2009 Utah Sports Year In Review

The Utah Utes made it back to the Bowl Championship Series after going undefeated. At the Louisiana Superdome and in the Sugar Bowl the Utes would play Alabama, a team from the Southeastern Conference that lost to Florida in the conference’s championship game.

The original BCS busters were double-digit underdogs to the Crimson Tide, but the Utes would not be denied. They manhandled Alabama from the outset, displaying a mix of speed and execution that surprised the Tide, but also the country as the Utes cruised to a 31-17 victory and their second BCS bowl win. Utah’s shocking victory captured the hearts of Americans everywhere and the Utes were rewarded with a No. 2 AP finish, runners-up to national champion Florida and former coach Urban Meyer. A ceremony and ticker-tape parade were held at the City-County Building and along Salt Lake City’s State Street to proclaim Utah’s historic achievement.

It was probably the saddest story next to Miller’s passing for Utahns, but former Ute and Atlanta Falcons All-Pro running back Jamal Anderson was arrested for suspicion of cocaine possession in an Atlanta bar on Sunday, Feb. 8. He was later charged with felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor marijuana possession and released on bond. Anderson and another man were seen snorting cocaine off of a toilet bowl in a mens’ room at the bar, according to eyewitnesses. Anderson had been working as an NFL analyst at ESPN before his arrest and booking.

The death of Jazz and Bees owner Larry H. Miller stunned everyone in the sports community, as Miller had such a part in so many Utah sports enterprises. He kept the Jazz from leaving, thanks to shrewd negotiations. He built an entertainment complex in Sandy and the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele County, among other notables. Although many knew Miller had fallen ill due to diabetes complications and had a leg amputated prior to his death, it seemed like many weren’t ready for his passing. Miller was a true Utah sports pioneer in every sense of the word.

The emergence of the swine flu, or the H1N1 virus as it’s now known, caused a rift in the Utah high school sports scene in May, postponing and nearly cancelling several state tournaments, most notably soccer and baseball. Park City was the epicenter of the scare, in part to the state’s first documented case originating there. Such a scare nearly cancelled 3A champion Park City’s run to the title in boys soccer, but the Utah High School Activities Association finally relented and the games were allowed to continue after a weeklong postponement.

In a year that saw Real Salt Lake win MLS Cup in stunning fashion, few knew about the RSL under-18 youth team that traveled halfway across the globe after winning the youth equivalent of MLS’ finest wares, the SUM Cup. Though RSL came up short at the Mundial Clubes de Futbol tournament in Madrid, Spain they did earn the respect of the bigger clubs with an impressive showing. After drawing against European giants Partizan Belgrade (Serbia) and Spaniard side Espanyol, the MLS youth champions were one win away from making history against Spain’s Rayo Vallecano, but it was not to be, as RSL lost 1-0. It was the highest-ever finish for any MLS club in the tournament and RSL would have been the first MLS team to advance past the group stage had it defeated Rayo. What makes it more amazing is the team was primarily comprised of home-grown players.

With so much to choose from in the month of July, it was difficult pickings. But Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer went above and beyond his call of duty to rile up Utahns and all but seal his doom in the Beehive State. Boozer told radio stations in Miami and Chicago that he wanted out of Utah before finally settling down toward the end of the month. It got so bad at one point that the Jazz-owned store, Fanzz, started selling Boozer jerseys at 75 percent off the retail price because most were convinced Boozer was leaving.

Spring drills at the Big Five schools in the state begat controversies at the quarterback position, none more apparent than at Utah, where three quarterbacks vied for one starting spot in a competition that head coach Kyle Whittingham had declared open months prior. After Corbin Louks transferred to Nevada, the race was down to two: JUCO phenom Terrance Cain and freshman Jordan Wynn. When spring drills wrapped and the team went on the field against Utah State, it was Cain who took the field, using his athletic ability to upend the Aggies in a tougher-than-it-looks opening day victory.

It generated national headlines for weeks, and we’re not talking about BYU-Oklahoma. It was the publicity stunt cooked up by owner Brandt Andersen of the NBA D-League’s Utah Flash. Andersen somehow managed to talk one party, former Jazz forward Bryon Russell into playing Michael Jordan in a 1-on-1 charity match at the Flash’s season opener on December 7, after Jordan talked trash about Russell not being able to guard the superstar at MJ’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech. Russell then called Jordan out in an attempt to resurrect Russell’s dying pro career, and the war of words was on.

After a bizarre summer followed by an equally weird fall, October closed with not a bang, but a whimper. The main story was that Boozer returned to the Jazz after being a pain in everyone’s backside for months. He had a good training camp, his best in years, and his health was top-notch, fueling the speculation that he would leave Utah after the current season.

Again, it was another difficult month to choose, but the obvious choice should go to Real Salt Lake, a team that is four years young in Major League Soccer and that reached the pinnacle by upsetting the heavily favored Los Angeles Galaxy--and David Beckham--on penalty kicks to lift the MLS Cup. RSL never made any game look easy, as two of the club’s three wins in the 2009 playoffs came via PK shootouts. Using a mantra of “the team is the star,” head coach Jason Kreis got his charges to believe in the bigger picture and that philosophy, coupled with a sound attacking and defensive philosophy, put RSL over the top. It was the state’s first professional sports title in 40 years.