LLOYD: How I will always remember BYU football’s LaVell Edwards
Legendary BYU head coach LaVell Edwards poses for a photo with Daily Herald sports editor Jared Lloyd in August, 2016.
Legendary BYU football coach LaVell Edwards talks to a reporter at Michigan Stadium on Sept. 26, 2015.
Legendary BYU football coach LaVell Edwards jokes with friends before the 15th annual LaVell Edwards Boys & Girls Club of Utah County Golf Tournament at Riverside Country Club in Provo on Monday, May 4, 2015.
Some days it’s just hard to go to work — and Thursday morning was one of the hardest for me.
I found out just after 10 a.m. that my friend LaVell Edwards, the legendary Hall-of-Fame head coach of the BYU football team for three decades, had died.
After expressing my condolences to his wife, Patti, and the Edwards family, I struggled to contain my own emotions as I thought back to how this man I had watched and admired for so many years had become a friend.
My first interactions with Edwards came as a teenager when I made a few calls to his post-game radio call-in show with Paul James.
It was my first interview with the Hall-of-Famer, however, that I will never forget.
It was the summer of 2002 and I had been assigned to the sports desk at BYU’s Daily Universe as part of the journalism class I was in. One day I found out that although LaVell and Patti were serving an LDS mission in New York, the church would still help him do football media interviews.
I made the proper contacts and eventually set up a time to call Edwards on the phone. I recall vividly being equal parts excited and nervous — more nervous than for any interview I have done in my 14-and-a-half years of being a reporter since then.
But when I finally got connected to Edwards, I discovered what a master he was at putting people at ease. For maybe an hour, I peppered him with questions on anything I could think of and he answered them all in his thoughtful, insightful manner.
I had no idea at that time that I would be fortunate enough to spend a lot more time with the legendary head coach and get to discover for myself what so many other players and friends and colleagues and opponents already knew — that he was far more impressive as a person than as a football coach.
As our paths have crossed over the years, I saw him at charity golf tournament and football media days and various other events. Inevitably, he would be approached by friends and admirers and he always treated them with respect and kindness — often with a big grin that Cougar fans rarely saw on the sideline.
There were a few recent moments that were particularly poignant.
I walked into the press box at Michigan Stadium (“The Big House”) on Sept. 26, 2015, and there was Edwards seated on a bench near the elevators.
I sat and chatted with him for a little while until a reporter from Michigan approached him to talk about the 1984 National Championship game. I stepped away and then watched for a moment as Edwards took the time to help out another young reporter.
This past spring at the 2016 Blue-and-White game in Provo, LaVell and Patti Edwards sat in the press box at the stadium that is named after him.
I went over to talk to them for awhile and got a laugh when I told LaVell I had asked Kalani Sitake if he planned to imitate the famous Edwards scowl on the sideline.
I will also never forget talking about new Cougar offensive coordinator Ty Detmer.
When I mentioned to LaVell that I thought it might take Detmer a few years to get used to being the offensive coordinator at the collegiate level, LaVell looked at me in that kind way of his, then shook his head and — with a knowing grin — told me Detmer was going to be just fine.
My last close contact with my friend came in August when I went with Daily Herald photographer Dominic Valente to the Edwards house to shoot photos and talk about the football tradition at BYU for our annual Cougar football special section.
LaVell and Patti were incredibly gracious as they invited us in and helped us out in every way possible.
I asked LaVell if he wrote an autobiography, what he would want people to know about him.
“I’d have to ask my wife first what she thinks,” LaVell said with a grin.
He told me that he always wanted to be a football coach and worked hard to make that dream a reality.
LaVell touched the lives of so many players and coaches that he worked with but he also touched the lives of so many others — including mine.
Like one of my friends told me Thursday, there must be a big football game up in heaven and they needed the best coach out there.
Rest in peace, my friend.