By james art As the Brigham Young University football team marches undefeated through its first seven games of the season, one of the things that has been most impressive to Elder Clark G. Gilbert, a Seventy-year-old and the church’s commissioner of education, is the humility he has seen .
After every game, the coach and the players work on what they need to improve.
“There were just some special things about the culture of this team,” Elder Gilbert said.
While big wins and come-from-behind wins are fun to watch, it goes deeper.
“We don’t just welcome the sport, these teams do it in a special way. And I think this football team does that in a special way,” Elder Gilbert said, pointing to coaches who not only push players to improve, but also stand for something more — namely the mission of BYU and its owner, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.
“I always applaud BYU, but when they can reflect the values of the Church and the university, it’s a different gear and it’s deeper and it’s more meaningful.”
Elder Gilbert made the comments on the Y’s Guys podcast on Tuesday, October 22. Y’s Guys is distributed by the Deseret News.
During the hour-long conversation with Dave McCann and Blaine Fowler, Elder Gilbert emphasized the importance of keeping faith in Jesus Christ at the forefront of everything BYU does – especially athletics.
“We remain anchored in our Code of Honor, church approval and our dress and appearance standards,” he said. “We also retain the ability to act independently, including who we recruit and admit to the school. All these things keep us from going astray.”
Joining the Big 12
Elder Gilbert spoke about how BYU’s rising platform in the Big 12 has provided a larger stage to share the university’s values. BYU’s mission is not only to excel in competition, but to represent integrity, service and humility in the process.
This applies to any of the sports programs, such as basketball, football, cross country and others.
“It’s a special time, and I think it’s on and off the playing field, and that’s one of the things that’s so important to us as leadership in the Church, it has, it has to be both.”
He quoted head football coach Kalani Sitake as often reminding the team that “faith in Christ is the foundation of our program.”
A wider audience was introduced to BYU and the Church through the football team, television commercials for the university, BYUTV stories about the other teams, and BYU alumni service projects at away games.
While there are many ways for the Church to promote itself and the university to promote itself, “if it doesn’t reflect our values, it doesn’t matter,” Elder Gilbert said.
BYU Sports Funding
Elder Gilbert said he often hears two different voices — on the one hand, people would like to see more money, more amenities and higher pay. On the other hand, people will tell him that there are too many costs to the game.
“If it ever gets to the point where the only way we can stay in this is to move away from our values, that will be the end of athletics at BYU. That will not happen… We have a culture here that is exceptional and I am confident that this will not happen. There is no other place like it,” he said.
All binding decisions go through BYU President C. Shane Reese, to Elder Gilbert, and then to the Board of Trustees—which includes the First Presidency.
He explained that coaches’ salaries are funded internally and under the control of the university — and reiterated that no direct tithe is used to support BYU athletics.
“It’s a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that we use the tithe for the main work of the Church,” said Elder Gilbert. “The bad thing is that it might make someone say, ‘Great, we can just do whatever we want.’ But governance remains universally tied to the Church Board of Education.”
The courage to be different
BYU football is building global connections this year by mentoring BYU-Pathway Worldwide students. The team also received attention this year because the only Jewish quarterback in college football — Jake Retzlaff — played at BYU.
Retzlaff said his experience with faith on campus has been transformative. Other non-Latter-day Saint players shared how they chose to go to BYU because they know what it means.
Elder Gilbert reiterated that “there’s a reason it’s BYU and you put that name on it and it has to mean something different. We will be different.”
The late President Spencer W. Kimball shared that message in his “second century address” at BYU, and President Jeffrey R. Holland, the current president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gave a message to the faculty to do the same, Elder Gilbert said.
“BYU will have to stand alone, and if we don’t, the rest of the world will end up saying, ‘BYU who?’ … If we don’t have the courage to be different, we’ll become just another team.”