2009 Utah sports stories of the year

For Utah sports fans, 2009 was a year of tragedy and triumph on and off the playing surfaces. It featured entertainment, emotion and execution ... rantings and ravings, even rants about ranting ... soap operas and soap boxes ... cheers, jeers, tears and talk about spilled beers ... heroes, both made and honored ... hair-raising and hair-pulling drama ... and plenty of — to borrow a phrase — you've-gotta-love-it-baby! moments. Here's what we'll remember most:

1. Utah's sweet Sugar Bowl win

This time the BCS Buster the University of Utah didn't have the glamour-boy coach, and the Utes weren't playing an inferior opponent from the Big Least, er, East. This trip had the U. in the vaunted Sugar Bowl against highly touted Alabama, so a win couldn't be viewed as a once-in-a-lifetime fluke.

Roll Tide?

Yep, that's exactly what Utah did in winning its second big-boy bowl game in five years.

The Big Easy?

Though denied a shot at the national championship, the Utes sure made playing against this SEC power look that way in New Orleans where they stunned the college football world by steamrolling No. 4 Alabama, 31-17.

The blowout capped a 13-0 season for Utah and gave the anti-BCS crowd — aka pro-college football fairness and playoff advocates — such as Sen. Orrin Hatch even more ammunition to fight the tainted system. The party carried over from Bourbon Street to the Beehive State. Kyle Whittingham was named national coach of the year, the Utes were honored as heroes with a parade in Salt Lake City, and quarterback Brian Johnson even earned himself a coveted spot on a college football video game cover.

The win happened on Jan. 2, but it was big enough to keep people reminiscing and reveling all year long. Meanwhile, the 2009 Utes had the nation's longest winning streak of 16 games snapped in the fall to eventual Pac-10 Oregon. But they put a bow on their gift to U. fans by winning their ninth straight bowl game, this time vs. Cal in the Poinsettia Bowl.

2. Larry H. Miller passes away

Yes, we knew that guy — and that's part of the reason the death of the Utah Jazz owner felt like a personal loss to so many in the state.