By Richard Evans
The Daily Universe celebrates 50 years
For Daily Universe readers in 1984, Scott Pierce?s name was as much a part of BYU?s only national championship in football as those of LaVell Edwards and Robbie Bosco.
Well, almost.
Pierce was the Universe?s sports editor in ?84, and as such covered the Cougars? march to an unprecedented No. 1 ranking and consensus national crown. He and the rest of the Universe?s sports staff covered the entire campaign, from the WAC preseason media conference in August to the Holiday Bowl victory over Michigan ? even if they couldn?t report that result until more than two weeks later, thanks to Christmas vacation.
A review of the Universe?s coverage that season reveals that while BYU was expected to win a ninth straight conference title, no one was talking national honors as the season got under way. The Cougars weren?t ranked on the preseason AP and UPI polls, and they even got one second-place vote in balloting by the league?s coaches.
What launched BYU into the national picture was a season-opening upset victory over No. 3-ranked Pittsburgh on the road. Besides vaulting the Cougars to No. 12 on the UPI poll and No. 13 on the AP, it answered questions about the team?s new quarterback, Bosco.
A Daily Universe photo caption after that game read: ?Cougar signal-caller Robbie Bosco proved worthy of the hallowed title of ?BYU quarterback? as he passed for more than 300 yards and earned player-of-the-game honors.?
In their next two games the Cougars pounded Baylor, 47-13, and Tulsa, 38-15
, efforts that resulted in a No. 4 UPI ranking ? the highest ever for a BYU team.
Those victories also prompted Troy Steiner, Universe assistant sports editor, to offer the first mention of possible future glory. On Sept. 18 he wrote: ?As the BYU football team continues its march down the yellow brick road in its ruby red slippers, the commendations keep coming. The possibility of a national championship coming to Provo is already being kicked around ??
Predictably, Edwards warned that it was ?too early to tell. It?s too early to worry about position.?
And Bosco, already showing a good handle on the sports clich?, said, ?We?ll just take one game at a time.?
Pierce, longtime TV critic for the Deseret Morning News, said it was hard to take the early hoopla seriously.
?Frankly, I don?t think we really believed it ? until maybe the last couple weeks,? he said.
All the speculation may have had an effect on the team, however, for it turned in what Steiner described as a ?lackadaisical? effort in its next game, a four-point victory over Hawaii. That performance gave UPI voters a chance to pull the reins in on the Cougs, which they did, dropping them back to No. 8.
It also prompted an editorial in the Daily Universe, warning readers to ?Keep Y football in perspective.? It read, in part: ? ?Cougar craziness? has hit BYU. The success of the Cougar football team is the biggest thing to hit campus since Miss America. But with success comes danger. The emphasis on football could overshadow the academic atmosphere of the university.?
After a bye week in which to contemplate its perspective, the Cougars next spent General Conference Saturday in Fort Collins, Colo., handing Colorado State a 52-9 whipping. Pierce wrote of that occasion: ?The BYU offense ? looked like it was scrimmaging a high school team.? (Incidentally, Edwards hustled back from that shellacking to speak at Saturday night?s priesthood session.)
Just a few weeks into the season the WAC already looked awful, a fact Pierce underscored by writing: ?Without BYU, the WAC would have all the glamour of the Big Sky (Conference).?
Next up for BYU was a narrow escape against Wyoming in Provo, 41-38, followed by another close call, 30-25, over Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colo. A week later BYU reached No. 4 in the polls again after blasting New Mexico, 48-0.
Universe sports writer Margaret Hammerland wrote of the Lobo debacle: ?New Mexico ran out on the field sporting gaudy all-red uniforms, but that was the only surprise the Lobos were able to spring on the Cougars.?
With a 42-9 romp over UTEP, BYU clinched the WAC title and secured a berth in its seventh straight Holiday Bowl. And, finally, Edwards felt comfortable talking national title.
Universe sports writer Tom Walton quoted Edwards saying: ?We will now have to rethink our goals. We are now in a position where we can vie for the national title ? ?
The Cougars, then ranked No. 4, still had two WAC games remaining and ground to make up in the polls. A 34-3 walloping of San Diego State, coupled with losses by No. 1 Washington and No. 2 Texas, raised them just a notch, to No. 3. Ahead of them in the polls were new No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 South Carolina, while ahead of them on the schedule was arch-rival Utah.
The annual rivalry game had all the usual buildup, including Pierce?s prediction of a 45-20 BYU win and a 35-0 Utah victory forecast by Utah Daily Chronicle sports editor Mark Saal.
Pierce wrote that Ute fans might want to ?root for the Cougars to hit No. 1 in the polls, so they can say they?ve been beaten by the best.?
The game was closer than predicted but still ended up in a 24-14 BYU victory. Even better, on the postgame bus ride back to Provo, the BYU contingent heard that Nebraska had lost.
?The whole bus erupted in cheers,? Cougar center Trevor Matich told the Universe. ?There were high-fives every which way. It was electric.?
Pierce recalls being in the BYU football office when the news came through that the Cougs had reached No. 1. ?I remember (BYU lineman) Jim Herrmann saying to me, I swear to you, ?Now you?re sports editor to the stars,? ? Pierce said.
On Nov. 19 the football team made the front page of the Daily Universe for the first time since the season-opener, with a top-of-the-page headline that read: ?Y gridders bust Runnin? Utes.? The next day they dominated page 1 again, because South Carolina also had lost and BYU was No. 1 AP, No. 1 UPI and No. 1 just about every other poll on the planet.
Pierce wrote: ?The BYU football team is the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.
?That may be the most amazing statement ever printed in The Daily Universe.?
In their regular-season finale, the Cougars steamrolled Utah State, 38-13. But that result took a backseat to BYU fan indignation over the fact their undefeated, No. 1 team would have to face a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl. The outcry only increased when several national critics made light of what they perceived as a bogus ranking for BYU, an attitude typified by broadcaster Bryant Gumbel?s reference to BYU?s typical opponent as ?Bo Diddly Tech.?
?It was a lot of fun, but you almost felt defensive about it the whole time,? Pierce said.
The last Universe of 1984 hit the streets on Dec. 11, with a preview of the Dec. 21 Holiday Bowl. Ten days later, BYU knocked off Michigan, 24-17. When the first Universe of 1985 came out, on Jan. 8, the top of page 1 read: ?Y wins national championship.?
In the lead story, Pierce wrote: ?The votes are in. The ballots have been counted and the winner is ? the BYU football team, 1984?s consensus national champion.
?Despite the whiners and moaners complaining about everything from BYU?s schedule to its margin of victory in the Holiday Bowl, the Cougars concluded the season on top of almost every poll.?
Looking back now, and in light of subsequent events, Pierce said there shouldn?t be a debate over whether they deserved to be champs.
?I wouldn?t even say they were the best BYU team ever,? he said, ?but they were the luckiest, and you have to have some luck, too.?
Lucky or not, BYU football had its crowning moment in 1984 ? a moment covered and chronicled every step of the way by another BYU institution, The Daily Universe.