Elder Nielson

Loved Elder Nielson s talk. I know this is a BYU football forum, but Gifford is a wonderful example of what we want BYU football to be.

He came to our stake conference last year and gave nearly that same talk. I heard 3 different talks from him during the conference and they were each unique, entertaining and inspiring. He is a great one. Glad to have alumni like that.



Ps: I've seen him at 2 of our home games this year, don't know if he's been to all, but he's a fan and supporter as well. A good guy.

I like Mark Atuaia's tweet to the right: "That my friends, is why you go and play ball at BYU. Elder Nielsen--beautifully done! (Exclamation point)

I was going to put something in the Lounge so I'm glad I checked here before doing so. I loved his story of the missionary's shoes. Didn't he quote the scripture about how beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of those who bring the gospel? I didn't look it up so please take it as a paraphrase, but It brought back a powerful memory of one of our converts quoting it to my great companion and I. There is more than one lesson in that story.



Hey maybe that's why he did so well at BYU, the Lord guided the ball into the receivers hands! Seriously, he was the first of a long line of great qbs for Edwards and BYU. Maybe we could say he hasn't switched positions but the team is changed a little.



Keep pitching touchdowns Elder Giff.

My wife and I really enjoyed his talk and his enthusiasm. We look forward to many more.

BTW, he was not the start of the string of great QBs (exclamation point) The start was Gary Sheide, and he deserves credit. His accomplishments are monumental because he was breaking a trail through a football wilderness. Gif was definately great, but so was Sheide!

I thought Nielson played before Sheide

The song goes: We had Sheide, Nielson, Wilson, and McMahon, Young, Bosco, Covey, now Ty's the new man!"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=30Px-z8LFac#t=231" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

snoscythe wrote:
The song goes: We had Sheide, Nielson, Wilson, and McMahon, Young, Bosco, Covey, now Ty's the new man!"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=30Px-z8LFac#t=231" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Which leaves the oft forgotten Virgil Carter. But he was before Lavell became head coach.



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snoscythe wrote:
The song goes: We had Sheide, Nielson, Wilson, and McMahon, Young, Bosco, Covey, now Ty's the new man!"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=30Px-z8LFac#t=231" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HA HA ha. haven't heard that since about 1st grade.

Wonder how made the Utah and USU fans were watching that great talk.

BroncoBot wrote:

The song goes: We had Sheide, Nielson, Wilson, and McMahon, Young, Bosco, Covey, now Ty's the new man!"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=30Px-z8LFac#t=231" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HA HA ha. haven't heard that since about 1st grade.

You were in 1st grade in 1990? wow I'm old

When Gary Sheide was a senior, he led BYU to its first bowl game. You have to remember that there weren't very many bowl games in those days (1974), and it was only the fourth Fiesta Bowl, which was created to give the WAC a chance at a bowl game (in those days, it was an earier version of the MWC struggle to break into the BCS).



Sheide, a juco transfer, was a national figure in the new pass-happy offense (which was VERY innovative at the time) for the two years he started. From BYU's profile:

As a senior, he garnered accolades for leading the Cougars to a 7-4-1 season. His honors include the Sammy Baugh Trophy, Most Valuable Player in the WAC, First Team All-WAC, WAC Offensive Player of the Year and player of the week honors from the WAC, UPI and Associated Press. Sheide also led the NCAA with 388 yards passing and led the Cougars to their first bowl appearance.

I lived in Phoenix at the time and was able to get some nosebleed tickets to the game. BYU went out to a 6-0 first quarter lead against Oklahoma State and Sheide was dominating. Then everything collapsed when he went down with an injury and never returned to the game.



I forget the name of the QB who replaced him, but it was all OK state after that. The next year, Gifford Nielsen was the starter and the rest is history.



