I've told this story before, but my kids like wearing their BYU hats and shirts. When my three oldest boys were young (12, 10, and 8) we went to a Target and they ran to the toy aisle. I was in the next aisle over, helping my son find a birthday present for a friend, when I heard an adult getting nasty with my 10 and 8 year old boys. I quickly walked over to the next aisle to see what was going on, came up from behind this chubby dude in his 40s and wearing a red Ute shirt, asked what was going on. When he saw me, he calmed way down, mumbled something and then walked off. I asked my boys what happened and they said they were looking at the toys, when this guy walked up to them out of the blue and started to berate them for being BYU fans. Maybe this guy was bullied as a Ute fan in the 80's, or maybe he just has an axe to grind against the church, or something else, I don't know. But that kind of going after little kids is WAY out of line for any fan, no matter what you've experienced in the past.

There are lots more examples I could talk about my boys getting poked and prodded by Utah fans at church from adults in positions of authority (YM leaders and EQ presidents), etc. I won't get into it all. My point is that Utah fans seem to be nastier and have no boundaries, compared to 20 or 30 years ago.

My boys have learned how to tell a true Utah fan from a BYU hater. I have no problem with the few/rare true Utah fans who can be civil about the rivalry. My problem is with the loud, very vocal, obnoxious, and generally nasty Utah fans who aren't really Utah fans, at all. They can't tell you more than two players names on "their" team, they can't tell you their record, or who they played last week, they don't know their fight song . .. . they aren't Utah fans, they are BYU haters.