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Top 10 sports stories for the state of Utah: Remembering 2024 for hockey, Olympics

By Darnell Dickson - | Jan 3, 2025
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Utah Hockey Club players are announced before an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Salt Lake City.
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Grant Fisher, of the United States, celebrates after winning the bronze medal in the men's 5000 meters final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France.
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BYU running back Hinckley Ropati (7) leaps over a Utah defender in a college football game at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024.

My main focus in covering sports for the Daily Herald includes BYU, local high schools and Utah Valley University.

To be completely honest, everything else that happens in the state of Utah as it pertains to sports actually takes a back seat. I read about events and results around the state but I don’t really dig too deep into the details.

Thank goodness for my good friend Sean Walker of KSL, who is a veritable encyclopedia of what’s happening in sports in the state of Utah. I came up with a few things I recalled from 2024 and he helped me fill in the gaps.

No jokes about how two sports writers were sharing a brain, please.

Here’s my humble list of the Top 10 sports stories for the state of Utah in 2024.

10. Saying farewell

Utah’s AAA baseball club, the Salt Lake Bees, played their last game at Smith’s Ballpark in 2024. The Bees are moving to new stadium, Daybreak Field at American First Square coming to South Jordan in 2025.

9. Early exit

For the fourth consecutive time under head coach Pablo Mastroeni, Real Salt Lake advanced to the post-season, setting a franchise points record (59) in the process. The team was eliminated in the first round for the third straight year, losing two penalty shootouts to Minnesota.

8. Bringing home the medals

Utah was well-represented at the Paris Summer Olympics in the summer of 2024. Highlights included Grant Fisher (Park City), who won bronze medals in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter races in Paris and Haley Batten (Park City), who claimed silver in mountain biking.

7. Running it back

The GOAT of Utah football coaching, Kyle Whittingham, had a tough year in 2024. The Utes were picked to win the Big 12 in their first season in the conference but injuries and bad luck produced a 5-7 record, which included seven straight losses and a second consecutive defeat at the hands of BYU. Whittingham lamented some of the changes in college football like the transfer portal and NIL, which led some fans and experts to believe he would step down at the end of the season. But Whittingham said he will return in 2025.

6. Moving forward or standing still?

The state’s original major pro franchise continues to stall out in rebuilding mode, frustrating fans who are trying to buy into the vision of Danny Ainge and Ryan Smith. After finishing 31-51 in 2023-24, the Utah Jazz have opened the 2024-25 season 7-25, the third-worst mark in the entire NBA. While Ainge and Smith keep stockpiling young talent, Utah is still nowhere near playoff contention.

5. No crying in baseball

In February, news of a proposed $3.5 billion ballpark district in Salt Lake City’s west side proved that the state was serious about its quest to land a Major League Baseball team. If it ever happens, SLC would be the smallest metro area among MLB markets, certainly a concern for the power brokers in the league. The Oakland A’s flirted with possibly moving temporarily to Utah while waiting on a move to Las Vegas but that eventually fell through.

4. Coaching at a higher level in Logan

Bronco Mendenhall made a huge impact on BYU football in the mid-2000s, eventually leaving for the head job at Virginia in 2015. He left that position in 2021 and got back into coaching at New Mexico in 2024. After one season in Albuquerque, Mendenhall decided to return to the Beehive State and took the head coaching job at Utah State in December.

3. BYU-Utah football is back in conference

The annual BYU-Utah football matchup brought out the best (in competition) and worst (in fans) over the years but when the Utes joined the Pac-12 and the Cougars opted for independence, the series became not quite so annual. After Utah won a ninth straight game in 2019, the two teams met just once over the next four years (a 26-17 BYU victory in Provo in 2021). The Cougars joined the Big 12 in 2023 and with the breakup of the Pac-12, Utah became a member of the same league in 2024. The Cougars won a tense 22-21 contest in Salt Lake City on November 9, with Will Ferrin kicking a last-second field goal for the victory.

2. The world will come to the Beehive State

Utah hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002, a memorable moment to showcase the state around the world. In August, Utah was awarded the 2034 Winter Olympic Games with celebrities Katherine Heigl and Ty Burrell part of the state’s bid process. The build up over the next ten years will be interesting to witness.

1. Get on the ice

A whirlwind summer added a third major pro sports franchise to the state with a National Hockey League club coming to Salt Lake City. A group led by Smith purchased the former Arizona Coyotes and brought everything to Utah for the 2024 season. So far, the team is known as the Utah Hockey Club while considering ideas for a permanent name. The UHC took deposits for over 20,000 season tickets in April and drew 16,020 fans to opening night at the Delta Center on Oct. 9.