COLUMN: And Utah’s winners are…
Sports Illustrated came to Utah this week, and this time it wasn’t to call the Aggies the worst team in Division I. Nor was it to scout potential cover girls for their annual swimsuit issue.
SI is celebrating its 50th anniversary by profiling a state each week. Utah’s turn in the spotlight features some interesting and a few surprise tidbits, as well as some not-so-surprising poll selections.
After being constantly reminded of the Red Sox’ painful playoff history while watching the baseball playoffs for the last few weeks, how many Utahns remember that Bruce Hurst, a Boston lefty who won two games in the 1986 World Series, was from St. George?
For the Yankee fans in Utah (the Bronx Bombers were the state’s favorite Major League team), SI dug up a quote from a young Darryl Strawberry, who faced Hurst in that fateful Series: “Clemens is tough, but he’s no Hurst.”
The Clemens in question was Roger Clemens, who will retire this year with his Hall of Fame speech already written and his ticket to Cooperstown, wearing a Yankee cap, already punched.
One of the poll’s little ironies was the reaction of Utahns to the departure of Karl Malone.
Malone’s ranking as the third-greatest athlete who has ever lived in or played for a team in Utah will come as no surprise to the state’s natives. He did, after all, lead the Jazz to the NBA Finals twice and became the second-leading scorer in the league’s history while wearing a Jazz uniform.
But the poll may have come at a bad time for Malone’s popularity in Utah, on the heels of his leaving to join the Los Angeles Lakers, the team our state’s fans called their most hated opponent.
Malone ranked third behind Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan as “Enemies of the State,” tying with the man who would have won this category hands down a few years back, Dennis “the Worm” Rodman.
Utah’s greatest athlete? Drumroll, please … wait, the winner is a guy with a reputation for avoiding drumrolls and fanfare, keeping his mouth shut while he quietly went about his business racking up more assists than anybody in history.
That’s right, our man John Stockton.
The next most popular athlete was Steve Young, whose great-great-however-many-greats-grandfather made this little poll possible by settling the state. Young followed one of the poll’s “all-time best homegrown sports figures,” Jim McMahon, as quarterback of BYU. Young was probably the main reason the San Francisco 49ers ranked as Utahns’ second favorite professional team and favorite NFL team. The Jazz, of course, were the number one pro team, proof positive of the phrase “homecourt advantage.”
The town that got the most attention in Sports Illustrated was Moab, home of the world-famous Slickrock bike trail and the “24 Hours of Moab” endurance race. SI devoted two pages to an article about the rugged beauty of the place and the rugged toughness of the racers.
Utah writer/naturalist Terry Tempest Williams wrote an essay paying homage to the outdoor sports of the state, the birds and wild game (and wild games, like the time Jordan broke our hearts in 1998).
How did Utah State fare in the poll?
Better than in the last SI poll that got any attention around here, that’s for sure. Then again, that’s not saying much, considering they ranked our football team dead last out of 117 Division I teams at the beginning of the season.
USU got a mention in the “all-time homegrown best” listing for the play of one Merlin Olsen, who won the Outland Trophy as an Aggie defensive lineman in his hometown of Logan before going on to a Hall of Fame career with the LA Rams in the NFL.
Utah State did suffer a grievous oversight when SI failed to mention that the college football coach who ranks sixth on the NCAA’s most wins list at 257 graduated from USU. That may have something to do with the fact that because LaVell Edwards picked up all his wins as head coach of BYU, winning a national championship in 1984.
Unfortunately, SI also passed over the 1993 Las Vegas Bowl champions for a mention in the poll, the only year our Aggies have won a bowl game. Here in Logan that may be considered the state’s greatest sports moment, but for some reason those polled gave the 2002 Winter Olympics that honor.
Oh well. We can still take credit because some of the Olympic hockey teams practiced in Logan at the Ice Center.
And Aggie fans won’t have to send more of those angry letters to Sports Illustrated.
Roy Burton is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to royburton@cc.usu.edu.