What it Means to be a Cougar

Lavell Edwards, Bronco Mendenhall and Brigham Young University's Greatest Players

Triumph Books

Contents

The Twenties Through the Forties

Edwin "Eddie" Kimball
Lineman
1922–1925
Head Coach
1937–1941 * 1946–1948
Athletics Director
1937–1941 * 1946–1963

I owe so much to BYU. I got a great education. It's where I met my wife, Althea. It's where I spent the majority of my professional life.

I came to BYU as a student in 1922, but I had intended to go to the University of Utah. My mother drove me from Draper to Utah's campus in a buggy, so I could register for classes. I stood in lines all day and didn't get registered. On the way home that night, I decided I didn't want any more of that.

Bob Howard, who I had played football with at Jordan High School, had come to BYU. The next morning I asked my mom if she would drive me to the train station. She asked me why. I said, "So I can catch the train to Provo. I want to go to BYU." She cried for three or four minutes. Finally I said, "What's the matter? I thought you wanted me to go to BYU."

She said, "I do, that's what I'm crying about. I'm overjoyed you're going to BYU." The next morning I caught the train to Provo and registered at BYU.

I was the oldest boy. We had a farm in Draper growing beets. When I talked with my father about going to school, I didn't ask how much he could help me. I asked if he could spare me on the farm. I'd been working on the railroad and had saved enough money for tuition, books, and one month's rent. I also joined the National Guard, and we'd receive $12.50 a month. Room and board was $15, so I had another job to make up the difference.

When I came to BYU, I weighed 133 pounds, but I'd worked on a farm pitching hay, topping beets, and loading wagons. In those days we worked from daylight until dark, so I was in good condition.

Football had been discontinued at BYU in the late 1890s. The year before I arrived, they started a freshman squad and played a small schedule. My first year at BYU, E.L. Roberts was our coach. Roberts received word that spring that we were officially cleared to have football again at BYU. So he went and spent some time, about three weeks, with Knute Rockne at Notre Dame.

BYU started school two weeks before Utah, so I was actually late starting school when I got there. They had already chosen players for the freshman team. They allowed me to participate in the drills, but I didn't practice much. All the equipment was handed out, so I got what was left over, including my cleats, which were about two sizes too big.

My break came in a scrimmage against the varsity. Football was new, and the varsity only had six scheduled games, so they scrimmaged the freshmen on three separate Saturdays. The varsity was killing us, running on the right side. In the second half, Coach Roberts told me, "Get in there and stop them."

My parents had always taught me to be prepared for the chance when it comes. We did a lot better in the second half, and after the game Coach Roberts told me I had earned a spot on the freshman team. I played end on that team, which meant I had to block the tackle. There were some big men I had to block, but I didn't care about that. It was a matter of speed and quickness, and I was strong for my size.

We didn't have much of a schedule that first year, but we beat Utah, Utah State, and Brigham Young College, so we were champions of the freshman league. During the summer of 1923, I got a job working in the Tintic Standard Mine in Dividend, Utah, to save money for college. Two weeks before the season, I quit so I could get in top physical condition for football. I weighed about 158 pounds that fall. Before the first game, they announced the starters. Coach Alvin Twitchell announced all the other positions before finally getting to the ends. Then he announced I would start at right end. I'm not sure my feet even touched the ground from the dressing room all the way to Timp Park, where we played our games.

I learned a lot about football from Coach Twitchell, who was the varsity coach from 1922 to 1924. I started at right guard my sophomore, junior, and senior years. I dislocated my elbow at home against Colorado College in the second game of my senior season. It was the first time I had been substituted for during my college career. Prior to my senior year in 1925, I was elected captain of the team. It was one of the biggest surprises of my life and certainly an honor.

Shortly after the 1925 season, I made an appointment with R.L. Ashby and asked his permission to marry his daughter, Althea. I met her at a Christmas program at College Hall on campus in 1923. She was doing a Christmas reading. After the program was over, I went over and introduced myself. We soon became good friends, and by the end of the year we were going steady. I owe a lot to BYU, including my wife.

I graduated from BYU in the spring of 1926. That fall I signed a contract to go to Fillmore, Utah, and coach at Millard County High School. It was the beginning of my coaching career.

When I returned to BYU in 1935, there were just two coaches — Ott Romney and Fred Buck Dixon. President Franklin Harris couldn't see how we could afford another full-time coach, but somehow he made it work. The school was still very small. I coached freshman football and basketball my first year. The next year Ott moved me up to varsity line coach.

