One memory from growing up in Salt Lake while Jack Gardner and Stan Watts were coaching is what a great, competitive rivalry it was. Both men were naturally very competitive, and that used to come out in amusing ways.

For example, when the Special Events Center (now Huntsman Center) went up, that was a very big deal, and the SEC was the newest, best-designed, and most beautiful arena anywhere in the West-- even nicer than Pauley Pavilion.

Ernie Wilkinson was President of BYU at the time, and he was very competitive too. A. Ray Olpin (a BYU graduate) and later Jim Fletcher were President of the U. during the Wilkinson era, and they were probably just as competitive. In fact, it seems to me that during the 50's and 60's there was a huge building boom on both campuses(BYU and Utah)and it also seemed that for every building that went up at the U., a similar building went up at the Y. The SEC was Utah's response to BYU's George Albert Smith Fieldhouse, which held 12,500 people, many more than the U's old Einar Nielsen fieldhouse, which held about 4,500 (didn't it?). It really bothered Jack Gardner (and many Utah fans) that BYU's basketball arena was so much larger.

Of course, as everyone knows, very shortly after the SEC went up, BYU officials started talking about the Marriott Center. I remember Jack Gardner saying on his coach's show, "Oh, they'll never get that thing up."

That was wishful thinking on Jack's part, because construction started on the Marriott Center almost right away. (The MC was made possible by a donation from a very high-profile Utah alum, which delighted BYU fans and annoyed Utah fans.) So BYU ended up with a huge arena, 50% larger than the U's. (It also ended up with an arena with very uncomfortable seats and bad court views, but that's another issue.)

But it was like that-- tit for tat, back and forth. The rivalry was very heated and very even-- incredibly so, when you look at the records of both Stan Watts and Jack Gardner, especially so against one another. Gardner was by far the more colorful personality, but that made it all the more fun-- there was a nice symmetry to their personas. It was a great time to follow college basketball in Utah!

Anasazi and rjtla may have some better memories of those times than I do. After all, I was only a small child at the time. :-)

Anyway, it's really interesting that Jack Gardner died only a few days after Stan Watts, and at about the same age. Deep down, part of me wonders if Jack didn't hang on just long enough to outlive Stan. I know that's really unlikely, but in light of all the history, it does make me smile to think about the possibility.

In any case, it is as if two huge oak trees have fallen in the college basketball forest. So long, old warriors!

This was relayed to me by Larry Gerlach in the History Dept:

When they were builing the Huntsman Center they were also building the HPER complex and they had huge piles of lumber. Jack Gardner went through the piles of lumber piece by piece to find the very best pieces from which to construct the floor of the then Special Events Center. When it was completed the floor was said to have looked amazing. Unfortunatly a few dats after it was completed a pipe broke in a bathroom upstairs and over the weekend water flowed down and destroyed the floor. Leaving them to build an ordinary floor.

I always thought it was amazing to think of a basketball coach to go to that much trouble to select the individual boards for a basketball floor.

You'll be missed Jack

The story I remember most fondly occurred in the mid 50's. Jack used to bring a bottle of milk and stash it under his seat during the game. He took swigs of that bottle like Tark chews on a towel! One night up in Wyoming, some of the Ute players spiked his milk with a laxative. Jack was too busy to coach the second half!

Coach was indeed a very special man. The intensity during the games(remember the milk)and the quick humor off the court. He is as responsible as anyone for developing the up-tempo style and was a master at creating home court advantage. Einar Neilson was a very tough place to win not wearing white.

My sophmore year we played Arizona and were down one with about 30 seconds to play and had the ball. A wildcat cheated over the screen for Merve Jackson, stole the pass and streaked for the lay-up. Rich Tate caught him and mugged him on the way up and coach was up with his hand behind his head pointing at our hoop...sure enough the offensive foul was called (I guess the guy flexed his shoulder blades back into Rich). We scored with 4 or 5 to go and won by one but it was a real gift/theft.

He will be sorely missed and I have forgiven him his absolutely sound judgment that I could never play with jackson, tate,simon and martin and am forever grateful for the wise and kind way the reality was delivered.

Bye Coach.

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