BYU Football Fireside (Dallas, TX)

Since this is a football story I felt it only proper that I (Len) tell this story. Our family had the treat of a lifetime when the BYU football team came to Texas to play the TCU Horned Frogs in Ft. Worth. We were very lucky to have the fireside at our Stake Center on Oct. 15, 2008.

Although the game was a terrible let down (we lost but more on that later), the fireside was a great experience. The picture to the right is Lindsey, Nikki and Austin with BYU's starting quarterback, Max Hall. He is a native of Mesa, Arizona and one of our favorite players.

For those of you that don't know the fireside consists of small talks from a couple of football players and talks by Coach Bronco Mendenhall and his wife Holly. Most of the players sit up on the stand in the choir area so you get to see them. The testimonies/talks were given by starting linebacker David Nixon and starting fullback Fui Vakapuna. We also had receiver Reed White play a nice piano solo. David Nixon is from College Station and Fui used to live in the Dallas area so it was a treat for them to speak at a fireside in their home town area. One of the best parts of the fireside is when all the football players moved up to the choir area and sang "Army of Helaman."

It was a packed house. The chapel and the cultural hall were full. They even put people in the other rooms that had sound. People were packed in the foyer and hallways. We were there about 2 hours early to make sure we got a good seat but we were still barely able to sit in the chapel. We still felt lucky to be close enough to meet the players and have a soft seat for our 2 hour wait.