Tony Brown has an itch. He's tried hard to get to it and make it go away.
You see, Brown, a Timpview High graduate and Cougar fan with roots in Provo, went away to Georgia and Texas for a while. There he learned just how devoted football fans are to their respective schools, especially at showing up at games and wearing the colors.
In Texas, he got an overdose on a sea of Texas burnt orange and the wave of A&M maroon. It stirred something in Brown. How could fans sell out in such numbers, wearing the same colored gear? So, Brown talked to some old-timers in Texas and Georgia and learned it took a grassroots effort — and it took time.
Brown returned to Provo obsessed. It dug at him. Why did BYU fans show up to games in all kinds of colors including one past Cougar Club president he saw decked in red?
Why not a blue out? What would it take?
Now, campaigns to turn LaVell Edwards Stadium blue are not new. BYU marketing folks have been turning the screws for years on plans to deck out the place in a solid color. But blue, and BYU's change from royal blue to navy blue didn't help. And blue is a passive color. It doesn't scream "notice me" like duds worn at Texas, Tennessee, Utah or Boise State.
Plus, BYU fans have been slow to buy into the idea.
This sent Brown reeling. Independently, he's been working outside the university lines for a blue out in 2007. It started a year ago. As he got going, he obtained advice from a professional ad agency executive in Los Angeles, his brother-in-law. He got on the Internet and pressured Cougarboard.com owner Steve Meyers to help him get some support.
Unlike other "fans" who go a little haywire and start all sorts of campaigns the bring legal and NCAA violations to BYU, he actually met with school marketing officials, including the campus bookstore. He's met with distributors of BYU's official clothing.
He and Meyers started a fund-raising effort outside BYU's officially sanctioned development program and collected hundreds of dollars in donations towards a billboard that is currently on the southbound I-15 freeway near Lindon. He got an artist, Greg Welch from Iowa, to design a poster featuring the frowning face of LaVell Edwards.
And he got Edwards to sign on the use of his mug.
A lot of people on Cougarboard have complained for years that BYU fans don't wear blue to the games. Tony, however, decided to make something happen.
Last fall, he started putting together a campaign to have a "blue out" this year.
"When we got serious about our campaign this summer, Tony was able to step right in and help make sure things happened," Meyers said. " He was always the first one to call people up in order to get them on board, whether it was BYU Athletic Marketing, the BYU Bookstore, LaVell Edwards, or anyone else. This campaign never could have happened without him."
Brown has become a sort of Robin Hood in some circles of fans. Such efforts outside the "official" bubble of the university scare some in authority on campus. But Brown seemingly jumped over that hurdle in his mission to fill the stands with fans clad in a single shade of blue.
"My expectations are high, but I'm realistic. I think it's going to take time," he said. But come Sept. 1, he hopes his efforts have made a difference. So do his supporters.
Coincidently, as Brown worked on his obsession, BYU players including captain Kelly Poppinga, Bryan Kehl, and other members of the leadership council, went to head coach Bronco Mendenhall in the offseason with the same idea. With the blessing of the coach and school, those players raised $100,000 in donations to make free "Fully Invested" shirts available to ticket holders and coupons for additional shirts at $5 each.
"These players believe it makes a difference in wins and losses," said Brown, who has met with the players.
Added Poppinga: "Last year, we dominated at home. Nobody was even close. After the first quarter, that team on the other sideline knew the game was over. We want the atmosphere in that stadium even crazier than it was last year. We want the stadium to be blue. Wear blue or don't come. We want it blue, and we want it crazy. We as players feed off it. The opposing team is intimidated by it. When the whole stadium is colored with the uniform color of the home team, it's intimidating."
BYU associate athletic director Duff Tittle helped oversee school marketing efforts to produce a video this summer, underscoring Mendenhall's desire to have a blue out this season. It can be seen on BYUCougars.com.
Brown and Meyer's efforts can be seen at Cougarswearblue.com.
"Wearing the school colors is an important part of the pageantry and excitement of college football," Tittle said.
"This year the football leadership council created the 'Fully Invested' program to encourage BYU fans to come to the games in blue. It's exciting to see our fans get behind the players and support the wear blue campaign. Hopefully these efforts will make a difference on game days with a stadium that is a sea of blue" said Tittle.
Brown cannot account for the time he's spent working on this drive, but it's gone on almost every day for a year. "It drives my wife a little crazy."
Ordinarily, it could drive BYU officials a little crazy. Bureaucracy likes control — red tape, if you will. And at BYU, there are kingdoms, fiefdoms and territorial fireplugs to read and pay attention to. It's been more than a decade since BYU's legal department started going after people using the school's image, logo and title without a license.
Brown apparently has maneuvered successful around all these pylons.
Obsession? Perhaps more like something that drives him, a deep-seated passion. Quiz him about this deal and the word "brainstorming" doesn't cover it. A software salesman, Brown's used to creative juices. On this issue, he must lie down at night and ideas hatch out of his head like snakes of Medusa.
The amazing thing is he's even approached former All-American QB Gifford Nielsen — when Nielsen and former Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer have their numbers retired, he's asked that they mention the importance of wearing colors.
It remains to be seen if his efforts, and those who have lined up behind him with money, will get it done. He doesn't want any credit, only tens of thousands clad in blue.
But he's an interesting case in never say no, or it can't be done. The Rudy factor.
And, finally, get this. He's predicting, and we'll see how it plays out, that when Mendenhall does his Sunday night coach show on KSL-TV, one of the first things out of his mouth will be to have a "blue out" in the stadium come Sept. 1.
If that happens, indeed Mr. Tony Brown is totally and fully invested.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com