Breaking news: “Broadway” Jim Boylen proclaims Runnin’ Utes shall have last names on their jerseys

June 25, 5:08 PMUtah Sports ExaminerBrian Shaw

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Utah Sports Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Utah head coach Jim Boylen is never one for low-end, tight-budget productions. Everything he says or does has an exclamation point next to it (!) and there is always some sort of controversy brewing, whether he likes it or not.

Well, welcome to “Jerseygate.” After banning his Utes from sticking last names on the backs of their jerseys, as had been done in the past and since the days of Tom Chambers and Danny Vranes and later the “Cardiac Kids,” Boylen had a change of heart. Aww…

He said in a press release his reasoning for banning the last names was so the Utes could get down to business and become a team. Fair enough. A little weird, but okay. Maybe the guy just had a Joe Paterno moment.

It’s not the first time he’s done something that made you go, “Hmmm…” But you know what, the guy is winning, and when you’re winning you, as a head coach, can do or say just about anything. If Boylen were losing, however, and taking his kids to the NIT instead of the Big Dance, critics would be lining up to take shots at him, as well they should.

From the infamous “bloody” comments he made to a Las Vegas newspaper prior to a game at UNLV to boxing out a San Diego State player (even though he was the coach) during the game, Boylen gets the headlines, as well he should.

After all, he has some big shoes to fill.

Sound familiar, Ute fans? It should, because save for a jolly fat guy (uh, hoops genius) having girlfriends younger than his own daughters and shacking up at the swank University Park hotel, we haven’t seen the likes of this in quite some time.

When Rick Majerus decided to go with Reebok, that set off all kinds of waves around Uteville. Then when he stuck by a prospect from one of the NYC boroughs who happened to be dealing with a rape charge, he got more pub.

But when he took his kids to the national championship, brought in recruits other Ute coaches could have only dreamt of enticing to the Beehive State and started placing kids in the NBA “big-time,” this program became something it has fought and clawed to get back to, and that’s prominence.

Boylen’s announcement tells the Ute faithful that the program is on its way back to that level of respect. Let’s just hope that history doesn’t repeat itself.