BYU Sports

I am waiting here in the Salt Lake airport for my flight to Denver, where I will spend the night before making the two-hour drive to Laramie in the morning for the BYU-Wyoming football game. Seems like a good time to clean out the ol’ notebook of the notes and comments I’ve gathered this week from BYU coaches and players.

Here is what the Cougars had to say about playing Wyoming this week:

Running back Manase Tonga: “Wyoming has always been a tough team to run against, and a tough defense to play against the past few years. So they fly around, they make tackles and they are really physical. Our focus is going to have to be getting to where we need to be, and then sustaining those blocks. Our running backs, we just got to take what they give us.”

Defensive end Jan Jorgensen on Wyoming overall: “They play really good defense. Their defense does a good job. It always seems like Wyoming’s defense does a good job of keeping them in football games, and then their young quarterback does a good job also at creating things, moving around, making things happen back there. So they are an impressive football team.”

Jorgensen on Wyoming’s freshman QB, Austyn Carta-Samuels: “He has been doing a great job, especially for a freshman. He has a lot of confidence out there and their coaches have a lot of confidence in him, and he does a very good job....He’s on his way to becoming a great quarterback.”

Jorgensen on Wyoming’s weather and fans: “We hope [the game] is not in November, and then it is. I have been watching a lot of weather forecasts, and it doesn’t look like it will be that bad, so we are alright.... I can only speak for the last time I was there. We were fortunate enough to jump on them pretty fast and they were never really in the football game. So I think that mellowed them out. So I hope that happens again this year.”

BYU quarterback Max Hall on Wyoming’s crowd: “I know they are going to play us tough. They always do, man. They always want to beat us. Really, every team in the conference wants to beat us, no matter if we are undefeated or if we haven’t won a game in the conference, they still want to beat BYU. So they are going to play us tough. They have a new head coach who is going to get them ready to go, and it is going to be a battle.”

As I mentioned before, The Tribune has an article online about the 40th anniversary of the Black 14 protest that occurred (or was planned to occur) during the 1969 BYU-Wyoming football game.
One of  my primary sources for the BYU side of the incident was Dick Legas, a defensive back on the 1969 team. Legas spent 20 years flying airplanes for the military after a three-sport career at BYU, but is now an assistant  track coach at BYU.
Obviously, I couldn’t get even a tenth of what he told me into the article. But his recollections are worth sharing.
Here are some:
“Most of the memories that I have from being on the football team were positive memories, but that was a distraction to say the least. And the [Wyoming] fans were way worse than normal. “
What was the team’s overall reaction?
“Many of the guys weren’t even Mormon. I had been baptized, but I was still Episcopalian in my mind.  I had no problem with any ethnicity, nor did anybody that I am aware of on the team. We just wanted to play a football game.
“It was a mis-directed protest, actually. And it just made it difficult to concentrate on a football game. It was bad weather -- it had snowed, and we got pelted by snowballs. We didn’t take out helmets off.”
Were you able to concentrate on the game at all?
“One little bit of satisfaction I got -- a guy had a pitcher of beer and was above the tunnel, waiting to dump it on us. I had the opportunity to knock the beer all over him. Probably wasn’t Christlike, but nevertheless, it was my best memory.”
Were you prepared for the scene in Wyoming?
“The year before, against San Jose, we got a threat that somebody was going to shoot one of the football players. And then we had a bomb scare at the hotel and we thought we were going to have to evacuate the hotel at 3 in the morning.
“It was just reflective of the times. San Jose had Harry Edwards -- he was the one behind the John Carlos and Tommy Smith and the black glove incident on the stand [at the Olympics].
“I am sure for the African-American community, some good came out of it, but sometimes the direction of the protests were not where they probably belonged.”
Could that sort of thing happen today?
“We were in the Vietnam era at the time, so there was a lot of unrest. The nation had witnessed Kent State, where college students had been shot and killed. It was just a difficult time for everyone. We were in a war that we politically couldn’t win, and  lot of good kids chose to go north of the border to get out of the draft.”
Were there any African-Americans on your team in 1969?
“I don’t recall. I think it was 1970 that Ron Knight, a defensive back, joined the team. Ron Knight was the first  one that actually played.
There might have been others before that who were walk-ons and never played a down. I don’t think any ever made a trip.”
Did things get better or worse for you guys after the Black 14 incident?
“BYU is always going to be a target because it is a conservative, religious school and people who don’t know anything about the LDS faith listen to any and every rumor. They think what they want to think.
“I do know that people get up for BYU. I saw somewhere that BYU was the team that fans across the country liked to hate the most. Where does that come from? The only think I can think of is that has something to do with religion.”
Some members of the Black 14 have said BYU players used racial slurs and cheap shots in games prior to 1969. Did you witness any of that?
“When we played, there wasn’t very much trash talking going on. We usually just kept our mouths shut the best we could out there, and let football take care of itself.”

