My own recollection of Utah-BYU games goes back to my junior high days when the two teams used to meet in the old Deseret Gym and we'd pay 50 cents to watch from the running track two levels above the playing floor.
I don't recall a time when there wasn't a packed house wherever they played, whether it be the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse or Utah Special Events Center in Salt Lake City or the old Ladies Gym, the Smith Fieldhouse or the Marriott Center in Provo.There was also the Springville High gym, where BYU played its home games for three seasons, and South High in Salt Lake City, where playoff games for the western division conference championship were played in 1932 and 1933. I watched BYU win both of those as I sat on the steps of the balcony.
The hero of those victories was the late Elwood Romney, BYU's All-American, who won the 1932 game with a last-second basket from the center of the floor.
Since those days I've seen about 65 or 70 games and can recall at least a dozen that were decided by heroics or mistakes in the last 10 or 20 seconds.
And there haven't been more than a dozen where the winning margin was much more than 10 or 12 points. The record also shows more than the usual quota of overtimes and upsets. The home floor doesn't seem to make much difference, either.
Names of great coaches flash by. Utah's Vadal Peterson, Jack Gardner, Bill Foster and Jerry Pimm. BYU's Ott Romney, Eddie Kimball, Floyd Millet, Stan Watts, Glen Potter and Frank Arnold.
It was a tactic Ott Romney used against Utah in the Deseret Gym that helped change the rules of the game. In those days the ball was jumped at center after every basket, and there was no 10-second rule about bringing the ball over the center line. Vadal Peterson had Utah using a zone defense, which meant dropping back and waiting for BYU to bring the ball across the center line.
But after BYU scored the first basket and controlled the next center jump, one of their players simply dribbled into the far corner of the back court and stood holding the ball. End of Utah's zone defense. They either had to come out and try to get the ball or lose, 2-0.
In the 22 years he coached at BYU, Stan Watts won six conference championships, tied for another, and won the National Invitational Tournament twice. His record against Utah was 23 wins and 24 losses.
Jack Gardner's teams won six titles in 18 years, tied for a seventh and twice advanced to the final NCAA playoffs. His BYU record was 19 wins, 17 losses.
There is a temptation to shy away from naming some of the great players who have performed for the two schools but here are some who have stood out for BYU in the years since World War II: Joe Nelson, Mel Hutchins, Roland Minson, Joe Weight, Harold Christensen, Joe Richey, Nick Mateljan, John Fairchild, Jim Eakins, Jeff Congden, Dean Larsen, Dick Nemelka and Kresmir Cosic.
On Utah's list are Arnie Ferrin, Vern Gardner, Glen Smith, Gary Bergen, Art Bunte, Curtis Jenson, George Fisher, Jerry Chambers, Ken Gardner, Mike Newlin, Billy McGill, Allen Holmes, Merv Jackson, Pearl Pollard, Doug Moon, Tickey Burden, Mike Sojourner and Jeff Jonas.
Nelson, Weight, Ferrin and Gardner figured in dramatic games in the immediate post-war years. Utah won both games in 1947 and went on to win the National Invitational Tournament.
With practically the entire team back the next year, Utah was favored to take the conference and BYU was picked to finish fifth in the six-team league. But the Cougars won a 65-63 thriller in Salt Lake City and repeated with a 55-51 win at Springville which meant the conference championship.
"A wild riot followed as the jubilant Cougar fans swept onto the court to carry their favorite sons around and off the court to the showers," wrote one sportswriter. "It was the greatest night in the history of BYU athletics since 1933 when the Cougars won their last conference championship.
"But the greatest player of the night," the story continued, "was Arnie Ferrin. The Ute all-American never looked better than he did Saturday night as he held Joe Nelson to 11 points and scored 26 of Utah's 51 himself."
Floyd Millet, BYU's coach at that time, remembers those games as if they were played last week. "I can't recall more thrilling games that those two in 1948," he says. "Ferrin and Nelson were two of the greatest players I've ever seen, and they really put on a show in those games."
Millet also remembers the scramble for tickets when the Cougars were playing in the Ladies Gym and at Springville. "People would line up all night in freezing weather to make sure they'd get a seat."
Two fans even resorted to counterfeiting to get into that 1948 game in Springville. When the tickets were counted afterward the doormen found two student tickets so cleverly hand-drawn that they escaped detection as the guilty parties went past the gate.
The next year, 1949, the teams split a pair of thrillers. First it was BYU winning in Salt Lake City by one point. Utah led by three with less than 20 seconds left when Jack Whipple swished one from the corner. Then Randy Clark stole the toss-in, was fouled, and calmly sank two free throws. Final, BYU 56-55.
When they played at Springville a few weeks later it was Utah's turn to come from behind. George Smith tied it for the Utes at 52 when he threw one from the center line with 30 seconds to go. Let Dee Chipman of the Deseret News tell the rest:
"With only a split second remaining Vern Gardner tossed the ball over his head just before the buzzer sounded. The ball bounced crazily around the rim while the crowd held its collective breath until the ball dropped through."
BYU fielded one of its greatest teams in 1951, with a lineup that included Mel Hutchins, Roland Minson, Harold Christensen, Jerry Romney and Joe Richey. They won the conference and the National Invitational Tournament and also represented the region in the NCAA playoffs. Utah beat them three times that year, but finished only third in the conference.
The Cougars won the NIT again in 1966 after ending up second to Utah in the WAC. But they won both games against Utah that year, and the game in Salt Lake City was one of those that stand out in memory. It was a classic scoring duel between BYU's Dick Nemelka and Utah's Jerry Chambers. Chambers scored 35 and Nemelka 34, but it was Nemelka's keyhole jumper with 11 seconds to go that gave his team a 94-93 victory.
In the second meeting in Provo that season, Chambers scored 47 points, but BYU won as Nemelka got 29 and Jeff Congden 33.
The greatest scoring feat, one that fans of both schools can't easily forget, came in 1962 when Utah's all-American Billy McGill scored 60 points at Provo as the Utes won 106-101. Another Utah victory in Provo came in 1959 with a 76-74 overtime win on Pearl Pollard's last-second tip-in.
The 18-year rivalry between Watts and Gardner began in 1954 and lasted through 1971. In nine of the 18 seasons the teams split their two games. Utah won both five times and BYU swept four times.
From 1964 until 1968, Watts won seven straight from Gardner. The streak began with the second game in 1964. Utah won the first in overtime with Dennis Couch's last-second hook shot. It was the only basket he made all night. He shot 10 times before that and missed every one.
The end of the streak came in 1968 in one of the finishes that fans, especially those from Utah, like to recall.
"The Cougars took the lead midway in the last half and nursed a small lead until the final 14 seconds," according to the Deseret News. "Then all the frustrations of four seasons exploded. Joe English popped a long one to tie it, and then as a BYU player carelessly tossed it in, Merv Jackson deflected the ball to Walt Simon who grabbed it and scored with five seconds showing on the clock, making it 91-89."
After that one Watts commented wryly: "It just shows that it's better to be lucky than good."
In the 10 games played since Watts' retirement in 1972, Utah holds an 8-2 edge. For Utah fans one of the highlights would be the 86-71 win in the final game of the 1973 season which knocked BYU out of a third straight conference title. The Utes still finished at the bottom of the league with a 4-10 record.
Then there was the famous tip-in by Buster Matheny two years ago at Provo that gave Utah a 76-74 win. Most BYU backers still think the shot came after the buzzer, but referee Irv Brown ruled it good and made a beeline for the dressing room.
BYU gained a measure of revenge four weeks later by beating the Utes on their home floor, 84-83.