Rob Heyn has been watching Utah football games for the majority of his life. He has been in Rice-Eccles Stadium for some of the most thrilling victories and some of the most crushing losses. Heyn’s dad had season tickets while he was growing up and Heyn was hooked on Utah football from his first game.

Growing up as a Utah fan in the 70s and early 80s was rough. From 1975 to 1985, the Utes only had four winning seasons. Heyn’s first Utah-BYU memory was the Utes’ 23-22 win over the Cougars at Rice Stadium in 1978. The win snapped a six game losing streak to BYU.

“Our running back had to come in and play quarterback, because our quarterback was hurt, so we had a fullback playing quarterback against them,” Heyn said.

Heyn’s least favorite rivalry memory came in 1989, when Heyn and his dad made a trip down to Provo. BYU put up 70 points on the Utes at Cougar Stadium, and beat Utah 70-31. The 70 points stands as the most points scored in a game for either school in the history of the rivalry.

Another memory that brings back negative feelings for Heyn is the 1998 matchup. After Utah came back from down nine with three minutes left to close the gap to two, Ute kicker Ryan Kaneshiro set up for a ­­32-yard field goal right in the middle of the field to try to win the game for Utah. ­­­

“Game-winning field goal, a short one, and he put it off the upright — that was a bad memory,” Heyn said.

But for every bad memory, there’s a good one. One of Heyn’s favorite Utah-BYU games was the 2004 game between a 10-0 Utah squad and a 5-5 BYU team. With a win, the Utes would be the first non-BCS team to be invited to a BCS bowl, and Utah crushed the Cougars, 52-21 to complete its perfect season.

“2004 was fun when we had such a great team,” Heyn said. “It was packed, and everyone rushed the field, and it sealed us going to the Fiesta Bowl.”

Brian Verhaaren, who has been going to Ute football games for almost his whole life, agrees.

“BYU was not great, but it was the culmination of a perfect season,” Verhaaren said. “I was there with my dad and we stood in the stands and just watched — most of the people in the stadium had gone down on to the field and were just swarming around. People with the Tostitos chips and the tortillas and the sombreros were jumping around, and I remember there was this light snowfall, and everyone celebrating — it was like Ute Christmas.”

Heyn’s all-time favorite Ute-Cougar game came in 1988. After losing nine games in a row to BYU, Utah beat the Cougars 57-28 on the backs of Scott Mitchell and Eddie Johnson. Verhaaren also has fond memories of the “Rice Bowl.”

“I remember watching that game, and then fans went and stormed the field and tore down the goal posts, and then later after that game, some people came down my street with the goal posts,” Verhaaren said.

Even with all of those memories, Verhaaren says it’s time to move on from BYU.

“I wish it would go away. I don’t really see any need for it,” Verhaaren said. “What I really hate is the tension between the two fanbases. Ron McBride and LaVell Edwards were pretty good at keeping things sportsmanlike; that went away with Bronco. As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t care if [Utah] ever played BYU again.”

Heyn has mixed emotions about the Holy War.

“The rivalry is really fun, even though I understand the argument that it gets a little out of control at times,” Heyn said. “Coming from Utah’s standpoint, it doesn’t do them a lot of good, playing an independent team. They’ve been getting Michigan and some of these teams to come, it’s better if we play that kind of team than BYU.”

Even still, Heyn says you can’t deny history.

“I think it’s still healthy to have that in-state game, the rivalry goes back so far, and it’s such a passionate thing for people that I think it’s important to play it,” Heyn said.

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