Kimball's were the hands that heal

Have you ever run into another human who inexplicably radiated warmth, like they somehow chipped off the sun and plopped it here on earth still glowing?

Well, Rod Kimball was that kind of man. He made you feel better than you were, like you were the only one in the room, that you mattered, that what you did was something special.

Rod Kimball passed away Saturday. He was a month short of his 97th birthday. The last time I saw him was December 2003 in his assisted living apartment in Orem. I wish it had been yesterday.

Rod Kimball worked as BYU's athletic trainer from 1937 to 1975. He had bouts as equipment manager, helped irrigate practice fields and did just about anything else somebody asked him to cover.

His wife, Florence, told me, "When I married Rod, he replaced the two hot water bottles I took to bed at night. He has hands that heal."

Kimball's hands were instruments that worked the tape, gauze and ice on the biggest names in BYU sports history, prior to retiring just when Gifford Nielsen came to prominence as a Cougar quarterback.

Said Nielsen: "He taped my ankles every day and looked into my eyes, and he'd say with that little smile, 'Go your way and sin no more. Remember the NFL is the tool of the devil, but you'll be OK."'

Kimball worked on NCAA rushing leader Pete Van Valkenburg, Eldon "The Phantom" Forte, Phil Odle and all the great track all-Americans, including Clarence Robison. He's outlived many of his contemporaries on the staff — his brother Eddie (a BYU football coach from 1937-41 and 1946-48), his good friend Stan Watts, the legendary Kresimir Cosic, football coach Floyd Millett, coach Chick Atkinson and the legendary back scenes manager Floyd Johnson.

Former BYU athletic director Glen Tuckett started working with Kimball in 1959 and shared a room with him on road trips as head baseball coach.

"I have never known a better man than Rod Kimball," Tuckett said. "He was beloved and respected and will long be remembered, by all who knew him, as the heart and soul of Brigham Young University athletics.

"He could do more coaching and inspiring while taping a player's ankles than we coaches could do in a season. If BYU athletics were to create a Mt. Rushmore, the bust of Rod Kimball would be at the summit. We can never fill his shoes, but it behooves us to try to follow in his footsteps."

Tuckett said the world is running out of special people like Kimball.