The names of former Utes head coach Ron McBride and wide receiver Roy Jefferson will soon be etched into the west side of Rice-Eccles Stadium forever.
McBride and Jefferson are this year’s choices for the Utah football Ring of Honor, which celebrates some of the most impactful players and coaches ever to don the red and white.
They will be honored in a halftime ceremony during Utah’s home opener against Cal Poly on Sept. 6.
The Ring of Honor was started last year, with quarterback Alex Smith — who led the Utes to an undefeated 2004 season and Fiesta Bowl win, and was the No. 1 selection in the 2005 NFL draft — the first inductee.
Now McBride and Jefferson will join Smith.
McBride coached Utah from 1990-2002, laying the foundation of the program for Urban Meyer and later Kyle Whittingham to take the Utes to new heights.
“He was instrumental in the University of Utah getting into the Pac-12 with the work he did and the groundwork he laid,” Whittingham said in 2011.
McBride helped slow the bleeding in the rivalry game against BYU (the Cougars had won 13 of the last 14 before the Utes won four of five from 1993-97), coached the Utes to a share of their first conference championship since 1964 in 1995, and won a share of the inaugural Mountain West Conference championship in 1999.
He also put an emphasis on recruiting Polynesian players, something continued by Meyer and Whittingham.
Under McBride, the Utes sent 16 players to the NFL, including Steve Smith Sr., and Luther Elliss, and his former recruit Alex Smith would go on to star for the Utes. He also hired Whittingham as a defensive line coach in 1994.
The 1994 season was Utah’s return to national prominence, the Utes appeared in the AP poll that year for the first time since 1947. Utah finished the season ranked No. 10 and capped off a 10-2 season with a 16-13 win over No. 15 Arizona in the Freedom Bowl.
After two losing seasons in three years, then-athletic director Chris Hill made the decision to let McBride go and hire Meyer in 2003. Though that proved to be the right decision for the program — Meyer led the Utes to an undefeated season and Fiesta Bowl win in 2004 — McBride turned the program around and set the table for Utah’s next two decades of success.
McBride is often seen on the sidelines at Utah games, but he’ll get his well-deserved moment in the spotlight in September.
Roy Jefferson
Jefferson was a star receiver for the Utes from 1962-64, helping lead the team to its first nine-win season in school history in 1964 as Utah won the first-ever Western Athletic Conference football championship and capped the season off with a Liberty Bowl win over West Virginia.
In the Liberty Bowl victory, a 32-6 Utes win, Jefferson not only played wide receiver and cornerback, but also kicked two field goals.
Jefferson was the team’s leading receiver in 1963 and 1964, averaging 16.7 yards per reception over his three-year career at Utah. He led the WAC in receiving yards in 1963 with 435.
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him with the 18th pick of the 1965 draft. Jefferson had a 12-year career with Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Washington, totaling 7,539 receiving yards and 52 touchdowns on 451 receptions.
He was a three-time Pro Bowl pick, named to the All-Pro team one time and won Super Bowl V with the Colts, notching three receptions for 52 yards.
According to the school, each player or coach considered for the Ring of Honor must meet at least one of the required criterion, which includes “owning school records, being a consensus All-American, playing 10 or more years in the NFL or coaching a team to at least two conference championships, among others.”
In addition, each Ring of Honor inductee must have been inducted into the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame and either graduated from a four-year institution or attended Utah for at least three years.
