to vent. All of a sudden, some idiotic Ute fan, probably a college student, runs up to me and steals my BYU hat and takes off running while all his buddies laugh and cheer him on. My twin and I took off and chased him down and caught him and a mini scuffle ensued as I’m trying to simply get my hat back. He gave it to one of his buddies before I could grab it, and all of a sudden like 6-7 of his buddies were right there and surrounded me and started shoving me and swearing at me. I just wanted my hat back. Honestly, at this point I was getting nervous and I thought I was gonna get beat up. A mini crowd was gathering to watch what was going on. I don’t fault other Ute fans because I don’t think they saw what these idiots had done. They had only seen me chase him down and a mini scuffle ensuing. But again, I was starting to get nervous because we were surrounded by a bunch of Ute college students who were shoving us and swearing at us and we were hugely outnumbered.

And into this chaos comes my BIL like a knight in shining armor. It all happened so fast. I saw him before any of the college kids who had me surrounded did. They all had their backs turned to him and did not realize the justice that was about to be rained down upon them. He literally bulled into this group of 7 or 8 Ute fans and knocked 3-4 of them to the pavement, like he was tossing rag dolls. I could tell a few of them were surprised by this friendly fire when they saw a fellow Ute coming to the defense of a BYU fan. His size and strength, coupled with his anger of seeing some moron shove and swear at his wife, plus watching his beloved Utes get their hearts ripped out, created an orchestra of rage that he channeled masterfully like a composer, to my defense. With half the group on the ground, he grabbed the loser who was the most aggressive and ripped him around to face him and I swear I’m not making this up, he momentarily lifted the guy off the ground as he gripped his shirt with both hands, and screamed into his face, “don’t touch my brother! You got a problem with him, you got a problem with me!” He said a bunch of other words that I can’t repeat on this board, and this kid, honest to goodness, started cyring haha.

At this point I started pleading with my BIL to let the kid go but my BIL was determined to get my hat back for me. Unfortunately, one of their idiotic friends had taken it and was long gone. The rest of them had fled the scene like rats off a sinking ship. Eventually my BIL let the kid go and we walked back to our car. At this point, my sister was mortified by his outburst, but my dad, my twin and me were laughing so hard to ourselves. It was a beautiful sight to behold. The five of us got in the car and drove in the most awkward silence for about 15 minutes until my BIL finally apologized for his behavior. My dad, my twin and me immediately jumped in to cut him off and tell him how proud of him we were. Honestly, my BIL became my hero that day. Seeing the fear in those Utes’ fans eyes is something that still puts a giant smile on my face. Lavell’s last game against Utah coupled with my BIL saving my bacon will always make this a glorious memory for me.

**For the record, I want to be absolutely clear that my BIL is the nicest, kindest human being alive. I have never seen him lose his cool before or after this event. He is such a genuinely good dude. But watching his team lose in heartbreaking fashion, and then seeing some idiot shove and swear at his wife, followed by seeing some morons trying to beat up his wife's little brother I think justified his actions. I've certainly lost my cool for much less. He's a stud!