Is the BYU / Utah football rivalry a good thing, or is it culturally unhealthy?

I don't know why I feel the need to make feeble attempts at keeping the peace but there's a lot of taunting, bitterness, and unnecessary negativity following incidents at the game on Saturday.  I know few people (if any) read this but I'm going to offer this up anyway... and don't for a second act like you've never blamed the referees for your team losing.  Let me be clear.... It's. A. Game.

Max Hall's infamous "I Hate Utah" quote from 4 years ago has been given new life by comments and actions by people from both schools.  While I claim to be a Cougar fan, I am not a fanatic, and I will attempt to be as unbiased as possible in my comments.

Let's start with the Max Hall sound byte.  That's probably all anybody will remember about him no matter what else may happen in his life.  That's kind of sad really, especially since it was four years ago, and he offered an apology.  But why stop there?  Let's go back even further, and show just how class-less people from both sides can be.  I do this in an attempt to bring introspection because people always seem to forget that their sh** stinks too.

These days, during the week leading up to the big game, the Cougar statue outside the stadium is covered with Visquine as a protection from would-be vandals.  There are BYU fans who have painted the block U in Salt Lake City blue, and Utah fans who have painted the block Y in Provo red, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage.

BYU:
In 2009 Max Hall offered up his now infamous, "I hate Utah" tirade.  The incident sparked a Utah hot-selling t-shirt which simply read, "Max Hall hates me."

UTAH:
If any of you decide to cut the guy a little slack, the incidents that led up to Max's tirade can be found in the same article as his apology, here:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705348033/BYU-football-Max-Hall-apologizes-for-tirade.html

In 1992, Utah officials cleared snow from the field before the game, but not from the stands. The student section hurled snowballs at BYU players before and throughout the game.  One snowball struck Cougar center Garry Pay in the face.

In 1993, Utah players and fans attempted to raze BYU's goalposts after the Utes had defeated the Cougars in Provo for the first time in 22 years.  Several BYU players strapped their helmets back on and defended their goalposts before order was restored.

M.U.S.S. indeed.  (Mighty Unsportsmanlike Student Section)

BYU:
That event fueled one of the most famous quotes (before Max Hall's utterance) in rivalry history.

"All those Utes think that's all there is to life, but when I'm making $50,000 to $60,000 a year, they'll be pumping my gas," said Cougar defensive lineman Lenny Gomes.  "They're low-class losers."

UTAH:
Five years later, BYU linebacker Derik Stevenson jumped into the stands after a Cougar win to defend his father against a Utah fan, upset about the loss, who had become violent.

BYU:
In 1999, a BYU fan leaped out of the stands and tackled a Utah cheerleader during the game in which the Utes were leading and eventually won.  the cheerleader responded by tackling his attacker and landing several punches before security officers intervened and ended the fracas.

UTAH:
Former broadcaster Paul James, who owns the distinction of being the only Utah graduate who is a member of the BYU Athletic Hall of fame remembers a game at Utah in the 1970s, when BYU running back Jeff Blanc suffered a neck injury and Ute fans cheered.

In 1998, Ryan Kaneshiro missed a chip-shot field goal on the last play against BYU.  Not only did he get blamed for the loss by the media and fans, but even Ute head coach Ron McBride said Kaneshiro had only one job to do and he didn't do it.

Way to sell the whole 'win-as-a-team, lose-as-a-team' mantra there coach.

I also read one person's comments, and I quote (mis-spellings and all ;)), "I hold BYU fans to a higher standard.  Not only are they representing a school but they are also representing a community and a higher standard.  Because the school is a faith based University their fans and their students take on a certain responsibility when they dawn the big white Y."

By that logic you hold Utah to a lower standard and have just effectively excused any bad behavior by the team or its fans. If you're reading this, I love ya man but that logic is flawed and it's a cop-out.

So you see, classlessness flares up on all sides during the heat of the moment.  Can we cut each other some slack and not get sucked into such bitterness?  Remember that there are classy people on both sides too.

I for one, due in part to things like this, plan to stay away from all things rivalry related to BYU / Utah football in 2016.

