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Utah Utes football: Coaches mourn passing of Elder Wirthlin

Great story...Elder Wirthlin was truly an inspiration to many.

truly a utah man. elder wirthlin will be missed

Elder Wirthlin truly impacted many lives!

What a great man! What a great UTE! Now this apostle of the Lord will have to cheer the UTES on from a new place and with a new perspective, but I doubt his love and enthusiasm for the Utah football team will change. I'm sure Coach Whittingham is sincere when he says he will miss Elder Wirthlin.

Elder Worthlin is truly a sublime man. There isn't anything negative about him; he had a special capacity to love.

He is a great Apostle of Jesus Christ. I agree with everyone that Elder Wirthlin was a great man and taught many correct principles. I'm just as confident that he would not be down taunting the opposing team or fans, win or loose.

I believe he encouraged coaches, players, and fans to rise above such stupidity.

While he would be humiliated with all the attention which is drawn to him now I believe he would be resolute in his affirmation that inappropriate behavior should not take place anywhere including the moments of jubilation for winning the game or disappointment for loosing.

I believe he would expect something to be done about it. It won't get done if we don't learn from him and do it. I'm sure he would smile from above if change happened.

May our thoughts and prayers be with his family.

A great man, and a great Utah fan.

I think that it is time BYU fans stop stereo-typing us Utah fans in the negative ways they do.

Elder Wirthlin is truly a perfect example of a respectful, class-act, Utah fan. There are many more of us out there who are comparitive with that.

We do not all show up to the games intoxicated. A large percentage of Utah fans are in the same church buildings every Sunday as BYU fans.

I only hope BYU fans can rise above to a more mature level, and not judge a fan base as a whole, but learn to know an individual before you go so far as to judge them.

Elder Wirthlin was a great man, who inspired so many lives over the years. May he always be remembered as the great Utah Football Fan/Supporter he was, and supporter of University of Utah Athletics he was, and first and foremost as the example he was to so many.

I didn't know that Elder Wirthlin was a Ute. That's a cool thing to learn about him.

I wish all who knew him well.

I have to agree that there is a common Ute fan stereotype. Though I think it�s only by BYU fans that we are considered the "drunken bad seed". The rest of the country thinks the opposite, that everyone in Utah is Mormon. Oh well.

But as this story proves, we're a pretty wide mix of fans. Unfortunately, some fans of every team can be idiots, drunk or sober. And some people don't know that being passionate about your team doesn't mean you have to be offensive.

Anyway as Elder Wirthlin has probably uttered many a time, GO UTES!

I didn't know this. Cool. Thanks for reporting it.