As for Virgil Carter, he was 11th in voting for the Heisman in 1966, but this was before the Lavelle Edwards era and Carter's prowess wasn't repeated by subsequent quarterbacks until Sheide began the long and glorious stretch. I saw Carter play when I was at the LTM (Lanaguage Training Mission ... predecessor to the MTC). They let us go to all the home games back then, and even gave us missionaries free tickets. I was in the LTM for most of the 1966 season, so got to see Carter a lot. Prior to that, BYU rarely won a football game, and everyone pretty much blew it off and only went to the games as something to do while waiting for basketball season.

Carter was phenomenal! I was at the Utep game when he set the ncaa total offense record. Utep had a very good team then. He had 500+ yards passing and running. He could do what Young could but was 20 lbs. or so lighter. He played in the nfl I think for Chicago. In one game he was running down the sidelines when a tackler came up and hit him. He pirouetted around him and kept going. To this day I've seen few moves to beat it. He should have won the Heisman but at that time the ncaa never looked to the inner mountain area. If Hill could pass as accurately as Carter I believe we'd be undefeated.



To get back to Nielson, he's the only qb to become a general authority which is phenomenal for anyone.

Carter - Bears and Bengals iirc.



Carter played for BYU in my early to mid teenage years. I was raised by a single mother of five and other rhan 1 U game, never could afford the luxury of a college football ticket. For the 1 U game, my older brother's best friend drove us to it when we lived in Sandy area.



A trip clear down to Provo was out of reach. Even when we moved to Provo, no luxuries like that.



Amazingly, while attending BYU for under-grad and U for MBA, I never was able to attend a football game at either school. I would try to listen to KSL while working for my dad, but "all of that noise and racket" usually resulted in him turning the radio off in less than 15 minutes.



BYU did have a drawing that provided some free basketball tickets to students. You got to enter a ticket into one of the jars organized by section. I was smart and always put mine in the nosebleed jar and did get a free ticket to several games.



I was armed with a BS and an MBA and started my career in So. CAL just as Sheide and Edwards got launched.



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This is a good story Bib. I had to earn all my $ for school. I had to get 2 loans to finish, one from my dad and one from the school but I paid them back without any government interference.

Back in the good ole days - Tuition was $240 per semester plus books. I got married young and had my first 2 kids while still in college but with no medical insurance. Back then doctor and hospital bills came in at just under $500 for each baby.



Rented a farm house in Midway for $35 a month. Then the commute got to me after a car wreck in Provo Canyon, so I rented a 2 bedroom basement apartment on 3rd south in Provo for $65 monthly. Then a farm house at 1168 W 500 South for $95. You could see daylight through a hole in the bathroom wall. I managed to get a Farmers Home Administration mortgage and buy a new Boise Cascade pre-fab home in Heber for $17, 500 during grad school and bum a ride to and from SLC daily from my dad's friend.



I did have to borrow an old car with expired plates my stepmother had parked out in the field when she married my dad and take our a $300 student loan to finish the last semester of graduate school. Other than that, TA, part-time weekend job, and playing in a band squeaked me through.



It is shocking what it costs students today to get the same education and start a family.



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profgeek wrote:
When Gary Sheide was a senior, he led BYU to its first bowl game. You have to remember that there weren't very many bowl games in those days (1974), and it was only the fourth Fiesta Bowl, which was created to give the WAC a chance at a bowl game (in those days, it was an earier version of the MWC struggle to break into the BCS).



Sheide, a juco transfer, was a national figure in the new pass-happy offense (which was VERY innovative at the time) for the two years he started. From BYU's profile:

As a senior, he garnered accolades for leading the Cougars to a 7-4-1 season. His honors include the Sammy Baugh Trophy, Most Valuable Player in the WAC, First Team All-WAC, WAC Offensive Player of the Year and player of the week honors from the WAC, UPI and Associated Press. Sheide also led the NCAA with 388 yards passing and led the Cougars to their first bowl appearance.

I lived in Phoenix at the time and was able to get some nosebleed tickets to the game. BYU went out to a 6-0 first quarter lead against Oklahoma State and Sheide was dominating. Then everything collapsed when he went down with an injury and never returned to the game.



