Utah Utes football: Mr. Bean did a great job helping injured heal

You treat 4,000-5,000 athletes in your career, there are anomalies. One of the toughest guys Bean met was when he was working for the Stars. Ron Boone, now a Jazz TV commentator, was what Bean terms "tissue tough."

Boone once sustained a thigh contusion, an injury that can keep players out weeks; he didn't even check out of the game.

Ute skier Jan Bjorkheim had a resting heart rate of 38 — half that of a normal, healthy adult. He could make climbing Agony Hill behind the medical center center look like he was riding an escalator.

As head trainer, Bean didn't work every sport, but he oversaw them all. From a staff of two full-time trainers and one grad student when he arrived, his group grew to five full-time trainers, 12 certified graduate trainers and 30-40 other grad students.

On one hand, a trainer's upclose involvement is fulfilling. On the other side, you have to re-prove yourself with every new coach.

Bean considers former football coach Urban Meyer "the most difficult and the most enjoyable" coach he ever encountered.

"He didn't have an 'off' button," said Bean.

During vacation at Idaho's Red Fish Lake one summer, Bean got a call from Meyer.

"He was ticked I was on vacation," Bean said. "And I'd even told him beforehand I was coming."

But, he said, Meyer "made us much better; he brought big-time football to Utah."

Bean's three-decade career included countless games against college football's great and small. Games at Louisiana State, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, home contests against Idaho State and Weber State. Twenty or so trips to Hawaii, one to Tokyo and a conference in Jordan.

Not to mention the annual death duel with BYU.

There were also seven-day workweeks that lasted from August to April.

Will he miss it?

"I won't miss the long hours or seeing young athletes get hurt," he said. "But I'll miss the camaraderie."

All those years in the body repair business, and look who's feeling the pain now.

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com