For LaVell and Patti Edwards, it's all about service

Devoid of ego that seemingly rules the day in college football circles, LaVell and Patti are in a class by themselves. Even those who can't stand BYU have a tough time not respecting this couple because they transcend rivalries and the dust that gets on shoes as fans trample through the gates on the way to live-or-die games.

Toward the end of Edwards' coaching career, he had health issues that made it tough to stand for a two-hour practice so he sat some of the time in a golf cart. He wasn't so "locked away" that a reporter couldn't approach him, lean against the cart and ask a question or share a joke.

One of the more striking strands of the LaVell and Patti brand I sampled firsthand back in 1979 when I'd just joined the Daily Herald in Provo, working as a police reporter and helping with sports. Patti wrote a column for then-sports editor, Marion Dunn. I barely had a relationship with the head coach after covering football as a college newspaper sports editor two years prior.

On Oct. 9, the week of the Utah State-BYU game, my second son, Jeff, age 2, was hit by a truck while playing in front of my mother-in-law's house in Orem. He died instantly.

Needless to say, that was a devastating time for my wife and me. Hurt, confused, seriously tested and broken after that Tuesday tragedy, we somehow rambled through that week of tears and heartache. Thursday night at the viewing before Friday's funeral, there in a greeting line of comfort at Berg's Funeral Home stood LaVell and Patti Edwards.

Surely, in a game week, they had something more pressing to do with their time.

Or not.

Talking to Lewis on Monday, I told this "presenter" of LaVell and Patti Edwards of this memory and explained how impressed I was at this simple handshake of reassurance and comfort at a funeral home 30 years ago.

It is something I'll never forget, and it had nothing to do with football.

It is simply the best way I describe the LaVell and Patti brand.

E-MAIL: dharmon@desnews.com