49 Fun Facts About BYU

BYU's forerunner was a branch of the University of Deseret, now called what?

University of Utah. The Provo school was a branch of BYU's future archrival until 1875, when Brigham Young took over its building and made it a separate academy under his own name.

The NCAA had to plan a mid-tournament bracket switch in 2003 because BYU's teams will not do what?

Play on Sundays. The selection committee had mistakenly put BYU on course for a Sunday regional final, so it arranged to move the Cougars to another region if they won twice.

Whom did Brigham Young send to Provo in 1876 to run his new academy?

Karl Maeser. Young's charge to the German-born schoolteacher was not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God.

When Brigham Young Academy was dissolved in 1903, it was replaced by BYU and what other institution?

Brigham Young High School. It closed in 1968, and its old Academy building was later restored and reopened in 2001 as Provo's city library.

The university's founder, Brigham Young, was born in which state?

Vermont. Born in Whitingham in 1801, he was a carpenter in upstate New York when he joined the church, and in 1847 he led its pioneers west to the Salt Lake Valley.

Most BYU students speak a second language, which many learned through what?

Church missions. Many students serve one abroad and come back fluent, which is how BYU comes to teach more than 60 languages.

Which bestselling novelist earned an English degree from BYU in 1997?

Stephenie Meyer. Six years after graduating she woke from a vivid dream about a girl and a vampire in a meadow, sat down to write, and it became chapter 13 of Twilight.

BYU's parent Church Educational System sponsors sister schools in which two places?

BYU itself also runs satellite campuses in Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., London and the Middle East.

BYU's Middle East study center, closed in 2000 over security concerns, is in which city?

It reopened to students in the Winter 2007 semester after the Second Intifada and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict had kept it shut.

BYU's main campus sits at the base of which mountain range?

Wasatch Mountains. The white Y above campus was meant to read BYU, but after a day hauling lime up the slope in 1906 students had finished only the middle letter, and the rest was dropped.

Which politician transferred from Stanford and graduated from BYU in 1971?

Mitt Romney. Back from 30 months in France, he married Ann Davies in 1969 and followed her to BYU, where she had been a student since 1967.

BYU's building code CONE marks which campus spot?

The creamery. CONE is short for Creamery on Ninth East, which grew out of a dairy lab opened in 1949 to supply the campus with milk.

BYU topped which Princeton Review ranking of colleges for at least 21 years in a row?

Stone Cold Sober. To mark year 21, the legal drinking age, BYU's campus dairy released a mint brownie chocolate milk named Stone Cold 21.

BYU's ballroom team was the first US team to win formation titles at which English resort?

Blackpool. BYU's dancers have gone back to the British Open there about every three years since the 1970s and have become frequent winners of its formation titles.

Who was unmasked as BYU's Cosmo the Cougar in 1960?

The school's president. Ernest Wilkinson had put on the cougar suit to startle the student body, and he was revealed when the head came off.

Pep chairman Dwayne Stevenson bought the first Cosmo costume for how much?

He then talked his roommate, Daniel T. Gallego, into being the first person to wear it.

BYU joined which conference in 2023, alongside Cincinnati, Houston and UCF?

Big 12. The league invited the four schools in September 2021, weeks after Texas and Oklahoma agreed to leave it for the SEC.

Which BYU team competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, not the school's main conference?

Men's volleyball. BYU's main conference has no league for the men's game, so its three-time NCAA champions play in the MPSF.

Which Jeopardy! champion graduated from BYU in 2000?

Ken Jennings. He captained BYU's quiz bowl team and roomed with future fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson, four years before his 74-game winning streak.

BYU graduate Jon Heder ('02) is best known for playing which title character?

Napoleon Dynamite. The film grew out of Peluca, a nine-minute short that Jared Hess shot for a BYU class assignment with Heder in the lead.

Which television pioneer studied at BYU in the 1920s but left without a degree?

Philo Farnsworth. He left after two years, yet at 21, working in a San Francisco lab, he produced the first all-electronic television image.

BYU's Harvey Fletcher, known as the father of stereo sound, ran the famous oil-drop experiment with whom?

Robert Millikan. He took sole credit for the experiment and the Nobel Prize that followed, and Fletcher, his graduate student, got a related paper for his dissertation instead.

Which science YouTuber earned a mechanical engineering degree from BYU in 2004?

Mark Rober. He spent seven of his nine NASA years on the Curiosity rover, then built a glitter-spraying trap for package thieves that became a viral hit.

Which 7-foot-6 center played one season at BYU before going second overall in the 1993 NBA draft?

Shawn Bradley. He hadn't played a game in two years when the 76ers took him, having left BYU after his freshman season to spend them in Sydney, Australia.

Football was banned at all LDS Church schools from 1900 for nearly two decades after what?

A player's accidental death. The ban held until 1919, and the school did not field an intercollegiate team again until 1922, the season BYU now counts as its first.

BYU's first football All-American, Eldon Fortie, was an elusive runner known by which nickname?

The Phantom. Long before BYU was known for its passers, its first All-American was a runner whose 272 rushing yards in one 1962 game stood as the school record for 54 years.

Which chart-topping rock band was started in 2008 by two BYU students?

