The Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars and the University of Utah (Utah) Utes have a longstanding intercollegiate rivalry. The annual college football game is frequently referred to as the Holy War. In the 1890s, when BYU was still known as Brigham Young Academy (BYA), the two schools started competing athletically. The schools have met continually since 1909 in men's basketball, and met once a year in football from 1922 to 2013, with the exception of 1943–45 when BYU did not field a team due to World War II. Both schools formerly competed in the Mountain West Conference, but both teams left the MWC in 2011—Utah joined the Pac-12 Conference and BYU became a football independent while joining the West Coast Conference for other sports. Both teams currently compete in the Big 12 Conference, with BYU joining in 2023 and Utah being added to the conference in 2024.
There are several conditions which foster the rivalry: proximity of the two schools, successes of the academics and athletic teams, and religion. BYU is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), while Utah is a secular institution and the flagship university of the state's System of Higher Education.
History In 1895, BYA and the University of Utah met for the first sporting event between the two schools: a baseball game. The scoreless match ended with a bench-clearing brawl, and a rivalry was born.
The early years Unsurprisingly, the history of the BYU–Utah rivalry is also in dispute. Utah claims that the football rivalry began in the late 19th century, when Utah played BYA six times between 1896 and 1899. BYU does not count these games in their official records, since it was not then known as BYU, but BYA. Furthermore, BYU asserts that the first of those football games, a 12–4 Utah victory in April 1896, was in actuality a practice-scrimmage to prepare for the following fall season. But whether or not the game meant anything to the schools at the time, it certainly meant a great deal to the fans. At the end of the match, a fight broke out between fans of the two schools.
Through most of its history, this rivalry was classified as mainly a basketball rivalry. Though the schools have regularly played each other in football since at least 1922, the football aspect (known as the “Holy War”) was very one-sided. Utah dominated from the start and even with the resurgence of BYU football in the 1970s, Utah still has a large overall lead in the series. Not counting the disputed games involving BYA, Utah won the first six meetings by a combined score of 186–13. And by 1941, Utah led the series-record 17–0, with 3 ties. BYU finally earned its first victory of the rivalry in 1942, but wouldn't win another until 1958. By 1964, Utah had extended its record against BYU to 34–2, with 4 ties.
On the other hand, the basketball aspect of the rivalry was very competitive from its beginning in 1909. BYU won the first eight meetings, and by an average margin of about 12 points (including a 32–9 victory in the first game). After that though, neither team would win more than 4 straight until 1938; an impressive statistic considering that the teams would often play 4–5 times per season back then. The series remained close, and from 1939 to 1971, Utah won 37 of the meetings and BYU won 36.
During the early years of the rivalry, only Utah enjoyed basketball success on the national level. Utah won a National Championship in 1944, reached the Final Four in 1961 and 1966, and won the NIT Tournament in 1947. BYU won the NIT twice: in 1951, and again in 1966, when the NIT was still considered at least equal to, if not better than, the NCAA basketball tournament.
The rise of BYU football During the 1970s and 80s, the basketball side of the rivalry remained close, with Utah winning 21 games and BYU winning 19. Meanwhile, the football side also began to intensify. In 1972, BYU hired a new head football coach, LaVell Edwards. In Edwards’ first season at the helm, BYU defeated Utah for the first time in five years. In 1974, BYU was invited to their first ever bowl game, after winning the conference championship for the second time ever. BYU also began to annually dominate Utah, who was experiencing a series of losing seasons and coaching changes. By 1976, Edwards had compiled a 5–0 record against the Utes.
In 1977, Utah hired a new coach of their own, Wayne Howard. That year, BYU soundly beat Utah 38–8 in Provo. With less than two minutes left, BYU's star QB, Marc Wilson, was sent back into the game to set an NCAA passing record and rack up an astounding 571 passing yards. In his post-game remarks to the press, Howard accused Edwards of running up the score, and was quoted as saying:
"This today will be inspiring. The hatred between BYU and Utah is nothing compared to what it will be. It will be a crusade to beat BYU from now on. This is a prediction: In the next two years Utah will drill BYU someday, but we won’t run up the score even if we could set an NCAA record against them."
Howard was able to lead Utah to victory over the Cougars the next year, but it would be his only time, and Utah's only victory over BYU in a 16-year period. Howard continued to have an intensity toward the rivalry, but retired from coaching after the 1981 season.
BYU went on to make a major impact on the national level. From 1979 to 1992, BYU went 13–1 against the Utes, won 11 conference championships, and a national championship in 1984. Utah's lone football victory over the Cougars during this period came in 1988.
As the football rivalry intensified, the emotion carried over into other sports. For instance, during a baseball game in the mid-1980s, BYU players taunted the Ute pitcher. The pitcher reacted by throwing a fastball into the Cougar dugout, igniting a bench-clearing brawl.
