I still remember the morning I walked out of my house. We had moved into the neighborhood about a year earlier. There, written in the dust on the back of my dad’s car, “(expletive) Mormons.”
I asked my dad what it meant, and he told me not to worry about it. But I did worry about it, because I could tell from the fear in my dad’s eyes that he worried about it. And pretty soon, I discovered what it meant.
It turns out there was a local church where the pastor had made a point of preaching against our faith, going so far as to describe us as demonic from the pulpit.
I never knew if the two were connected. I did know most of the kids on the street wouldn’t play with us.
In society today, cursing is so commonplace as to attract little to no commentary. Yet as we’ve seen explicit chants against Latter-day Saints show up at more and more football games — including this last weekend against Cincinnati — I’ve wondered what more universities could do to stand up to this. Are there any patterns in the schools where this isn’t taking place?
A history of derogatory language
Epithets against the faith have a long history. Early in our history, during the same time Missouri’s governor decreed that Latter-day Saints “must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state,” terms like “infernal” or “devilish” or “infernal devils” were used to describe Latter-day Saints.
Through the 1890s, the anti-Latter-day Saint language referenced barbarism, and accused the church of extreme power through images with grasping tentacles. As the 20th century began, anti-Mormon rhetoric often framed the church as a “menace” in political cartoons and tabloids.
Flash forward to recent decades, and during the raucous 1997 NBA finals, Bulls star Dennis Rodman expressed frustration in the noisy Utah arena at the “(expletive) Mormons” for why it was “hard to get in sync.”
Although in line with Rodman’s bad boy persona, these comments were condemned nationally and covered by major outlets. He apologized and was fined by the NBA. But that kind of derogatory language directed at the faith was placed in headlines on a mass scale.
The phrase began to be picked up more frequently with the advent of smartphones. In 2006, at a football game against the University of Arizona, chants involving the same expletive were recorded — prompting a letter in the school paper by the university president and student body president, lamenting that “the expected ribbing of the opposing team devolved into name-calling that included insulting the predominant faith of BYU.”
The event received no national publicity. A year later in 2007, the chant returned at a UCLA game. This one drew attention because a fellow student turned to one chanter and explained that UCLA’s quarterback and best offensive lineman were members of the faith.
During the debate over Proposition 8, the same expletive against Latter-day Saints showed up on a large pink banner hung in San Francisco’s Castro district, which received significant national attention, mostly condemning the sign.
In more recent years, this phrase has become depressingly commonplace, making an almost annual appearance. That includes in 2021 at USC, in 2022 at Oregon, in 2024 at Providence College and in 2025 at a BYU-Arizona basketball game.
After Colorado was publicly reprimanded and fined this past September for Buffaloes fans participating in the chants, they again showed up at this weekend’s game in Cincinnati.
An evolving response
There has been a changing response to these events over the years. What first got addressed mostly in school newspapers has received more national commentary and even official league responses.
Preemptively and proactively speaking out seems to make a difference. For instance, Texas Tech’s basketball coach urged fans not to engage in such behavior prior to the Red Raiders hosting BYU earlier this month.
In one case, the chanting was interrupted in real time by athletic director Steven Napolillo at Providence College, who stepped up, physically intervened and then personally apologized, saying the chants were “unacceptable.”
In other cases, the universities each delivered a statement, saying that the incidents do not represent who they are or their values and that they apologize.
For example, Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham issued a statement of apology Monday, noting the use of offensive or religiously derogatory language “was unacceptable and does not reflect our values.”
In 2021, the USC athletic department released a statement saying the chant did “not align with our Trojan values.” And in 2025, the University of Arizona athletic director Desirée Reed‑Francois issued an official apology, saying the chant “is not reflective of who we are.”
No investigations appear to have taken place, however, without any students or fans banned from games or otherwise disciplined.
The Colorado incident has prompted a unique response. Colorado’s chancellor and athletic director condemned the incident and apologized to BYU, saying the behavior “does not reflect the values” of their campus community. But this time, it was followed by actionable accountability when the Big 12 publicly reprimanded and fined $50,000 for Buffaloes fans participating in the chants.
The Big 12’s decision to fine the University of Colorado is a major change in the usual cycle of these incidents, perhaps because the usual apology cycle isn’t cutting it.
For their part, after the most recent incident, University of Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham (no relation to the author) wrote the chant was “unacceptable and does not reflect our values.” The Big 12 is yet to respond to this incident.
Taking the problem more seriously
Each of these universities tell us that the chants don’t represent who they are. That’s believable. But the offenses keep happening, meaning some action should be taken to bring change. University of Arizona, where the chant was recorded in 2006, had still not fixed the problem in 2025.
After the first incident, their president wrote, “such behavior will not be condoned, nor tolerated.” And in 2025, their athletic director said the same chant was “not reflective of who we are.”
In 2004, the Stanford band put on a skit mocking Latter-day Saint history. Their athletic director issued a statement, saying the actions were “inappropriate.” The next time BYU football played at Stanford in 2022, their band put on a skit again referencing Latter-day Saint beliefs — this time a satirical wedding performance. A spokesperson for Stanford athletics said the skit “did not reflect Stanford University’s values.”
In fairness, these are young students still getting their grasp of the world. As CU coach Deion Sanders noted in the press conference following the Colorado game, those students were probably intoxicated.
We need to have grace for the offenders, but the institutions should take these incidents seriously.
And here’s one cheeky idea — maybe the leaders at these universities could encourage their students to put on a service project for the same cause as the Cougs Care pregame service project that BYU fans have run in host cities for every BYU road game the past few seasons, including book drives, food drives and other local charities.
BYU has a good shot of playing in the Big 12 Championship game in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 6 — and even participating in the College Football Playoff if they overcome that hurdle. This is a great time for other big schools to get ahead of this trend, and encourage a better standard in their own student body.