Boylen Thankful For Much -- Including Piece of His Past
For as much as coach Jim Boylen mentions how thankful he is for his job and his players, Thanksgiving surely must be his favorite holiday -- especially now that he has his Indian back.
It's a modest statue of a proud native warrior that Boylen and his brothers admired "as a sign of toughness" around the house while growing up, their father having won it in a golf tournament 45 years ago. That was three years before Boylen was born, and Boylen remembers the statue always enjoying a prominent place in the family room or his father's office.
"We've had it forever," Boylen said.
Over the years, the statue had a habit of disappearing yet showing up again. When his parents divorced, Boylen said he and his brothers found the statue among their dad's belongings. It cropped up again when their father died and the brothers sorted through his estate. Naturally, it disappeared again after that.
Then, Boylen took over the Utes -- one of the few remaining college teams named after a native tribe -- and one of his brothers called.
"I found the Indian!" his brother told him. "I found the Indian!"
"My brother Bobby had it in his garage with my dad's stuff," Boylen gleefully recalled. "So I said, 'You know what, Bobby? Send that Indian, that's going to be our mascot. So we named him, and he's our guy. It's not a disrespect thing, it's a symbol of toughness, it's a sign of personal fortitude, all those kind of things."
Now, the statue occupies a place in the Utah team room, as a reminder of the characteristics -- toughness and pride, foremost among them -- that Boylen is trying to instill in his players. It has watched at least one practice from atop the sideline scorer's table.
Athletic director Chris Hill was wary of the statue being perceived as culturally insensitive, Boylen said, but the coach insisted that it's a symbol of honor and destiny -- "we're proud of the Utes," he said -- and not a caricature.
"We've had it forever," he said, "and it just kept coming back up. It was packed away and it came back up. It disappeared, my dad died, and it came back up. To me, it just kind of means that I was meant to be a Ute."
"Kind of cool," he said.
It's a modest statue of a proud native warrior that Boylen and his brothers admired "as a sign of toughness" around the house while growing up, their father having won it in a golf tournament 45 years ago. That was three years before Boylen was born, and Boylen remembers the statue always enjoying a prominent place in the family room or his father's office.
"We've had it forever," Boylen said.
Over the years, the statue had a habit of disappearing yet showing up again. When his parents divorced, Boylen said he and his brothers found the statue among their dad's belongings. It cropped up again when their father died and the brothers sorted through his estate. Naturally, it disappeared again after that.
Then, Boylen took over the Utes -- one of the few remaining college teams named after a native tribe -- and one of his brothers called.
"I found the Indian!" his brother told him. "I found the Indian!"
"My brother Bobby had it in his garage with my dad's stuff," Boylen gleefully recalled. "So I said, 'You know what, Bobby? Send that Indian, that's going to be our mascot. So we named him, and he's our guy. It's not a disrespect thing, it's a symbol of toughness, it's a sign of personal fortitude, all those kind of things."
Now, the statue occupies a place in the Utah team room, as a reminder of the characteristics -- toughness and pride, foremost among them -- that Boylen is trying to instill in his players. It has watched at least one practice from atop the sideline scorer's table.
Athletic director Chris Hill was wary of the statue being perceived as culturally insensitive, Boylen said, but the coach insisted that it's a symbol of honor and destiny -- "we're proud of the Utes," he said -- and not a caricature.
"We've had it forever," he said, "and it just kept coming back up. It was packed away and it came back up. It disappeared, my dad died, and it came back up. To me, it just kind of means that I was meant to be a Ute."
"Kind of cool," he said.
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 11:14 AM |
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