Part 1
The Hatred Between the Teams
(I am going to try and tell this from a ute fan’s perspective. Mormons don’t mean to be exclusionary.)
Just about very rivalry through time has “hated” each other, yet those familiar with the Holy War will tell you it is different. Because these schools are 36 miles apart as the crow flies, you have brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor and occasionally people change sides, but the hate remains.
Why do the Ute fans hate BYU?
First, through the 70s and 80s the rivalry wasn’t all that close. BYU hadn’t really taken football seriously until then. Through those years, Utah “fans” may buy tickets and cheer for the Utes until BYU came to town, then they wore blue. The real Utah fans resented that their stadium would turn blue. Now Utah has more than enough fans to fill their stadium. BYU fans in that time of success were certainly arrogant.
Religion vs State and the role religion plays day to day
The biggest division is religion vs state. In general, people in Utah feel pretty strongly about the mormons. Non-mormons hate the influence the mormons have in politics, business, and every day life. It can impact laws, what’s open on Sundays, and how many bars around.
Most community parties are hosted by the mormon churches. They will do Pioneer day, Christmas, 4th of July, thanksgiving, Halloween, and additional parties where food and activities are everywhere. They are open to everyone, but admittedly, if you aren’t a member and don’t want to be proselytized to, they probably aren’t where you will end up. This leads to resentment of your neighbors because you aren’t part of the group.
Everyone has home, work, and most need a third place to socialize and find friends. In Utah, the third place for many people is church and sports. Non-members don’t go to church, and because a lot of plans are made at the third place may miss out on camping trips or other activities that neighbors go on. Mormons don’t mean to exclude, but it happens. Kids make friends at church through primary (sunday school for kids) and keep those bonds going through summer when school stops.
Kids feel left out at times, especially in the summer months. We all know that parents love their kids and hate the pain their kids feel.
This grows the dislike. It allows the Utes to be a place where an anti-mormon feeling grows.
Education
In Utah, BYU is the premier school and Utah used to be the commuter school, though they aren’t now. Often times if you go to Utah or Utah State the first question is “So you couldn’t get in to BYU, huh?” (Trust me, I didn’t get in to BYU) Again, the pompous nature of BYU fans rubs Ute fans the wrong way.
Other
Even though Utah has “dominated” for the last 20 years going to the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl 2 times, and the Fiesta Bowl and beating BYU with a lot of frequency, there are still more BYU fans in Utah. Being the sucessful program but lacking the full adoration that BYU received in it’s dominant stretch rubs more people wrong.
There are lots of mormons who are Utah fans and aren’t fueled by their hatred of the Church. They hate that BYU fans think they should police their fanbase. (I will get to this more in the BYU section.)
Why Do BYU fans hate Utah?
Religion and Religious “persecution”
Many of you know mormons. We are a friendly people. We invite people to everything. Halloween? We have a party for that. Want to play basketball in the mornings? We have a group every Saturday and Tuesday that plays for a couple hours. Come play. Heck, at football games we give free ice cream. I sit next to the visiting section and almost every game I end up becoming friends with an opposing fan that sits next to me and gift them a cougar tail.
Yet, even after us trying to be kind our faith is mocked:
Players doing mock baptisms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYMomzDpRNI
Fans mocking Communion (we call it sacrament)
Mocking lds priesthood
The list goes on and on. BYU fans feel that when LDS Ute fans see other ute fans tailgating and mocking mormons in games that aren’t even against BYU they should say something.
Bullying
As I mentioned in the Ute section, kids who are ute fans often feel excluded. Then they feel justified in bullying. There are five kids in my family (my siblings and I) and we were all bullied to the point of tears regularly for being BYU fans by Ute fans. (I am sure there are stories going both ways here.) Even today, it doesn’t matter where I am, if there is a Utah fan, they will get in my face with the U sign and yell. It doesn’t even matter if they are successful in their life other wise.
In short, both sides feel slighted by the other. Both sides feel taken advantage of. Again, because of the proximity, we are all next door neighbors.
The Outbursts
As you can imagine, there have been several outbursts over the years. The most famous BYU outburst was Max Hall.
Utah Fans have made shirts that say “Max Hates me” and BYU fans have them that say "Max was Right
Then you have current head coach in waiting at Utah, Morgan Scalley.
https://x.com/Samsworth_TV/status/1852234231411560493
You also have Alex Smith saying “I’m much more into it this year,” Smith says. “I really hate them. Playing in the game helped me understand. They are the most arrogant people. It’s the whole church and state thing. They’re the ‘good kids’. We’re the ‘bad kids.’ I didn’t feel it in my gut last year like I do now.”
Along with plenty of other outbursts.
From this first part, the big take away is that Utah fans don’t like BYU fans as people, and BYU fans return in kind. Utah fans feel disrespected and excluded, and BYU fans feel Utah fans lash out like children.
Part two will be posted in this thread… as soon as I finish typing it. We are just getting started.