As the 1990s began, BYU's football program's success began to lessen, although from 1989 to 1996, BYU won at least a share of the WAC championship every year but one (1994, in which Utah ended the season in the top 10).
In 1996, Edwards assembled one of his best teams: winning 14 games, finishing the season #5 in both major polls, and with a thrilling victory over Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl Classic. That season, the Cougars snapped their 3-game losing streak to Utah, who had started to field a competitive team under the leadership of Coach Ron McBride. Under McBride, (hired in 1990), Utah found more success in football. In 1994, they compiled a 10–2 record, beat BYU, beat Arizona in the Freedom Bowl, and finished the season ranked No. 8 in the Coaches Poll.
The resurgence of Utah basketball In the meantime, the basketball rivalry remained just as competitive as ever. In 1989, BYU and Utah each hired new head basketball coaches, Roger Reid and Rick Majerus respectively. These two coaches brought their colorful, and often controversial, personalities to an already-lively rivalry.
These coaches also had considerable success during their tenures. During Reid's seven-year term as coach, BYU won two WAC titles, played in five NCAA Tournaments, and one NIT.
In the fifteen head-to-head meetings involving these two coaches, Reid's teams won eight games, and Majerus’ teams won seven. However, Majerus would go on to have a much better career overall. In Majerus’ 12 full seasons as Utah coach, the Utes made 11 post-season appearances, including four Sweet Sixteens, and a Final Four in 1998. That year, the Utes lost to Kentucky in the championship game after holding a double-digit halftime lead.
Utah's resurgence to national basketball prominence, and BYU's struggles in the late 1990s, are illustrated by the fact that from 1995 to 2000, the Utes beat the Cougars 12 straight times. Additionally, BYU never won a game at Utah between 1994 and 2006. This resurgence was short-lived, however. Since 2006, BYU owns a 10–4 record against Utah in men's basketball.
The present
In the 2000s, BYU and Utah have each found themselves in the spotlight again. Especially in football, where several meetings have had important MWC, if not national, implications. In 2001, BYU came within a single game of making the case to become the first BCS non-AQ conference team to deserve a BCS bowl bid. Their near-perfect season included a thrilling 24–21 come-from-behind victory over the Utes on national television. Three years later, BYU and Utah met with a BCS invite again on the line, but this time it was Utah who was looking to cap off a perfect season. Under second-year head coach Urban Meyer, and future first overall draft selection Alex Smith at QB, the Utes beat the Cougars 52–21, and clinched a bid to the Fiesta Bowl. ESPN sent their College GameDay crew out to Salt Lake to highlight the event.
In November 2005, The Wall Street Journal ranked the BYU-Utah football rivalry as the fourth-best in the country.
On the basketball front, both schools regularly compete for the conference championship and post-season berths. Furthermore, the rivalry has featured such players as NBA lottery pick Rafael Araújo and the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Jimmer Fredette for BYU, and NBA #1 Pick Andrew Bogut for Utah. To commemorate the rivalry, Utah's former coach, Ray Giacoletti was known to wear a red sports jacket (the "Giac-et") during each meeting.
And while the on-court intensity remains with the rivalry, off-court controversy is seemingly ever-present as well. In April 2004, eight Utah baseball players hiked onto the hillside above BYU's campus where lies a large concrete "Y." The players then painted the landmark red, and proceeded to take pictures of themselves in front of their handiwork. Ten days later, an employee of a discount store in Salt Lake notified the police that a customer had recently developed pictures of himself and friends in front of the painted "Y." The customer happened to be Ute pitcher Ryan Breska, and the store employee happened to be a BYU fan. When Breska returned to pick up his photos, police were waiting to arrest him. Breska and the rest of "The Utah 8" (as they became known) were charged with second-degree felony mischief, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. After much media publicity and public debate, authorities in Provo agreed to reduce the charges to class B misdemeanors and a fine of $6,267.20.
The matches have proved to be so intensive and compelling that in 2008 Deseret First Credit Union decided to sponsor the matches between the two schools, with the winning school being award a trophy at the end of each year. The event awards points for each head-to-head winner of the two schools across 12 sports: football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's swimming, women's gymnastics, men's and women's tennis, baseball, softball, women's soccer, and women's volleyball. These 12 sports encompass the Deseret First Duel. The schools face off in regular season matches. The winner of each match is awarded 3 points as part of the Deseret First Duel scoring system, with the exception of football and men's basketball, where the winner gets 10 points. (The point system was altered prior to 2017, giving basketball winners just 3 points and football winners just 5 points.) Since the conception of the duel in 2008, Utah now leads the series, with seven titles to five for BYU. BYU won in 2008, and Utah won in 2009. Then the schools each won three years in a row, with BYU winning the title in 2010–2012, and Utah winning in 2013–2015. In 2016 and 2017, the two schools traded victories once again. Utah won again in 2018 and 2019, and has now won 6 of the last 7 Deseret Duel titles.