PROVO — Brigham Young University is the place where legends are made.
Steve Young. LaVell Edwards. Kresimir Cosic. Danny Ainge.
And the knitting lady.
The knitting lady? Yes, Muriel Thole — a k a the knitting lady — is a legend among Cougar faithful. She has rarely missed a BYU football or basketball game —knitting needles in hand — over the past 49 years.
She may not look like the part, but inside that small frame is a rabid BYU fan with pure devotion to the Cougars. You can find Thole knitting away during every home BYU football and basketball game and occasionally when the team is on the road.
"My father always said if I had been born in the hospital instead of at home . . . he would have thought somebody switched babies on him because nobody else in the family likes sports," said Thole, who has traveled to the Virgin Islands and Australia with the basketball team.
Thole moved to Provo in September 1954 from Cardiff, Wales, and quickly fell in love with the university's athletic program.
It was in Wales where the then-17-year-old Thole first became an expert with knitting needles. Her first project was a pair of gloves, and she failed miserably.
"I had to put them in the garbage, they were no good at all," Thole said. "But I haven't stopped (knitting) since."
During an exciting game, the knitting lady keeps knitting and knitting and knitting. The more intense the game, the faster she knits.
In fact, two years ago Thole was at a "very exciting" hoops game full of fast breaks and in-your-face defense. She was knitting so fast she ran out of yarn.
"I felt somebody poking me in my back and he said, 'Should we be worried?' " Thole said. "I asked why, and he said, 'You quit knitting.' But I just ran out of yarn."
Thole used to knit baby sweaters for each basketball player's new arrival. But ever-changing NCAA regulations ended the knitting lady's free gifts to the athletes.
Now she donates her work to charity, a move she calls "extremely fulfilling".
"I just knit constantly," said Thole, who knits between 35 and 40 items a month. "I don't have one single article for myself, not a thing. I give it all away."
Like an old football player with weak knees and an aching back, Thole can point to her war wounds — a passel of worn-down knitting needles and her throbbing arthritis.
Braving below-freezing temperatures, Thole proudly cheered through all four quarters of the recent "civil war" game between the Utes and the Cougars.
"The weather was so horrible and I knew I was getting sick, but those kids were out there giving their all in miserable conditions. I felt it was my responsibility to stay there and support them," Thole said. "Even if they couldn't hear me clap, at least they would see that there were people in the stands."
The yarn she uses each month costs a pretty penny, and knitting needles run about $6.50 a pair. But she always keeps her favorite No. 9 knitting needles by her side.
"It's a fairly expensive little project, and one I couldn't afford if I had to do it all by myself," Thole said. She is helped by donations from friends and strangers. On occasions, she comes home to find a bag of yarn sitting on her porch.
Thole is BYU. She has knitted through the Cougars' most memorable moments. The doorbell at her small Orem home proudly blares the Cougar fight song.
Her weekends are planned around hosting visiting women's volleyball and basketball teams, and cheering on the basketball or football teams.
"Sports is my priority, that's where I get all my fun," Thole said. "It's expensive, but it's worth sacrificing the rest of the year to have had such really neat memories you couldn't get anywhere else."
The knitting lady has her favorites — Ainge, Cosic and Jeff Congdon. But don't count on making her pin down a favorite team. That's impossible, Thole said.
"Forty-nine years is a long time to just pick one out," Thole said. "I have memories of many games all through those years that I couldn't say that any one is better than another."
It doesn't matter what team it is — as long as they are wearing BYU blue, Thole is cheering for them. Rain, sleet or snow, the knitting lady won't stop cheering for the Cougars.
"I don't like fair-weather fans," Thole said. "I really don't appreciate them."
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com