I forget the name of the QB who replaced him, but it was all OK state after that. The next year, Gifford Nielsen was the starter and the rest is history.



As for Virgil Carter, he was 11th in voting for the Heisman in 1966, but this was before the Lavelle Edwards era and Carter's prowess wasn't repeated by subsequent quarterbacks until Sheide began the long and glorious stretch. I saw Carter play when I was at the LTM (Lanaguage Training Mission ... predecessor to the MTC). They let us go to all the home games back then, and even gave us missionaries free tickets. I was in the LTM for most of the 1966 season, so got to see Carter a lot. Prior to that, BYU rarely won a football game, and everyone pretty much blew it off and only went to the games as something to do while waiting for basketball season.

The backup's name was Giles. He might have been a decent QB if he had any PT, but I don't think they had a lot of blowouts that year. After the first 4 ( I think) games, they were listed in a nationally released article about the worst ten teams in America; by the end of the regular season, they broke the top twenty.



If Sheide had not been injured, they would have completely dominated OSU. As it was, I remember the game still being close, but it was very obvious that Giles wasn't Sheide.

Sheide dislocated his shoulder vs Okie State. He was drafted as 2nd QB taken in the draft. Bengals took him in 3rd round. Elbow injury kept him from ever playing.



My research indicated that after finishing 5-6 his first season as a junior jc transfer and starting 0-3-1 his senior season, this wierd new passing offense finally clicked. BYU won out and was winning the bowl game until he got injured. They won the WAC - ASU and AZ were still in the WAC then.



Sheide and his brother both converted to The LDS Church - baptized the same day.



Sheide turned BYU down in a short conversation out of high school and told Edwards he had never hear of his school. He went to JC to play baseball and was recruited in football, basketball, and baseball.



QB injuries at the JC resulted in him deciding to give FB a shot.



Did great. Had offers from every conference. Then Edwards came again. His mother liked Edwards and told Sheide to visit. The mountains, pretty girls - all convinced him when Edwards acknowledged that BYU did have an All American RB - but they were going to switch to the pass and change college football.



Sound familiar.



A baseball player who had never heard of BYU and was not LDS came to BYU to change college football forever because his mother liked LaVell Edwards.











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Cougarbib wrote:
Back in the good ole days - Tuition was $240 per semester plus books. I got married young and had my first 2 kids while still in college but with no medical insurance. Back then doctor and hospital bills came in at just under $500 for each baby.



Rented a farm house in Midway for $35 a month. Then the commute got to me after a car wreck in Provo Canyon, so I rented a 2 bedroom basement apartment on 3rd south in Provo for $65 monthly. Then a farm house at 1168 W 500 South for $95. You could see daylight through a hole in the bathroom wall. I managed to get a Farmers Home Administration mortgage and buy a new Boise Cascade pre-fab home in Heber for $17, 500 during grad school and bum a ride to and from SLC daily from my dad's friend.



I did have to borrow an old car with expired plates my stepmother had parked out in the field when she married my dad and take our a $300 student loan to finish the last semester of graduate school. Other than that, TA, part-time weekend job, and playing in a band squeaked me through.



It is shocking what it costs students today to get the same education and start a family.



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Maybe this should be in the lounge. When I did my student teaching in SLC I had barely enough to pay rent and eat. I had a cheap but good guitar and my roommate wanted one. While he was trying them out I went down to the Gibson section with my tongue hanging out. I was playing this dream Hummingbird when it was time to go. I asked the guy how much it was and he said $390 but it's $100 off. I might have that in my pocket now but it was a fortune then. Then for some reason I asked him how much down. He said $50. My roommate immediately said he'd give $50 for my guitar. Through the shock I asked if I could call my dad and come back next day. My dad said he'd back me. I got the dream guitar and somehow made every payment. It changed my life. The Hummingbird is worth at least 10xs what I paid for it but it ain't for sale.



Back on track, this was about the time Elder qb was shredding defenses.