Imagine Dragons. Singer Dan Reynolds met drummer Andrew Tolman on campus and recruited him, and the band went on to make its name in Reynolds's hometown, Las Vegas.

BYU's home stadium is named after which head coach?

LaVell Edwards. Cougar Stadium took his name at the last home game of his 29 seasons in 2000, when church president Gordon B. Hinckley unveiled the banner.

Which Super Bowl-winning head coach was once an offensive lineman at BYU?

Andy Reid. As a player he wrote a column for Provo's Daily Herald, then stayed on in 1982 as a graduate assistant to the coach who won 257 games at BYU.

Which star NFL receiver transferred from Washington to play his final two college seasons at BYU?

Puka Nacua. He lasted until the fifth round of the 2023 draft, then broke the NFL rookie records for both catches and receiving yards with the Rams.

BYU's 1980 comeback from 45–25 down against SMU with four minutes left is known as what?

The Miracle Bowl. With BYU fans already leaving, a Hail Mary that Clay Brown pulled down in a crowd of defenders as time expired tied the game, and the extra point won it 46-45.

What nickname did BYU earn for producing passers like Gifford Nielsen and Marc Wilson?

Quarterback U. The label came from a run of All-American passers, all products of a pioneering passing attack that won BYU conference titles in 19 of 29 seasons.

Which first-year starter quarterbacked BYU's unbeaten 1984 national champions?

Robbie Bosco. Hobbling on a sprained ankle and a strained knee for most of the title-clinching bowl, he still threw the winning touchdown pass with 1:23 left.

BYU capped its unbeaten 1984 national championship season with a Holiday Bowl win over whom?

Michigan. The unranked Wolverines came in at 6-5, yet BYU needed a touchdown pass with 1:23 left to win 24-17 and finish 13-0.

BYU's 1984 championship season opened with a 20-14 win over which No. 3-ranked team?

Pitt. The Panthers collapsed to 3-7-1 after that loss, which left them as the only ranked opponent BYU met all season.

In 1986, Jason Buck became the first BYU player to win which award for interior linemen?

Outland Trophy. A school famous for its passers then did it again: BYU lineman Mo Elewonibi won the same linemen's award three years later.

Which BYU quarterback won the 1990 Heisman Trophy?

Ty Detmer. He threw for 5,188 yards that year, but the Heisman season ended with a 59-28 loss at Hawaii and a 65-14 bowl defeat by Texas A&M.

In September 1990, BYU stunned which top-ranked defending national champion 28-21 in Provo?

Miami. BYU's quarterback threw for 406 yards and three touchdowns against the Hurricanes that night and finished the season with the Heisman Trophy.

BYU won its first New Year's Day bowl, the Cotton Bowl that capped its 1996 season, 19-15 over whom?

Kansas State. BYU trailed 15-5 in the fourth quarter before Steve Sarkisian's touchdown pass with 3:39 left put the Cougars ahead to stay.

In 1999, BYU left the WAC with seven other schools to form which conference?

Mountain West. The WAC had swollen to 16 teams, and half of the eight schools that walked out had been among its founders in 1962.

Which running back won the 2001 Doak Walker Award during BYU's 12–2 season?

Luke Staley. He led the nation in scoring and yards per carry as BYU started 12-0, before the Cougars gave up 72 points at Hawaii and lost their bowl game too.

Before hiring Bronco Mendenhall for 2005, BYU offered the job to which Utah coordinator?

Kyle Whittingham. A former BYU linebacker with both rivals' offers in hand, he chose Utah and coached there for 21 seasons.

From the 2011 season through 2022, how did BYU football compete?

As an FBS independent. Frustrated by thin television coverage in its old league, BYU went it alone and announced an eight-year ESPN contract the same day.

Ziggy Ansah went fifth overall in 2013, matching which passer as BYU's highest draft pick at the time?

Jim McMahon. The Bears took him fifth in 1982, and Ansah matched him 31 years later, just three years after the Ghanaian moved from BYU's track team to its football team.

Kalani Sitake, named BYU's head coach in 2015, was a Cougars team captain at which backfield position?

Fullback. He captained the Cougars for the coach whose name is on BYU's stadium, and 15 years after his last game he came back to take the same job.

Which BYU quarterback threw a record six touchdown passes to win Super Bowl XXIX MVP?

Steve Young. His six scoring passes against San Diego broke the Super Bowl record of five held by Joe Montana, the man he had replaced as the 49ers' starter.

Jimmer Fredette, 2011's national player of the year at BYU, began his NBA career with which team?

Sacramento Kings. Milwaukee drafted him 10th overall and traded him the same night, and years later he remade himself as a 3x3 player for USA Basketball.

While a BYU basketball star, Danny Ainge also played Major League Baseball for which team?

Toronto Blue Jays. He hit .220 over parts of three seasons, and when he chose basketball the Celtics had to buy out his baseball contract after a legal battle.

BYU All-American Krešimir Ćosić, a Naismith Hall of Famer, came from which present-day country?

Croatia. He won Olympic silver for Yugoslavia before enrolling at BYU, went home to win gold in 1980, and later served as Croatia's deputy ambassador in Washington.