Show Sports thoughts What is it like when one year your our team is a winner and the next year a loser Going from Crom a winner to a loser her from one year to the next is terrible for the football players but for the fans it is the house of horrors TilE THE FOOTBALL year of 1973 was a wonderful time for University of Utah fans The Utes defeated Arizona State that year In a big upset but there were sad times too One sad time was BYU YU stomping out the University of Utah's Fiesta Bowl chances during a cold snowy afternoon Even with all the University of Utah's hot and cold spells football in 1973 was exciting One of the main reasons for this was the explosive kick off and punt plus plus' pass catcher catcher cat cat- cher Steve Odom Odom could run the in 94 and anytime he got his hands on the ball the fans knew that an anything could happen TilE THE FANS would sit and watch Odom as he caught the ball Odom with his quick speed would quickly pass would-be would tacklers ladders He lie would cut across the field find the hole and off he would be for a touchdown Another player that kept the Utah fans awake during the game was Don Van Galder Don DonVan DonVan DonVan Van Galder was the type of player that when he was on he was super and when he was off he was terrible THINGS WOULD be going terrible for the Ute Ule team and then all of a sudden Van Galder would catch fire He lie would pass to Odom for a touchdown or orgain orgain orgain gain a first down and a touchdown touchdown touchdown touch touch- down would be scored later The Utes that year won seven games and lost five but even though it was an exciting year fans were disappointed with the outcome Utah upset Arizona State but couldn't beat BYU The Utes stomped and Wyoming but barely beat San Jose State Stale and New Mexico Utah played great football in beating Utah State and Oreg Oregon n State but were re emb embarrassed rr k d in games with Arizona and Hawaii UTAH FANS figured that if they could beat Arizona State then they should be the Western Athletic Conference champions The problem with Utah was that one week they would be hot against Arizona State and then against BYU they would be ice cold The Utes couldn't put together a hot streak like BYU did in 1974 when they won the WAC crown In 1973 the Utes were a hot and cold team but in 1974 the Utes' Utes hot water heater broke and during the season except for the New Mexico game they completely were cold UTAH UTA II FANS would look at atthe atthe atthe the player getting ready to catch football and think that maybe he would replace Steve Odom However that never happened Utah's kick off were lucky to get to the 20 yard line and oc- oc they would make it to the 50 yard line Fans who had cursed and yelled at Don Van Galder for his football behavior in 1973 wished that he was back after having to suffer through Utah's quarterbacks quarterbacks of 1974 IN 1973 Van Galder was the starting quarterback for all the games but in 1974 the Utes couldn't decide who should be bethe bethe bethe the starting quarterback They started with Lou Onofrio went to Dan Payne Pane Jim Miller and ended the season with Homer Warner In 1973 Utah only won seven games and many people were upset because of this trus However in 1974 seven wins during the 1973 season didn't seem so bad since the Utes in 1974 lost eight straight games before picking up their only win from New Mexico UTAH UT I FANS ANS were kept awake during the 82 to 6 stomping of the stomping stomping stomping ping of Wyoming the upsetting of Arizona State and the narrow win over Utah State Stale However the non-existence non offense in the 1974 games with San Jose State and Arizona put Utah tans fans completely asleep After the 1974 MO HO se season lson the disappointing football of 1973 didn't seem serm quite as disappointing pointing |