Comic Pros and Comic Cons

I've been sitting on this one for a little bit.  The downside for me is that Comic Con has been over for a couple of weeks now and the luster has worn of for many of you that were able to attend so this might seem 'old hat' to some.  I had a grand time, so grand that I'm doing this post anyway.  MUHAHAHAHA!!!

Comic Con recently came to Salt Lake.  Something that most in the city's geek culture probably never thought would happen.  Lucky for us, Dan Farr is enough of one to be in that demographic and decided to give it a shot.

Bulls-eye.

I know nothing of Con attendance in terms of records and history but from what I'm hearing this one shattered records, and while news articles will have different numbers the consensus is that this one was so successful that a 2014 return is all but certain.

To be fair there were a few negative aspects but that's to be expected for an event this size.  The lights above our booth went out on the busiest day, leaving the photos a bit darker than they would otherwise be, and the attendance surge caused the Fire Marshall to close the doors to further entry until the numbers inside came down a bit.  Some of our people were caught on the outside and couldn't get back in.  There was a creep-tacular person making some of our female vendors feel uncomfortable and he was nicely asked to depart by Con security.  I also think I may have unintentionally upset a few people and I'm offering a blanket apology to any who may have felt slighted.  Please forgive me of my shortcomings.

We had a few people that for various reasons didn't show up for 'work' on their days / times.  I thought we did a pretty decent job of adapting but for any con-goers who might have noticed a lack of staffing at our location, we apologize and hope to do better next year.

As far as I know, that was it.  Major kudos to those who put this on their shoulders for our group to be able to participate.  If you're reading this, you know who you are.

The successes far outweigh the failures...umm...I'm not even sure 'failures' is the right word so let's call them setbacks or something less crass.  Yeah, setbacks is a better word.

Our Blast-A-Trooper was a much bigger success than we anticipated and raised most of the nearly $3,000 for the Peter Mayhew Foundation.  www.petermayhewfoundation.org/


We were able to procure some screen-used props to enhance the experience:


There was also a screen-used Darth Maul lightsaber hilt there on display but I don't have a photo of that.

We got to take part in a pretty nice group photo.  The procession to get there was like a mini-parade and was sooo much fun.  I haven't seen any video of our procession but I'll keep looking.  Here's a photo - courtesy of Doug Atwood.

...and here's the group photo:
Courtesy of Mike Handy

...can you guess which one is me?
To be fair, I'm sure there are purists who view the presence of a big red blob in the middle of this as a colossal intrusion.  I can't really say I blame them as most aren't familiar with the characters of the Star Wars expanded universe (EU).  Having said all that, I LOVE being just a little bit different, and I really appreciated the opportunity to be part of it for Comic Con. Had I more talent my white one wouldn't still be sitting in the garage work space.

Our booth space was divided into two portions, one was for Blast-A-Trooper, which allowed people (mostly children) to fire harmless nerf-gun projectiles at various characters.  We had some really good people allowing themselves to get shot.  My bucket is off to them.  I tried it for a bit, and while it was fun, there was a pretty loud 'crack' when a dart struck my helmet and the sound actually hurt my ears so I didn't last long there.

The other side was the 'booth'.  It sounds like a grossly over-generalized term but that's what it was.  The main activity there was for photo ops.  Some were asking questions about the group and others (myself included) were participating in the Droid Hunt (http://www.501st.com/droidhunt) but the vast majority were there for pictures, either with characters or of the screen used props and the Han Solo in carbonite, and of course the experience wouldn't be complete without a Slave Leia.





I was able to get my picture taken with, and an autograph from David Prowse.  You may not recognize the name but the character he played is unforgettable.






This isn't one of my better posts in terms of the writing but I've been trying to put this together for some time now and I'm a little tired.  I hope you enjoyed the perusal.

In the meantime, check out some various links to Comic Con  I'm not in either of them but I prefer it that way as I'm kind of self-conscious.  Nothing can beat the experience of actually being there but you should still get an idea of how much fun it was.  I realize this isn't everyone's cup of tea but I think there was something there for everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPHmEIh4Hus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpgbGpJzyk4&feature=endscreen