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HEAD COACH: HAL D. MITCHELL
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Voted the Western Athletic Conference "Coach of the Year" in his second season at BYU, Hal and his staff earned the award; not only for the timely upsets in league play, but for some of the best football seen at BYU in many years.
Three years ago, at age 30, he became the youngest varsity coach in BYU history. His first season, which found him introducing the single-wing, was somewhat disappointing in Hal's own eyes. Last year the team made a marked improvement, and the future now looks very good.
A native of Los Angeles,he has spent the better part of his life either playing or coaching the game. He captained the high school, college and service teams he played on, and he has been able to cram a lot of coaching experience into his relatively brief stint in the field.
After graduation from Los Angeles High, Hal enrolled at UCLA, where he was to play three years of varsity ball under Red Sanders. Mitchell captained the Bruin squad in 1951 and was chosen first string tackle on the AII-PCC selections.
Hal also saw plenty of post-season action during his senior year. He played in the Fast-West Shrine game, the Hula Bowl, and the College All-Star game in Chicago. He was tutored under such coaches as Bud Wilkinson of Oklahoma, Bobby Dodd of Georgia Tech, Frank Broyles of Arkansas, and Jim Lee Howell of the New York Giants.
Drafted by the Giants, Mitchell spent the better part of two seasons as regular tackle. Howell stated that Mitchell was the most conscientious and dedicated player on the team.
As a commissioned officer in the Army, Hal was assigned to Fort Lee, Virginia. He captained the post team his first year there, then served as player-coach during the second season. In 1954 he was named the most valuable player in Army football.
Coach Mitchell began his coaching career at Mira Costa High School in Southern California, where he was line coach. He was named head coach at Hart High School in Newhall, andat Hart had an 11-1 record.
Mitchell first came to BYU in 1959 as freshman coach and in two seasons he had a 7-1 record. His first year with the varsity ended at 2-8, and last fall it improved to a 4-6 mark.
Hal is married to the former Patricia Ann Armstrong, also a native of Los Angeles and they have five children; three boys and two girls.
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CHRIS APOSTOL (Utah State '50)
Chris Apostol came to BYU in 1959 as an assistant after serving as head coach at Qgden High School, where his team won 11 straight victories in taking the Utah Class "A" football championship in 1958.
A native of Bingham, Utah, Chris was an all-around athlete and student body president at Bingham before enrolling at Utah State in 1946. He was a member of the Aggie varsity line for three years, then joined the Ogden H.S. staff in 1950. He was named head coach in 1953. His prep record was 44 wins, 13 losses, two ties.
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EARL LINDLEY (Utah State '54)
Earl came to BYU in 1961 from Idaho Falls High School in Idaho, where he served as head football coach. A native of Wellsville, Utah, he was an all-state end at South Cache H. S. before enrolling at Utah State.
He proved to be one of the Aggie football greats, winning honors as end and halfback before graduating in 1954. He received his master's degree from USU in 1957.
Lindley joined the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian League, playing three years as regular with that team before leaving the game because of an injury.
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CLINT WHITFIELD (UCLA '59)
Another member of the staff from UCLA is Clint Whitfield who also doubles as wrestling coach at BYU.
A native of Loma Linda California, Clint attended Los Angeles H. S and was the first-string guard at UCLA for three seasons under Red Sanders Clint won AII-PCC honors in football, represented UCLA as heavyweight wrestler, and captained the Bruin graplers in 1958.
Clint obtained a master's degree this summer from BYU. He coached at Oxnard H.S in California prior to his appointment to BYU.
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JERRY DOMAN (Oregon State '59)
Youngest man on the staff, 25 year old Jerry Doman joined the Cougars in 1961. He came to Provo from Oregon State, where he was a freshman football coach.
A native of Ontario, Oregon, he was an all-state end in high school. Enrolling at OSC, he was fullback and outside linebacker as a sophomore, moved to end his junior and senior years. He was captain of the team in 1959.
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GLEN TUCKETT (Utah '53)
Glen Tuckett, who came to BYU three years ago as baseball coach, coached the frosh footballers two years ago, and he currently serves as head scout.
A graduate of the University of Utah and veteran professional baseball player. Tuckett played with the Salt Lake Bees and teams in the Western International League.
He coached six years at West High School in Salt Lake City prior to coming to BYU. He is a native of Murray, Utah.
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LaVELL EDWARDS (Utah State '52)
Newest member of the varsity staff is LaVell Edwards, who came to BYU in the spring of 1962 from Granite High School, Salt Lake City.
At Granite, Edwards served six years as head football coach, wrestling and golf coach.
A native of Orem, Utah, he was all-state lineman, and from 1948 to 1952 he played football at Utah State where he won all-conference honors.
Edwards is a former president of the Utah State High School Coaches Association, and is currently working on his Ph.D.
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ROD KIMBALL, TRAINER
Rod Kimball has served all but one of the last 25 years as team trainer. As veteran member of the staff, he dispenses humor, wisdom and other morale-building qualities along with his physical therapy.
A native of Jordan, Utah, Rod was an outstanding athlete and student leader. He won letters in two sports at Utah State and BYU. He has traveled countless miles with the Cougars since joining the athletic staff in 1937. Rod holds a master's degree from BYU.
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SINGLE WING
What ever happened to the old single-wing offense?
That question occasionally pops into the minds of a few football fans who still remember it as a popular formation of many years ago. In fact, time was when practically all of the colleges relied on the single-wing as their basic formation, and it was even used by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL for a number of years.
Today only a few teams in the United States still use this formation. Only two of the major schools in the country, Brigham Young and Princeton, are now employing this type of attack.
The great strength of the single wing, traditionally, has been the running-pass option to the strong side. In my estimation there is no better way to run this type of play than from the single-wing. In fact, all football teams today, whether they be single-wing type or not, employ this type of play in their offense.
As for strong side running power, it is unequaled by any other formation.
To defense this attack, teams deterred this great running strength by overshifting their defense to the point where there were more men on the strong side than could be blocked out of the play. They also coped with the reverse and weak side attack simply by keying on the wingback, the only ball carrier that could effectively carry the ball to the weak side.
This type of defense eventually put the original type single wing out of business, and the advent of the T-formation hastened its disuse.
We at Brigham Young have held to the single wing theory of football, sticking with the concept of the strong side running game with the run-pass option.
In addition we have developed a completely different kind of weak side running attack that is basically a T-formation. Consequently, we consider our offense to be single-wing to the strong side, and T-formation from the weak side.
Our blocking back, while not under the center, is in a position to receive a short snap from the center. Our weak side attack takes the hand-off, cross buck, power sweep, off tackle power, and other plays.
We feel that this will solidify the defense to the weak side, allowing us to take full advantage of our strong side attack. This provides us with a great amount of versatility, and for this reason we feel it is still a great offense.
- Hal Mitchell
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Source: 1963 BYU Media Guide
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