The year was 1964. LBJ, a Democrat from Texas, was in the White House and a quartet of mop-haired lads from Liverpool were invading the U.S. and making teenage girls at the ``Ed Sullivan Show'' scream like lunatics.
And the University of Utah was winning the WAC football title.
Cut to 1995. Bill Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, is the president and a trio of middle-aged rockers have reunited for a much-anticipated six-hour ``Beatles Anthology'' on the tube.
And Utah is once again a WAC football champion.
Like the Beatles, the Utes are making a major comeback after 30 years. Coach Ron McBride, after his team beat BYU 34-17 at Cougar Stadium to clinch a share of the league title, was even using '60s-era terms to describe the feeling.
``This is a trip, isn't it?'' said the first coach to lead the U. to a WAC title since Ray Nagel - six coaches ago on the hill.
Utah (6-2 in the league, 7-4 overall) will share the WAC title - there are four other teams, including BYU (5-2, 6-4), with two losses in league games and two of them, San Diego State and Colorado State, play next week. Still, the title is sweet - especially since it was clinched by beating their arch-rivals for the third consecutive year.
``It's been 31 years since we've done this,'' McBride said. ``I came here six years ago and this is what I wanted. I wanted to win the WAC title and I wanted to win it against BYU at BYU.''
Said Ute quarterback Mike Fouts, ``I don't have a lot to say except, `wow.' ''
Two years ago it was a once-in-a-lifetime field goal in the waning seconds by Chris Yergensen for the Utes. Last year the winning points were set up by a long kickoff return by Cal Beck.
No such heroics were necessary Saturday. Utah dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The Utes had a better than 2-to-1 advantage in time of possession (40:47 to 19:13) and finished with 445 yards of total offense to BYU's 318.
``We didn't have the ball enough to get the sync from an offensive standpoint,'' said BYU coach LaVell Edwards, who is one win away from his 17th WAC title. ``I want to compliment Utah. They prepared and executed well.''
The Utes were particularly impressive on third-down situations. They converted on 15 of 22 third downs for the game.
The Utes, finished with their regular season, will now have to wait and see what happens next week to find out if they will be headed to the Holiday Bowl for the first time ever. BYU has a chance to earn it's own piece of the league title if it can beat Fresno State on the road Saturday. Like the Utes, the Cougars still have an outside chance of going to the Holiday Bowl (see story on D-12).
The game was scoreless through the first quarter. Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, Utah's freshman running back/wrecking ball went 32 yards straight up the middle into the end zone on the first play of the second quarter. Daniel Pulsipher's extra point was good to give Utah a 7-0 lead with 14:54 to play.
The Cougs, aided by a 15-yard penalty on the Utes for celebrating their TD, responded with a 50-yard Bill Hansen field goal with 12:50 to play in the half.
Utah drove deep into Cougar territory two more times in the second quarter, but had to settle for a pair of short Pulsipher field goals. The Utes went into intermission with a 13-3 lead.
The third quarter had been Utah's weakest this season, but not on Saturday. The Utes had a pair of long touchdown drives to just about salt the game away. Utah went 79 yards on 11 plays to start the half culminating on a 27-yard pass from Fouts to Terence Keehan. On their second drive of the third quarter, the Utes went 61 yards on nine plays, scoring on a four-yard strike from Fouts to Henry Lusk with 52 seconds remaining. Pulsipher's extra point gave the Utes a 27-3 advantage.
``Those two drives at the start of the second half really hurt us,'' Edwards said. ``They used up a lot of time on the clock and they got touchdown both times.''
Said McBride, ``The opening drive of the third quarter was the key because we held the ball for six minutes and some seconds. I think they only had six or seven plays in the third quarter.''
Cougar quarterback Steve Sarkisian hit Kaipo McGwire for an 18-yard TD pass with 10:55 to play in the game and a two-point pass from Sarkisian to Jason Cooper cut the gap to 27-11. The Cougars' hopes for a miracle comeback were dashed, however, when Utah linebacker Jason Hooks picked off a Sarkisian pass with 5:09 to play.
Both teams scored a touchdown in the final 80 seconds, with Fuamatu-Ma'afala going in from six yards out with 1:13 to play in the game and Hema Heimuli catching an 18-yard Sarkisian pass for a score with 13 seconds left.
``It had all the makings of a great football game. Too bad one team had to dominate like that,'' Heimuli said. ``I wish we could go back to the drawing board and play it all over again.''
Fouts completed 21 of 31 passes for 275 yards and a pair of scores, while Sarkisian was 23 of 47 for 268 yards with two TDs and four interceptions.
``Our defense has carried us all year and this was a game we needed to pick them up a bit, but we didn't do it,'' said Sarkisian.
With Fuamatu-Ma'afala and sophomore Juan Johnson doing the damage, the Utes rushed for 170 yards, while BYU was held to only 50. Fuamatu-Ma'afala, a 270-pounder who was born seven years after the Beatles broke up in 1970, carried the ball 24 times for 108 yards and two scores, while Johnson had 21 carries for 76 yards.
Edwards' Cougars beat Utah 19 times in his first 21 years as coach. Saturday marked the first time Edwards had ever lost to a WAC school for a third year in a row.
``I'm not one to brag, but I have another year here and I don't plan on losing to BYU,'' said Ute junior free safety Harold Lusk. ``It's starting to be a habit.''
McBride hopes WAC football championships at Utah will start becoming a habit as well.
© 1995 Deseret News Publishing Co.