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This Day In Sports…August 10, 2011, 15 years ago today:
Boise State president Bob Kustra announces that athletic director Gene Bleymaier is being relieved of his duties after almost 30 years at the helm. Kustra pointed to the ramifications of an NCAA investigation into the Broncos program as the core issue. Boise State would soon be placed on NCAA probation for a series of infractions that came to be known as “Couchgate,” as one of the transgressions allowed incoming freshmen to sleep on the couches at veteran players’ residences during summer workouts.
It was an unceremonious end for Bleymaier, who was central to the incredible growth of Boise State sports—football in particular. The Broncos and Boise were his life. Bleymaier graduated from Borah High in 1971, then went on to star as a tight end at UCLA and later earned his law degree there. He returned to Boise in 1981, hired by the retiring Lyle Smith as Boise State’s assistant athletic director. He was promoted to AD a year later—ironically when the school fired Snith’s successor, Mike Mullally.
The Boise State athletic program that Bleymaier took over in 1982 is hardly recognizable today. It was Division I-AA in football, a little more than one year removed from the national championship, and Jim Criner was still the coach. It was finishing its final basketball season in 3,600-seat Bronco Gym. Boise State was in just its 14th year as a four-year program.
From there, Bleymaier oversaw the grand opening of what is now Taco Bell Arena, masterminded the installation of the blue turf in Bronco Stadium in 1986, guided the Broncos through their move to Division I-A and the Big West in 1996 at the same time coach Pokey Allen was dying of cancer, co-founded what is now the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in 1997, and—through a series of coaching hires—presided over Boise State’s rise to the top 10 ranks in college football, a story that will not be repeated.
Boise State’s two marquee sports, football and men’s basketball, were ships passing in the night during the early Bleymaier era. The first major coaching hire Bleymaier made was in the spring of 1983, when he brought in basketball coach Bobby Dye from Cal State Bakersfield. Dye did the unthinkable at Boise State—made hoops as popular as football for a period of time. And a lot more successful, with three trips to the NCAA Tournament.
When the basketball program started to slide, the always-solid but then-struggling football program started breaking new ground. Bleymaier hired Houston Nutt after Allen resigned just before his death, two years after he led Boise State to the Division I-AA national championship game. Then when Nutt bolted for Arkansas, Bleymaier introduced Dirk Koetter as the new coach the same day. The brotherhood that started in 1998 extended through the incomparable runs of Dan Hawkins and Chris Petersen (and continues today).
Bleymaier was a vastly misunderstood person, primarily (in my opinion) because he’s an introvert. When some saw him as aloof and distant, it was really reticence at work. Some wanted a good ol’ boy, back-slapping athletic director. That wasn’t Bleymaier. He was always able to just keep his eye on the ball and take care of business. And thankfully, he was inducted into the Boise State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
