Right now we are in the midst of a golden age for Utah Athletics. Last year, the football team not only won its first-ever Pac-12 Championship but also reached the Rose Bowl, one of the most hallowed grounds in all of football. The gymnastics team is consistently a top three team in the nation, the ski team won the 2022 NCAA National Championship and the women’s tennis team has the ninth best-recruiting class in the entire nation, just to name a few triumphs. Now with all this recent success, it can be easy to forget about the past and some of the legendary athletes and teams this university has had the pleasure of calling their own. With a new year of Utah athletics underway, there is no better time to take a trip down memory lane and recognize some of the trailblazers who excited past generations of students and fans alike.

1915-16: Utah Men’s Basketball

The 1915-16 Utah basketball team, led by coach Nelson Norgren, was the first ever undefeated team in the U’s basketball history. While World War I was raging on in Europe, in the United States the Utah basketball team was on its way to an 11-0 finish while also becoming the first-ever college team to win the post-season Amateur Athletic Union national championship tournament. Not only that, but Utah was one of only four collegiate teams to ever win the tournament, with another college not winning the tournament until 1920. The team was highlighted by star athlete Ernest Lowell “Dick” Romney, who was named a consensus All-American collegiate and AAU basketball player. 

1926: Utah Football

Ten years later, Utah football had its shining moment. The 1926 Utah football team was coached by the legendary Ike Armstrong, who in his second season with the team led them to their first-ever undefeated season. Team captain Thornton Dinwoodey “Spide” Morris and the squad went 7-0, most notably beating BYU 40-7, on their way to winning the Rocky Mountain Conference Championship.

In total, Utah outscored their opponents 164-23, and because they enjoyed their first undefeated season, they were invited to Hawaii to play against the University of Hawaii in a quasi-bowl game, which Utah won 17-7. Morris was inducted into the Utah Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1985 and Armstrong, Utah’s former all-time winningest head coach was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1957. This season was also the last season played at Cummings Field after the record crowds became too big for the stadium to house.

1959: Marvin Melville

In 1959, Marvin Melville did what few others could. The U alpine skier won three individual titles: the slalom, alpine and downhill events. Not only is that the first and only time a Utah skier has accomplished that feat but it tied the record for most titles in one year in NCAA history. In the 1956 and 1960 Winter Olympics, Melville competed in the downhill event and after he retired, he coached the U’s ski team.

Those are just some of the countless examples of legends of Utah athletics past, and if you dig deep enough, there are plenty of stories of players and teams who lit up the field, court or snow for every generation of students and fans ranging all the way back to 1905.

As we look forward to a new year of Utah athletics with renewed hopes of March Madness, the college football playoffs or an NCAA championship, we should look back at the ones who came before, those who trailblazed a path that formed the teams and athletics we know today to remember and appreciate their greatness as something that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Who knows, maybe 100 years from now students and athletes at the U will look back on us, just as we look back on the ones before, and consider us legends and trailblazers. Maybe a student working at the Daily Utah Chronicle 100 years in the future will have a similar topic to this one and use this article as a reference, remembering the legends not just of today, but the ones who came before. 

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