Utah versus Arkansas - 07 September 2026

I’ve got tickets to the Utah versus Arkansas football game in Salt Lake City, 12 September 2006. I'm going with son Koessler, plus the visiting Arkansans, niece in-law and nephew, Lisa and Mark. Two good teams, one Saturday, no place to hide.

Swallowing the other half of the ticket is harder: it’s a Ute game.

For years I have had to put a leash on a very old dog—the visceral hate I still carry for the U. I was at the basketball game in the Smith Fieldhouse on the BYU campus in Provo, UT, on February 24, 1962, when Billy “the Hill” McGill and the Utes beat BYU and Bob Skousen, 106–101. McGill scored 60: 27 of 38 from the field, 6 of 8 from the line. It is still Utah’s single-game scoring by an individual player record.

Yes. Really. I was there. Seventeen years old. Some memories don’t fade; they just wait in the parking lot. That was then. This is now. Next weekend I’m walking into Ute Stadium in Salt Lake ready for a real football fight—and trying not to enjoy it too much. Go Razorbacks!

SDT, BYU '69