The BYU football team lost a legendary player.
Eddie Stinnett’s halfback pass to future Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion MVP Steve Young in the 1983 Holiday Bowl to lift BYU past Missouri remains a historic play in Cougar lore. Stinnett passed away Sept. 17 at the age of 64.
Stinnett gone?
Way too early for this native of Ohio who came to BYU as a transfer running back from Snow College and immediately made an impact.
“He was flamboyant. He was fun,” said his BYU position coach Lance Reynolds, who welcomed Stinnett to Snow College when he was there, and then coached him for two years at BYU.
“We’d just started to tap into his talent and we saw a glimpse of what he could do,” said Reynolds.
Before Reynolds got to Snow College, a previous coaching staff had discovered Stinnett and brought him there. When BYU recruiters contacted Reynolds at Snow about going after the big running back, Reynolds told them, “Absolutely. Go for it.”
“He was 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds and extremely fast. He had shakes, a great change of direction, and mobility. He could catch the ball, so I told them they’d be crazy not to recruit him.
“When I got to BYU and coached him, he ended up being part of one of the most dynamic backfield players we ever had. There was Eddie, Waymon Hamilton, Casey Tiumalu, Bruce Hansen, Vai Sikahema and Steve Young.”
Reynolds called Stinnett “incredibly athletically talented.”
“He was a little bit flamboyant, always joking around. After he finished playing, he moved to Salt Lake City and worked for my parents for a while,” Reynolds said. “He was always respectful to my mother, and she loved Eddie. He was very reliable and he was a physical beast.
“He could run and block and I remember he would never work out in the weight room. I got after him one day. Then we had our max day in the weight room and he showed up and bench pressed over 400 pounds.”
Reynolds remembers getting after him in a meeting for missing a block in practice. He told Reynolds he was saving his blocking for an actual game.
Stinnett appeared in games in the 1982 and 1983 seasons. At the time of his death he lived in West Valley City after moving from his birthplace in Springfield, Ohio. He is survived by his wife Julie Stinnett and two sons, Eddie Stinnett, Jr. and Ricky Stinnett.
He was born April 14, 1961, to William and Winifred Stinnett. While at BYU he met his wife Julie who he married Feb. 1, 1986. He later joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 13, 2017, and he and Julie were sealed in the Jordan River Temple May 18, 2019.
He worked with troubled youth in schools and detention centers. He was an avid fisherman and golfer and enjoyed detailing cars and camping.
“Eddie was just fun,” said BYU teammate and former veteran NFL punter Lee Johnson. “He was always super cool, super kind, always had a big smile, always positive, and had something good to say.”
“I haven’t talked to Eddie for so long, but when I last saw him about 20 years ago, he was the same Eddie. He was a locker room warrior. He was full of love and kindness, positive and light-hearted. He was my kind of dude, my kind of teammate.”
Reynolds said Stinnett didn’t just throw that one famous halfback TD pass — he threw two.
“He’d always tell me he was two-for-two and two touchdowns.”
“The other one he rolled to the right and threw to a receiver against (Joe Lee Dunn’s) defense at New Mexico. We beat them like 77 to 3 or something,” Reynolds said. “The year before (Dunn) kind of caught us because we didn’t know his defense. But the next year we had something like 777 yards total offense, and it was curtains for them. Eddie had that TD throw and he ran 70 yards for a touchdown.”
Reynolds said Stinnett would tease that there was nothing to do in Provo after 10 p.m, that they’d roll up the streets at 10.
“He was a fun guy to be around, always keeping everyone loose.
“Had he been at BYU four years, he would have been an even better player. But, you know, he was only there two years, and he still was exceptionally talented. We never completely got everything out of him we could have because he wasn’t there long enough.”
Just like today.
This warrior will be missed.
Funeral services are Wednesday at noon in the Jordan North First Ward, 3900 South 4000 West, West Valley City.