I took over as head football coach in 1937. I coached football for eight years. We didn't have much money back in those days. When I started, my salary was $2,000. When I took over as head football coach, they moved my salary up a little. It remained the same until I went in the Navy during World War II.

I loved to coach, I just loved it. As a coach, you teach kids and see them progress along. Each of the jobs I had at BYU I dearly loved, but if I had to pick just one, I'd rather coach football than be the athletics director. In football you're working with the athletes. As the AD, the coaches are between you and the athletes.

I was an LDS bishop on campus for five and a half years. As a bishop, you get to work with the students all the time — helping them to improve, strengthen their testimonies, things like that.

There was a professor on campus named Harold R. Clark. He had an impact on my life in many ways. He always had a good word for me. All the years I coached at BYU, there was never a game that we lost that I didn't get a nice note or letter from him saying something like, "With the material you have to work with and the limited facilities, Eddie, you're doing a great job." He would see kids on campus that he thought looked down and go over to them and chat. He would tell them, "Don't get discouraged. Hang in there. You'll leave BYU a better man." He was always positive. That's what I loved about BYU, men like that.

Sometimes referred to as "Mr. BYU," Eddie Kimball was involved with BYU athletics for nearly 50 years. He played lineman on the football team from 1922 to 1925. In 1935 Kimball returned to BYU as a coach. He took over as head football coach for eight seasons starting in 1937 and also served as athletics director for 23 years. In 1977 Kimball was part of the inaugural class to be inducted into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame. He passed away on December 26, 1990, at age 87.

Taken from an Edwin R. Kimball interview by Tom Cheney, March 22, 1979; HBLL Special Collections Manuscript; L. Tom Perry Special Collections; University Archives. Also, historical documents on file in the BYU Athletic Department Archives.

Floyd Millet
Fullback
1931–1933
Head Coach
1942
Athletics Director
1942–1945 * 1964–1970

I went to Mesa High School in Arizona. I made the varsity basketball team as a junior, although I didn't play very much. My senior year we had a great team. We won the Valley Championship and got second in the state of Arizona. Golden Romney, who was a great former center at BYU, was the basketball coach at Gila Junior College in Thatcher, Arizona. He invited me to come to school with a couple of my friends. At that time, Gila was a private institution run by the LDS Church.

We had a pretty good basketball team the two years I was there. I also played football for the first time and ran track. After two years at Gila, Golden wrote Ott Romney, who was the athletics director at BYU and also coached football, basketball, and track. He told him a little about me and asked Ott if he could help me find a job. In those days there was no such thing as athletic grants-in-aid or scholarships; it was a matter of finding a job to survive.

The BYU athletics department leased a service station for the purpose of supplying jobs to a few athletes, and I was fortunate enough to be selected. Later, I got another job washing towels in the school laundry for the physical education department. I was paid 25¢ an hour, the going rate at the time.

I landed in Provo for the first time in the summer of 1931. It was during the Depression. Ott had a place for me to stay in a little boarding house run by Elwood and Ruth Romney. Elwood was a great basketball player and a junior at BYU when I arrived.

I was fortunate to arrive at the right time because I had the opportunity to play football that first year on the freshman team. Junior college transfers and freshmen were not eligible to play varsity back in those days. The freshman team needed a halfback, and Ott put me in. I played halfback the first year and was named captain of the team.

I played varsity fullback the next two years. I got an additional year of eligibility that had been arranged some way, which helped me because I had the opportunity to do some graduate work.

Our football stadium was located where the Richards Building is now. We had no practice field, so we worked out at the stadium every day. Just west of the stadium was a large apple orchard owned by the university. In the fall we ate lots of apples during and after practice.

In those days Utah was the perennial football power in the intermountain area. In 1932 we thought we had a pretty good team, and we did. We ran the T formation. I think we might have been the only team in the United States using it, but it was a lot of fun. When you didn't have 60 to 70 men on a football squad, you had to play both ways. The T formation made for an interesting game and gave us a lot of opportunities to do things that we couldn't with a regular single wing, which most everyone was using at the time.

We had a fellow by the name of Frank LaComb, who was a very good quarterback and a good passer. Grant Hutchinson was the state sprint champion from Carbon High School, and Pete Wilson was a great hurdler as well as a great halfback and punter. We won all of our games except one. You guessed it; we lost to Utah 29–0.

