When thinking of the greatest players in all of sports, every one of them has had their story told through podcasts, documentaries, or books that help see who they were on and off the field.
LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Deion Sanders, Tom Brady, the list goes on.
For BYU, one of the greatest athletes to ever play was Ty Detmer.
For the many people who were not around during his heyday back in 1990, they have the same questions about Ty and his magical season.
What was it really like to be around Ty Detmer during his 1990 Heisman season?
Winning the Heisman trophy is one of the peak accolades in all of college football, along with a national championship. Only 78 players have won the Heisman Trophy out of the nearly 80,000 players that ever played college football.
Detmer was one of them and represents BYU as one of the greatest athletes to ever come from the university.
Some players and coaches, who were closest with Detmer at the time, and saw who he was on and off the field.
‘Goofy’ but competitive
The BYU quarterbacks coach in 1990 for Detmer was Robbie Bosco. Bosco was also an assistant for BYU the year prior, and this is where Bosco and Ty connected the most.
Bosco recalled how positive, yet competitive, Detmer was during his season. Detmer kept his players accountable, but was still able to have fun in film, calling out funny plays within each and every play.
When Bosco described who Detmer was as a person, one word stood out.
Goofy.
“Ty would have fun during practice, fun during film study, but when the game came, it was all business,” said Bosco. “He’d be prepared, and all the team loved him. He found a way to do it in a good way, in a fun way, and everybody loved him and appreciated him.”
Detmer was “all business,” but that doesn't mean he wasn’t chirping his offensive tackles when they would slip and take a funny fall. Or when a wide receiver has a “blooper” of a play. Detmer would uplift in a way that made the team better, but through humor.
Team chemistry and paintball wars
The fun Detmer had was beyond football itself.
Neal Fort, BYU’s offensive tackle in 1990, recalled a story between Detmer and Fort and many other teammates one weekend.
Fort and Detmer’s group wanted to go paintballing one weekend down in the Spanish Fork Canyon. Ty loved to hunt and was a very accurate shooter, so Detmer, Fort, and a few of his friends were in one car, and the rest were in the other car.
While riding up the highway, Detmer would start shooting his paintball gun at the other car full of his friends.
“The cars were getting tattooed with paintballs,” Fort recalled. “It was chaos before we even got there.”
Fort continued that it was not only the outside but the inside of the vehicle as well.
Fort mentioned how Detmer loved goofy things, similar to the paintball story. He loved to goof with teammates on and off the field, but it created a sense of love and care for his team.
“Ty was high on life,” Fort said. “He loved life, including hunting and fishing. Those were his two things that he always loved to do.” Fort continued. “He was just one of those guys who just were fun to be around and you love playing for him.”
Cold games and harder hits
Fort also recalled another story during the 1990 season, when BYU played at Air Force in the beginning of November. Fort mentioned that it was extremely cold and hard to feel certain parts of your body at times on the field.
“It was snowing, and it was cold, brutally cold,” Fort recalled. “They had the field where the [snow] would melt, but it didn’t matter.”
After BYU scored a touchdown, the team would run onto the sideline, and Detmer would run behind his teammates and smack them hard in the rear end.
With it being very cold, this would not be a very nice feeling.
“Your butt is just frozen, and he would smack you as hard as he can,” Fort said. “[Detmer] running from a 40-yard dash, smacks you.”
The repercussions of Detmer’s smacking were underestimated, and Fort and many of his teammates would have to deal with Detmer’s fun gesture.
“You would get a massive welt from a handprint on your rear end, and that’s just who [Detmer] was,” Fort said. “He would just do stupid stuff like that all the time, and he was just a big kid and just being one of those guys. Doing fun like that and just loving life.”
A calculated prankster
Not only was Detmer goofy, but Brad Clark, BYU’s defensive back and running back during the 1990 season, said that Detmer was a prankster.
“We had an interesting relationship,” Clark said. “He was actually a pretty good prankster, so were were continuously doing different things on road trips. He might put some water in the trash can and lean it up against the door. [Detmer] would knock on your door, and you open the door, and the water comes out.”
Clark mentioned that these pranks on road trips would be fun and connect the team together, and ultimately create a team that was ready for game time.
Clark also highlighted how, although Detmer was extremely fun and playful, when it came to the game, he was humble.
“[Detmer] was competitive, but he was humble, so when he would get on his players, you know, on offense when they weren’t stepping up and doing stuff, they respected it,” said Clark. “He put in the work, he put in the time as well, so it wasn’t like he was talking down to them. [Detmer] was trying to fire them up.”
Detmer was a competitor, but when it came to uplifting his team, he did so in a humble, natural way.
Family and faith
Detmer was also a family man and put them first after getting married in 1991.
“The biggest thing for [Detmer] was his family before anything else,” Bosco recalled. “Once he got married and started having children, that was the most important thing to [Detmer]."
Detmer not only loved his family, but his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints changed him as well.
Detmer came to BYU as a nonmember of The Church, and as he grew through BYU, he would eventually be baptized and eventually sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.
Detmer’s conversion would have a profound impact on his teammates, community, and family.
“To see him grow in the gospel is probably the thing that I admire the most about him,” Bosco said. “As he continues to serve people and serve others, and just be an outstanding individual in his community.”
More than a quarterback
It is clear that Ty Detmer was more than just a football player. Detmer was a family man, a goofball, and a disciple of Jesus Christ told through his teammates and coaches who knew him best.
Knowing who Ty Detmer is and his true personality, it ultimately helps shape the legend that Ty truly is to BYU and helps understand why he and his legendary 1990 Heisman season matter so much to BYU’s fans and the university as a whole.