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Epic Road Trips: Utah 1998

(Story contributed by coolcats from CougarBoard. To contribute to this series, email your epic road trip story to stories@loyalcougars.com. Please include a picture if possible.)

This is the story of my unplanned road trip to the BYU-Utah game in 1998:

I had to attend a wedding lunch and reception that day right during the game. My wife was a bridesmaid, so we were going to have to stay with the wedding party all day long. This was before the days of the internet and easy ways to follow the game without a TV. So I would sneak out to our car and catch as much as I could on the radio. What made matters worse is that we spent most of the day within hearing distance of the stadium. It was driving me crazy.

There ended up being a break between the lunch and reception, so I convinced my wife that we should go over to the stadium. The ticket takers were gone by then, so we got inside just in time for the 4th quarter and found some standing room among all the Ute fans. It got super intense because the game was very tight. If you remember, that’s the game where Utah was lined up for a field goal at the very end. It looked like a sure thing. It was kicked, and I saw the doink off the uprights and then all the BYU players rushing the field.

So there we were, in formal wear (bridesmaid dress and suit) under our coats, while the whole stadium around us melted down. I remember some fairly heated exchanges between fans. We were immune because we were there covertly. It was such a joyous return to the reception after that!