Dave Schulthess Tribute

On Oct. 26, 2014, former BYU sports information director Dave Schulthess passed away. I was fortunate to be a student intern in the sports information office in 1988 during the final year of Dave’s 37-year career at BYU.

During the winter of 2011, I had the pleasure of interviewing nearly 60 former players, coaches and administrators for a historical book on BYU football — among them was Dave. I spent about an hour at his home. As always, Dave was gracious, humble, thoughtful and funny. Below is an excerpt from the book What It Means To Be A Cougar with Dave sharing his thought about BYU in his own words.

As I've traveled around the country with various BYU teams over the past 20 years, countless people have enquired about Dave and asked me to pass along their regards. He was a legend in the sports information community, a consummate gentleman and an outstanding ambassador for the University. On behalf of BYU Athletics, we express our love and condolences to the Schulthess family.  – Duff Tittle

Dave Schulthess (for obituary, viewing & funeral information click here)

BYU Sports Information Director • 1951-1988

I was born in Provo, but grew up in Los Angeles. I had lots of relatives living in Utah and we would visit during the summers. I always loved Provo. I suppose I could have gone to school in California, but I really relished the idea of coming to BYU.

Thank goodness for the GI bill. After serving three years in the U.S. Army Infantry, including some time in the South Pacific, I was released. I wanted to go to school, but I didn’t have any money. The GI Bill allowed servicemen like me to get an education. It gave me a chance to go to college. Otherwise, I’m not sure I could have afforded it.

After graduating from BYU I went to work in Salt Lake City for the Salt Lake Tribune and the Telegram—the afternoon paper by the same publisher. I worked there for a couple of years then I had an offer at BYU. They were looking for someone to help at the new university news bureau. It was a great opportunity. I loved it.

It was a dream job in many ways. I loved sports, but I was also doing other general university news as well. The university was pretty small then. Eventually, BYU hired a full-time sports information director. I was fortunate enough to get the job. It wasn’t like it is today. It was a one-man shop for a while.

I thoroughly enjoyed my job. I loved the people I worked with on campus and the athletes. I couldn’t be classified as an overachiever, because I found a job I loved and stayed with it a long time. I was at BYU for nearly 40 years.

For several years we hosted the western regional basketball tournament for the NCAA. Those were big events for us. It was great to get the West Coast media—San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle—to Provo. Before then, Provo was just a place on the map that the West Coast media flew over on their way to Big 8 or Big 10 country. Hosting those NCAA events put our athletic department on the map.

We worked real hard while the national media was here to make sure they had a pleasant trip. It was a big deal to have press from all over the country come to Provo.

In the early years it was hard to get on the national scene. To the national media, Provo was buried in the Rocky Mountains somewhere. It wasn’t until we went back east in the 1950s and 60s and won the NIT Championships in basketball that we started to gain some ground on national attention.

When LaVell Edwards took over the football team, we started to garner more national attention. There were guys before him that help establish some national praise, but it was only occasionally. Players like Virgil Carter, Phil Odle, Chris Farasopoulos, and Gordon Gravelle. One of my favorites was running back Eldon “The Phantom” Fortie. We were running the single-wing back then—that seems so ancient now. He was our original first-team All-American. He wasn’t very big but he was quick.

Working with LaVell was a real blessing in my career. LaVell was LaVell—he was real. There was nothing phony about him. People liked him. He had lots of friends in and out of the coaching profession. He did a lot consciously to develop friends and contacts. It was natural to him. What a guy to work with. He was the best.

I have some found memories of all those football trips. We were in Laramie once and had to make the long drive to Denver after the game to fly home. We were in the last car to leave because LaVell had his postgame radio show. They were waiting for us at the airport, but LaVell stopped to get a large drink. I was worried that the plane would leave us. Not LaVell, he was always laid back. I loved how he was so even-keeled. He was a competitor and hated to lose, but he was also so steady.

I remember going to the first BYU bowl game in Tempe, Arizona. It was so big for our program. We had not been to anything like that. No one associated BYU with a bowl game. It was like a new door opening. It seemed like we had to grind it out to establish the reputation. We were elevated as an athletic program by the football team getting some national attention.

Some of my favorite memories were going to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl. It seemed that we were regulars for a long time. It was always a highlight for me. We would take our families and leave the cold of Provo and go to San Diego for a week.  Being a part of all those early bowls was a thrill. The exposure from those games on the West Coast really helped elevate the exposure of the university.

For me, being a longtime Cougar isn’t about one person or one thing. It’s a lot of parts to the whole—everybody working together, trying to do a good job. Many of the early successes of the football program started to open the door for the university to begin getting respect and recognition.

I loved BYU and stayed for a long time because I sensed that we were building something special. There were so many things going on. It was great to be involved with all those tremendous athletes and great teams. I have strong feelings about the school. BYU is my alma mater. It’s where I wanted my children to go to school. To be affiliated with BYU all those years is a real honor for me.

Dave Schulthess served as the sports information director at BYU for nearly 40 years. He reached the pinnacle of his profession in 1980, when he was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame. The following year, Schulthess served as the CoSIDA President. In 1989, he was presented CoSIDA’s Arch Ward Award, given annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution and brought dignity and prestige to the profession. In 2000, Schulthess was inducted into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame.