Food bank is winner in University of Utah-BYU rivalry

SOUTH SALT LAKE — Oh, and one more thing about that bitter, enmity-fueled football rivalry between the University of Utah and BYU.

This year the feud is feeding the poor in record numbers.

Results of the food drive that annually accompanies the football game were announced this week by the Utah Food Bank.

Utah supporters delivered 232,767 pounds of food and $60,228 in cash donations while BYU supporters contributed 162,318 pounds of food and $55,285.

When you figure that every dollar translates to roughly five pounds of food, the grand grand total for this year's drive is just a couple of cans of green beans shy of 1 million pounds of food for Utah's needy.

Talk about a healthy competition.

The game ended two weeks ago. It took them this long to add it all up.

Out at the Utah Food Bank they're ecstatic. They just opened their new warehouse — at 86,000 square feet it's almost double the size of the old facility — and the shelves are now full of evidence of just how far Utah and BYU supporters will go to secure bragging rights, in pretty much anything, for a year.

"We love the rivalry," said Jim Pugh, Utah Food Bank executive director. "We root for both sides."

The annual food drive competition began 15 years ago when the alumni associations of both schools got together and decided it would be a good idea to generate good will out of bad blood.

The totals in both cash and food have steadily risen through the years.

But nothing like this year.

In money alone, contributions were up more than $35,000, surpassing $100,000 for the first time.

The University of Utah made the biggest gains, and according to John Fackler, the alumni association's food drive coordinator there, that was no fluke.

"BYU has traditionally clobbered us in food and we would beat them in money," explained Fackler. "Last year we worked hard to beat them in food and they beat us in money. So this year we decided to work hard at everything."

It marked the first time Utah has swept both categories.

"We were hoping for a complete sweep," said Fackler, lamenting the outcome of the actual game, which BYU won this year in overtime. "But we came up just one missed tackle short."