Provo High’s basketball rivalries created unforgettable memories
Provo students sway about and cheer during a game between the Provo Bulldogs and the American Fork Cavemen on Friday, Jan. 05, 2018, at Provo High School.
Officials talk amongst themselves between quarters in the old gym during a game between the Provo Bulldogs and the American Fork Cavemen on Friday, Jan. 05, 2018, at Provo High School.
A Provo play unfolds in the old gym during a game between the Provo Bulldogs and the American Fork Cavemen on Friday, Jan. 05, 2018, at Provo High School.
Provo forward Mark Mckell (20) high-fives forward Gabriel Gutierrez (40) after Mckell made a foul shot during a game between the Provo Bulldogs and the American Fork Cavemen on Friday, Jan. 05, 2018, at Provo High School.
Provo senior guard Hunter Bailey grins as he celebrates his game-winning buzzer-beater to defeat Timpview, 61-59, on Jan. 16, 2015.
Provo High School spectators cheer during the boys high school basketball game between Timpview High School and Provo High School on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. Timpview defeated provo with a final score of 65-55.
Timpview's Gavin Baxter goes up for a basket during the boys high school basketball game between Timpview High School and Provo High School on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. Timpview defeated provo with a final score of 65-55.
Provo's Kyle Collinsworth, right, and Keith Moore, left, celebrate a come from behind drive that ended in the Bulldogs last minute victory over Timpview during their game in Provo Friday, Feb. 19, 2010.
Provo's Connor O'Neill and Timpview's Gavin Baxter tipoff during the boys high school basketball game between Timpview High School and Provo High School on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. Timpview defeated provo with a final score of 65-55.
Provo's Ryan Durrant looks to pass the ball against Timpview at Timpview High School in Provo on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010.
Defense was a major factor in Provo's 70-41 victory over Orem. The Tigers seldom had a shot without a hand in front of their faces. Here Shawn Anderson shoots over Kevin Nielson as teammate Paul Stout and Provo's Matt Midgley and Greg Ballif look on. (Daily Herald archive image from 1977)
Veryl Law, Provo guard who was unable to play in the last two games because of a broken collar bone, walks off the floor with the net of one of the baskets draped over him. His younger brother, Vance, cut the net down and put it over Veryl after Provo defeated Orem for the championship. (Daily Herald archive image from 1973)
Over the past 60 years, the Provo High School sports programs have competed in thousands of events. There have been big wins, tough losses, personal successes and team growth for uncounted athletes.
The flagship program for the Bulldogs, however, has always been boys basketball.
The school holds the state record for total number of championships in boys basketball –17– with 13 of those being earned by students who attended the school on University Avenue.
With all that success, it’s not surprising that the most memorable games for many of Provo’s players, coaches and fans took place on the basketball court.
“Basketball is a unique environment in the state of Utah,” said Kirk Chambers, former Bulldog athlete and current Provo athletic director. “When they get packed in those gyms, there is nothing like it.”
The Bulldogs were one of the teams to beat for decades as head coaches like Jim Spencer and Craig Drury molded teams into dominant forces.
But for most of that time, Provo had big-time competition from the two nearest high schools: Orem (4.5 miles away) and then Timpview (less than 3 miles away).
In some ways the first rivalry was with the old Brigham Young High School, which was around until 1968.
“It turned into a recruited athletic-type thing,” Drury said. “I think they got rid of it because they didn’t want the elitist mentality. Since it was a private school, kids could go there. The athletes at Provo didn’t like them very much since most were athletes who should’ve been at Provo. They had some pretty good teams.”
From that point on, when the Bulldogs were set to play the Tigers or in later years the Thunderbirds, it was an event of titanic proportions.
“A lot of times, the Provo-Orem games were just amazing,” said Drury, who not only coached at Provo but also played for the Bulldogs in the late 1960s. “The Timpview games were fun games as well.”
In those early days, Provo played in its small gym, which had an 84-foot court with limited seating capacity.
“Before they had fire codes, they had people standing on the sidelines three deep,” Drury said. “As a player, I remember shooting a layup and running into the crowd. The crowd was my crowd so they were patting me on the back. I can only imagine what the Orem players did when they shot a layup and went into the crowd.”
That old Bulldog facility was a place where Provo usually came out on top.
“That gym has so many gremlins in it,” Drury said. “I was getting beat one night by Orem and I swear the gremlins came out in that gym and knocked the ball out of their hands. We went down and tied the game, then won in overtime. We used to put the band up in the balcony by the opposing team’s bench. I had a hard enough time on the other side of the gym and I can’t imagine the other team’s experience. That gym was almost impossible to come in and beat us in.”
Former Bulldog athlete Gifford Nielsen, who played football at BYU and in the NFL and is now an LDS general authority, vividly remembered a basketball game against the Tigers with enormous stakes in the early 1970s.
“I think we were ranked No. 1 from the beginning in 1973 and Orem High was ranked No. 2,” Nielsen said. “There was absolutely incredible competition. We were big and we were talented and Orem was big and talented. I have never seen anything quite like it. We were playing excellent basketball. I remember we played the first game at Provo High School and they had so many fans there that they were wondering how they were going to have all the fans watch Game 2, which was scheduled for Orem High School. They ended up playing our second game in the Marriott Center.”
It didn’t matter where the games were played that year, however, since the Bulldogs were just a little bit better.
“We won the first game by a couple of points, then we played again in front of 10,000 or 15,000 fans and we won again by just a few points,” Nielsen said. “We then ended up playing Orem High for the state championship. We were undefeated and they had lost twice. The place was packed up at the University of Utah. We beat them by just a couple of points and we were state champions.”
He explained that those rivalry games with the Tigers were some of the most incredible contests he remembers.
“That was a very special time for all of us,” Nielsen said. “It was high-level competition and we weren’t normal teams. It was so exciting. If you watched one of those games, by the time you were done you were ready to take a long vacation. It was so intense, just the back and forth. By the time we were done, all the fans had just about had it and all the players had had it. We left everything out there on the court when we played in those games.”
Another former Provo basketball star who went to BYU and played professionally, Devin Durrant, felt the same way about the intensity of the Orem-Provo rivalry in the 1970s.
“It was an exciting environment,” Durrant said. “Provo was the only high school in Provo and Orem was the same in Orem. It just created so much excitement. The first time I played on the Marriott Center floor was when Provo and Orem played against each other. It was intimidating but the excitement and the electricity in the air was palpable.”
That rivalry altered in the late 1970s when Timpview High School was built, giving the Bulldogs an inter-city challenger.
“I don’t think they won a basketball game for five or six years,” Drury said. “We played them in a state championship where we beat them until the last few minutes, then we made some mistakes and they capitalized. I’ll never forget that.”
With the interest in the high school basketball games in those days, the rivalry contests were frequently held at other venues like the Marriott Center. Chambers, however, remembered in the 1990s when the Bulldogs and Thunderbirds went back to playing at the schools and even though Provo had a newer, larger gym it was still a hot ticket.
“We had some epic battles with Timpview,” he said. “I remember that if you didn’t get in the main gym 40 minutes early you weren’t going to get in at all. There was no room to breathe, no room to hide in that game. It was intense.”
Drury said that the Provo and Timpview rivalry meant a lot to the community through the years.
“We beat them on a last-second shot at our place the last year I was there,” Drury said. “I’d like to think we won more than they did.”