I really don't care about college sports, or professio
nal sports for that matter. But, in the UofU/BYU rivalry, I care. And I love it when the U wins. For those of you unfamiliar with the aforementioned rivalry, here's the basics:
- The U, or The University of Utah, is the biggest state university in Utah, located on the north-east foothills of Salt Lake City.
- BYU, the Y, or Brigham Young University, is the biggest private university in the st
ate, owned and operated by the LDS Church. It is located about 35 miles south of the U, on the east foothills of Provo. - The biggest rivalry in the state is between the U and the Y. Very, very few people, if any, will admit to not having a preference between the 2.
- The color red signifies the U, the color blue signifies the Y
- The University of Utah kicked the Cougar's ass today in football, 48 to 24 at Rice Stadium, the U's home field.
Other than the fact that the superiority of an intuition of higher learning has no relation to how it's football team does whatsoever, I still get bragging rights for the next year.
8 comments:
But let's not forget that, while Brigham Young founded BOTH institutions, the U was ORIGINALLY founded as a university (the U of Deseret), while the Y was originally founded as an academy -- in other words, a high school.
I knew that the U was originally the University of Deseret, but I had no idea that BYU was originally a high school. Cool.
From Wikipedia:
Early days
BYU's origin can be traced back to 1862 when a man named Warren Dusenberry started a Provo school in a prominent adobe building called Cluff Hall, which was located in the northeast corner of 200 East and 200 North.[15] On October 16, 1875, Brigham Young, then president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally purchased the Lewis Building after previously hinting that a school would be built in Draper, Utah in 1867.[16] Hence, October 16, 1875 is commonly held as BYU's founding date.[17] The school was broken off from the University of Deseret and christened "Brigham Young Academy"[14] with classes commencing January 3, 1876. Warren Dusenberry served as interim principal of the school for several months until April 1876 when Brigham Young's choice for principal arrived--a German immigrant named Karl Maeser.[17] The school did not become a university, however, until the end of Benjamin Cluff, Jr's term at the helm of the institution. At that time, the school was also still privately supported by members of the community and was not absorbed and sponsored officially by the LDS Church until July 18, 1896.[18] A series of odd managerial decisions by Cluff led to his demotion; however, in his last official act, he proposed to the Board that the Academy be named "Brigham Young University". The suggestion received a large amount of opposition, many members of the Board saying that the school wasn't large enough to be a university, but the decision ultimately passed. One opponent to the decision, Anthon H. Lund, later said, "I hope their head will grow big enough for their hat."[19]
In 1903, Brigham Young Academy was dissolved, and was replaced by two institutions: Brigham Young High School, and Brigham Young University.[18] (The BY High School class of 1907 was ultimately responsible for the famous giant "Y" that is to this day embedded on a mountain near campus.[18]) The Board elected George H. Brimhall as the new President of BYU. He had not received a high school education until he was forty.
And also from Wikipedia:
Originally established February 28, 1850 by Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young, it was initially named "University of Deseret." The school closed two years later for financial reasons. It reopened as a commercial school in 1867 in the old Council House in what is now downtown Salt Lake City under the direction of David O. Calder, a prominent Salt Lake City businessman and associate of Mormon leader Brigham Young. The University was renamed University of Utah in 1894 and classes were first held on the present campus approximately two miles directly east of downtown Salt Lake City in 1900. Portions of the present campus are located on grounds formerly belonging to the U.S. Army's Fort Douglas. The fort was officially closed on October 26, 1991, and although a small part of it remains as an Army Reserve Post, the majority of its territory is now owned by the university, and occupied by student residences.
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Thus, the Y was founded as an academy because the U was temporarily out of comission. And it was not originally a university, nor was it originally Young's brainchild. The Y remains an afterthought of the U in history.
Also, only at the U can a man immitate Young's beard without having a special permit. (Did you realize that your facial hair is illegal at BYU?)
At 17, I was offered full-ride scholarships to both the U and the Y. Molly Mormon that I was (and I was a rigid little mormonista in those days), I knew I could not tolerate a school that had such ridiculous rules that it had only a few years before allowed women to wear (gasp!) pants on campus.
As you know, I went to the U.
I followed my degree at the U with endorsements from USU and Weber State, plus that lovely MSc from the Univ. of Edinburgh. I've also got credit hours from SUU.
But never have I sunk so low as to take a class at the Y.
Obviously, I still have my standards.
:)
PS. sorry about my error in the first comment -- about BY founding the Y, as he did not.
I thought about going to the Y once - it was in my mid 20's and my friends and I wanted to see who could get kicked out the fastest. It never went past talking.
I hate BYU. I hate BYU. I hate BYU. Sofi bet on the game and won us a lovely steak dinner. :)
So, Funaki, do you hate BYU? and are they beef steaks, or horse steaks?
I am so sick of this game now!
Yesterday, not only were the kids still going on about it, but the faculty continued with stupid mass e-mails back and forth, harrassing each other, and I actually snapped at one young, male teacher in the faculty room at lunch to grow up and get over it (sulking BYU fan).
Sulking over an election is one thing -- because you have to deal with a few years of whoever you don't like *Buttars *. But this was a stupid football game. It's over now.
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