I also spent a lot of time talking to Mel Olson, an offensive lineman on the 1969 team. I will post his recollections later today.

New Mexico has suspended soccer player Elizabeth Lambert indefinitely and is prohibiting her from participating in all team practices, competition and conditioning activities for her dirty play in the Lobos’ 1-0 loss to BYU on Thursday.
Here’s a statement from BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe regarding the incident:
“It’s an unfortunate incident that occurred in the game Thursday afternoon. The University of New Mexico and the Mountain West Conference have reviewed the situation and have acted appropriately.
Paul Krebs, the  New Mexico Athletic Director, has been in contact with me and I am pleased with his immediate response to the matter.
We have a big game tomorrow and a chance to win the conference championship. The girls have worked hard for this opportunity and we’re all excited to continue playing.”

I’ve spent quite a bit of time the last few weeks talking to people from both Wyoming and BYU who were involved in the Black 14 incident in Laramie 40 years ago.
From BYU, I visited with former players Marc Lyons, Mel Olson and Dick Legas, along with former coach Tommy Hudspeth, now a fundraiser for Tulsa.
From Wyoming, I was able to interview three members of the Black 14 -- Mel Hamilton, Tony McGee and Don Meadows -- as well as Kevin McKinney, who was a student at Wyoming in 1969 and is now an official in the athletic department.

Ryan Thorburn, a Wyoming graduate who authored a book on the topic was also a great help.

My article on the 40th anniversary of those events was posted online this morning, and can be found here. It is scheduled to run in Saturday’s newspaper.

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Those rumors that BYU defensive coordinator Jaime Hill’s car was egged after the loss to TCU have turned out to be true, as this article in the Provo Daily Herald outlines today.
It was a newsy day yesterday, with the Cougar basketball team beating Trinity Western in an exhibition game and getting a commitment from Las Vegas senior Anson Winder.
Also, BYU announced its basketball game on Dec. 12 against Fresno State will be in Fresno, instead of Los Angeles.

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My notebook in today’s paper is mainly about BYU’s penchant for giving up big passing plays recently.
However, there is a note about BYU running back Harvey Unga, who says he’s not even thinking yet about whether he will forgo his senior season and enter the NFL Draft.
Here are more of Harvey’s thoughts on that:
“To be honest, I have got my mind set on this season. I haven’t thought about the NFL or Canada or whereever,” he said. “As far as I am concerned, I have this season in front of me, and that is my main focus right now. Then I think as I focus on that and work hard the rest of the season, things will fall into place whether it be this year or next year.”
Unga said the morale of the team was picked up by a re-emphasis on working hard.
“Nothing comes easy. Nobody is going to lay down for us. Wyoming is a tough team, and they will be tough playing at home.
We saw what they are capable of, and we are not taking anything lightly now.
Not saying we have before. But coming off a loss like that, guys have had to re-focus mentally.
We have learned from out mistakes and we are just looking forward to this weekend.”

Morning, everyone
The talk all over the BYU campus this morning is not about the football team’s game in Laramie tomorrow, or the basketball team’s exhibition win over Trinity Western.
It’s about women’s soccer.
More specifically, it’s about BYU’s 1-0 win over New Mexico on Thursday at South Field, and the dirty play of New Mexico’s Elizabeth Lambert.
Here’s the video from ESPN, which seems to capture most of the rough tactics.