BYU Sports

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.