Former players taking Bronco event to another level
It is no small feat to pull off.
But it has happened and continues to grow. One had to be there Friday to see the impact and growth of Alumni Day, started be Bronco Mendenhall when he became head coach at BYU. It has grown from 300 at the start to 700 last year and 850 were expected for dinner on Friday evening after a day of meetings and practice.
Former teammates and coaches, hugging, slapping skin, patting one another on the back, men from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and years of this decade, returning to campus, hanging around the football facilities, attending team meetings and hearing Mendenhall speak directly about what he’s trying to do with their legacy.
I can tell you from attending all of these, that there’s a bond there that you can’t explain unless you are one of them, which I am not. But it appears real and tangible and very intimate. From Chris Hoke to Chad Lewis, from Vai Sikahema to Rob Morris, there is a strength in these faces. Getting them together, it’s a kind of dynamism and voltage there.
Until Mendenhall made an issue of it, there was not a vehicle to take advantage of it. These men now bring their wives and kids and with great pride, shake hands and show their family around and become recruiters when they leave.
And this shindig has taken on a new bridge – one that didn’t exist before.
A group of former players from 1969 through 1973, who were members of LaVell Edwards’ first team when he was hired as head coach after laboring as a defensive coach on Tommy Hudsbeth’s staff, took upon themselves to use this platform to have a sub-reunion last week.
The reunion was organized by Conrad Cole, Paul Gustavson, Benny Mitch and Mike Preston. This wasn’t something the BYU athletic department did. It was a self-generating event born out of the parent. It was the players, experiencing what Mendenhall had tried to accomplish in creating a link, a bridge and doing it on their own, creating it naturally because they care.
In a sense, this break-off group signaled how successful the idea has become as it takes a life of its own.
The group of 100 former players and their spouses met last Thursday at Cole’s home in Utah Valley. Those in attendance included Chris Farosopolous, “The Galloping Greek,” and Keith “Mad Dog” Rivera, a defensive tackle in the early 70s who was recently named one of the top 50 players on Amercia’s top 50 football programs.
Others included stars Dan Hansen, former quarterback Dave Terry and one-time NCAA rushing champion Pete Van Valkenburg. LaVell Edwards and his wife Patti were in attendance, as were AD Tom Holmoe and assistant AD Robbie Bosco and Mendenhall addressed the group.
Edwards, as only he can do, gave one of his deadpan lines that had the group laughing the rest of the night, an evening which lasted from 5 to 11 p.m.
Said Edwards, “I’d like to thank all you players. Had you played any better than you did, I would never have got the head coaching job.”