During my three years at BYU, I participated in all three major sports. I earned eight varsity letters: two in football, three in basketball, and three in track. I was named all-conference in football once and basketball twice. Ott Romney coached all three sports I played. I learned a lot about coaching from him. He had a profound influence on my life and was the determining factor in my going into the coaching profession.

I graduated from BYU in 1934 during the depths of the Depression. Any kind of a job was a good one. There were two or three coaching jobs open in the state of Utah at that time. Davis High in Kaysville, about 20 miles north of Salt Lake City, was one of them. I didn't have a car and had no means of transportation to get to Kaysville to meet with the board of education for an interview, so I hitchhiked. I wore my "Y" lettermen sweater, and that helped me get a ride.

With the help of Coach Romney and a few others, I finally got the job. I was assigned to coach varsity football and baseball and help with basketball. I was there for three years. It was a great three years. I enjoyed every minute of it.

In the spring of 1937, Franklin Harris, the president at BYU, called me on the telephone and asked if I would be interested in joining Eddie Kimball on the BYU coaching staff. I almost jumped through the roof. Eventually, I was hired by him to be the backfield coach in football. Eddie and I were the only two coaches on staff at that time, so I also helped with basketball and track. I also taught six classes in the Physical Education Department.

World War II broke out in December 1941, and many of our athletes either signed up or were inducted into the armed forces. In June of 1942 Eddie Kimball and Wayne Soffe, our other coaches, joined the Navy. President Harris called me in and asked if I would be willing to take over as head coach for all the sports and act as athletics director, as well. I was able to hire one assistant. BYU was one of several universities selected as a physical training center for the Army Air Corps during the war. I taught those classes, too.

That fall we started out with what I considered a real good ballteam, but before the season was over Uncle Sam had come along and picked off over half our varsity football team for the war effort.

However, before we were depleted, we had the opportunity to play the University of Utah in Salt Lake City in the third game of the year. BYU had never won a football game versus Utah, and we started making plans early and preparing for Utah even though the game was not until October 10.

Everyday in practice we spent five to 10 minutes discussing their strengths and weaknesses. I had a history on every one of their players, and by the time we played them, our players had no fears or thoughts of jinxes that had prevailed for so many years. By the time our team dressed for the game, we felt confident and very positive.

It was a hard-fought game, but we won 12–7 — the first time in the modern era we beat Utah. Of course, it's one of the highlights of my coaching career. The following Monday a school holiday was declared. After participating in a victory assembly in College Hall, BYU students snake-danced downtown to the steps of City Hall, where a special program was held.

I've enjoyed many very interesting and exciting years at this great university. Three years as a student, 19 as a coach and faculty member, and seven as the athletics director. I helped organize the national Cougar Club and was the director during its early years. During all those years, I have seen some impressive changes. During the Depression years, the economic pressures threatened the existence of the university. There was talk it might be closed or turned into a church seminary. In retrospect, it was a wise decision by the General Authorities to develop BYU into the great educational institution that it has become.

I've always felt fortunate to have attended school at BYU at a most favorable time. The academic life and the educational process were very simple and uncluttered. Most of my friends fell in love and married their spouses while at the Y. This is what happened to me. I married Vera Jackson in 1934. We are the parents of three sons and one daughter — all graduated from BYU.

Floyd Millet played three seasons at BYU, earning nine varsity letters, including two in football. He was named an all-conference fullback in 1933 and was twice named all-conference in basketball. In his senior year, Millet was awarded the J. Edwin Stein Award as the outstanding student-athlete on campus. In 1937 Millet returned to BYU to coach football, basketball, and track. In 1964 he was named athletics director, a position he held for seven years. Millet was inducted into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976. Millett passed away on June 17, 2000, at the age of 88.

Taken from a W. Floyd Millet interview by Edwin R. Kimball; February 1, 1979; HBLL Special Collections Manuscript; L. Tom Perry Special Collections; University Archives. Also, historical documents on file in the BYU Athletics Department Archives.

Gayland "Iron Mike" Mills
End
1939–1942 * 1946

I graduated in 1939 from Pocatello High School in Idaho. I lettered in football, basketball, track, and was the Southeastern Idaho heavyweight wrestling champion for two years. I played first-team varsity football my junior and senior years. We had an all-state backfield my senior year composed of Bob Liday, Herman Longhurst, Bob Orr, and myself. I also went out for track, basketball, wrestling, and boxing.

Throughout my senior year, I was approached by coaches from different colleges. I was offered a football scholarship from the University of Idaho, Washington State, Utah, and Brigham Young University.