From Deseret News archives:
BYU's pregame firesides catching on
But when spiffied up in a suit, shirt and tie instead of pads and a helmet like he was in Orem Sunday night, and his angelic voice is melodically belting out the words of Janice Kapp Perry's religious canticle "Learn of Me," even the most hardened agnostic can get a chill to the soul.
Star running back Harvey Unga, another freshman, gets up and delivers a sermon on forgiveness for self and others. His tone is full of humility as he calls his father, Jackson, the kindest, most forgiving man he knows.
Kahaialii's touching refrain. Unga's plea. All a design by BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall to put the wheels of BYU's program on firm pavement and cleats of players on grounded soil.
It's the fireside program, a way for players to explore who they really are and share experiences in public. While Sunday's fireside was not part of Mendenhall's formal night before the past 28 games, it was his guys, doing what they do.
A major part of this story of mixing football and what makes the Cougars tick is chronicled in a new DVD entitled "Tradition, Spirit, Honor," distributed by Deseret Book.
"If the spiritual nature that we carry with us isn't first and foremost in our lives, then I don't think our priorities are correct," Mendenhall is quoted saying on the cover.
The DVD, which lasts 40 minutes, involves segments with LaVell Edwards and 2006 stars John Beck, Cameron Jensen, Jonny Harline and Curtis Brown.
"Football does mirror life," said Edwards, who points to ebb and flow of life with its ups and downs as a familiar parallel to the game. It doesn't hurt to have an anchor for both.
That may be the exact experience of Mendenhall and the BYU team, once mired in subpar seasons from 2002 to 2005.
It all started two years ago, about this time of the year, after the rookie coach experienced an emotional 51-50 BYU overtime loss to TCU in Provo. The next week the team left for San Diego unprepared emotionally and mentally, minds still on the TCU loss, and they promptly lost to the Aztecs 31-10.
Mendenhall says the 2005 SDSU game made his staff and players grow up. It was in that game he took his greatest stride as a rookie head coach, the time of his greatest self-evaluation. That week also marked the last time Mendenhall let somebody reject something he felt as inspiration.
Leading up to that Aztec game, Mendenhall contemplated how BYU's roster listed nearly 70 former LDS missionaries who'd lived in every corner of the world and how he could use that to build character and serve others.
