When I was younger, I didn't get all the hate for Utah and didn't really even notice why there was a rivalry. That was until I was a freshman at BYU and my high school buddy bought me tickets to the BYU/Utah basketball game at the U (I did the same for him at BYU). Shawn Bradley was playing that year.

When I walked into the Huntsman Center for the first time ever in my life (wearing a BYU jacket and saying nothing but just walking in) the first ever comments that I heard were "Go on your F'ing mission" and "Go talk to your F'ing Bishop" along with getting the bird shown in my face a couple of times. I had never been treated so poorly in all my life.

And then the season after my mission I went back to the U for a BYU/Utah basketball game and was pinged with whoppers during the game, I had the BYU dummy that was being tossed around torn to shreds and the body parts thrown at me and my BYU student friends. All we had on were BYU shirts and just cheering for our team. And then when Robbie Reid hit the winning shot at the end of the game a drunk Ute fan came up behind us and started throwing punches at one of my friends for no reason other than his was ticked that the Utes lost.

These were my first two experiences at the U and ever since I have many other poor experiences with Ute fans over the years. I know I've been jaded but I also understand the side of poor Ute behavior first hand and their pure hatred for everything BYU.

Ironically my Ute buddy that I bought tickets for the BYU/Utah game at BYU was treated exactly the opposite. He was treated with kindness and respect. He told after the game that he now felt really bad of how I was treated at the U especially because of how nice he was treated at BYU.

Having said that, I have several friends that are Utah fans and not all Utah fans are like this. Most are very cordial and respectful. It is the ones that are bad that give Utah a bad rep. Unfortunatley the minority cause the general fanbase to look bad. But because of my personal experiences dealing with bad Ute fans, I will never ever root for the U and will always root against them.