Detmer was ripped off by a guy who was allegedly his close friend and is now in prison for ripping off Detmer, a widow, a number of former NFL players, and some ward members I know. Detmer and his former business associate were both in the ward I was in just over 10 years ago. I taught Ty’s daughter in primary. He is one of the nicest guys you would ever meet. Whenever I would see him he would treat me like a good friend and that is how he related to everybody. I wanted him to succeed at BYU. He has had a rough stretch in his life. I hope he bounces back and great things come his way. I think he lost nearly all of his NFL retirement money getting ripped off by his ex-friend. I was the Ward Clerk and Detmer’s friend was the ward executive secretary for awhile when we were in the same ward. He once made an overture to me to invest some money with him. Fortunately I didn’t have any to invest at the time so there was no temptation. Others weren’t so fortunate. The irony is that this guy was called by the stake to be a financial advisor and then a year or two later everything came crashing down.
Whenever some church member approaches you with an investment too good to be true hang on to your money. I have seen widows robbed of their life insurance money by snakes and honest wealthy men lose everything and die of stress induced heart attacks because they had to sell used cars to try to make a living after losing millions being duped by some snake.
Ty Detmer is our district athletic director for the ALA system. The principal brought him into my class to sign my Ty Detmer poster. That was cool! He still has a thick Texas accent. He was brought in to help our elite athletes get college scholarships.
I teach at ALA-Ironwood. Both ALA-Gilbert and ALA-Queen Creek narrowly lost in the 4A and 3A semifinals for football. Queen Creek won the 3A state championship last year and moved up to 4A. Max Hall coaches them. Ironwood is a farm club — our good athletes transfer over to Queen Creek.
What was the investment scheme?
The Osmonds Attorney back in the early ‘80’s signed everything but the studio in Orem over to himself as power of attorney. He was their Stake President. People often invest in things they don’t understand. Putting all your eggs in one basket is something a BYU graduate should know not to do.
So should we have ignored our current Tight End Rex because his dad played for BYU? Or may our current center Empey whose dad played for BYU, who is also an NFL talent? Or maybe we should have left Corbin and Devin Kaufusi (who are both in the NFL now) go because their dad was a coach at BYU
Seriously, I am not sure what happened to you concerning nepotism at BYU, but the “Truth” is that if any player(s) is a good to great player, regardless of who their Dad, Uncle or relative is, BYU should do their best to recruit them and bring them to BYU.
Now if you are talking coaches, then that is a different issue. As long as they are talented coaches (Say Steve Kaufusi who provided us with much better d-line than our current DC) they should be able to come to BYU.
There are some of our legacy players who kids are doing well at others schools, I wish they would have come to BYU (like Rocky Beagles LB son).
Personally, if the players are good, they should come regardless of who or what they are related too.
The reason that Coach Edwards was a great HC, was because he recognized good coaches and let them do their jobs (according to Edwards himself).
Look at Coach Edwards high school record before being hired as a defensive coach at BYU. He never won a game in high school at Granite. What made him a good coach is his ability to administrate the team and coaching staff.
I think Kalani has the talent to follow Edwards example, but he needs to divide his loyalty to his friend from his loyalty to his job and the team. Which right now, I am not sure he is capable of it.
All you have to do is look at what they did to Steve Kaufusi by “retiring” him. Under Kaufusi, the D-line was always one of the strongest units. Produced several NFL players (two of which are his sons). They moved him to LB coach where they started being stronger than the D-line and the next we know… he is “retiring”… Sad days…
The Church has for years said this very thing. But yet, members are naïve and believe their friend is trustworthy and then wonder why they got taken…
How about the fact that:
A. The First Presidency has told people to be careful of “investment too good to be true” schemes.
B. Research before you invest…
I don’t really know what the investment was. My understanding is that it was a real estate ponzi scheme. I know Detmer was a top level employee with the company called Triton. The owner founder & CEO was running a Ponzi scheme & was, or still is, in prison. The guy who ran the company preyed on athletes and took their money and used them to sign up clients. Detmer didn’t do anything criminal and was a victim and cooperated with the SEC in an investigation of Triton and was a witness against the defendant in the criminal trial. That’s about all I know.
My nieces and nephews in Gilbert go to a charter HS and I think it is ALA…my nephew is a good tennis player but too skinny for real sports ()–yes I tease him all the time. I have not met Ty Detmer but when he was coaching at BYU I got my non member star QB (now a full scholarshipTE at Univ of Montana) and my non-member star RB/LB (now a full scholarship LB at Oregon State) an invite to BYU’s elite camp. Detmer worked closely with both of them and both kids were DEEPLY influenced by how awesome Detmer was. BYU actively recruited both but after Detmer left, BYU quit recruiting my QB. Both dads were at the camp and met Detmer. Both players and their dads are now BYU fans because of the experience they had with Coach Detmer.
PS My RB had a lot of offers and his final two came down to OSU (where his dad was a scholarship DE and TE) and Utah. Thank goodness he picked OSU!!! I love that kid and would have had to secretly root for Utah if he had gone there
I guess nepotism in the Church should be discontinued as well. That way, President Kimball would not have been called as a General Authority and blacks may still not hold the Priesthood.
There are cases where nepotism is a problem but that has to be proved. Your examples are good examples. Jim must have been passed up for something.
The guy was very likeable and personable but as it turns out a criminal. I lot of church members in Westlake, Lakeway (upper income suburbs), lost a bunch of money due to this guy. I live in a small country town and of modest means and never got involved with him other than seeing him in Bishopric meetings. One wealthy guy I knew lost everything and was forced to sell cars and died of a heart attack probably brought on by stress due to financial issues. A woman lost her husband in a motorcycle accident and lost all her life insurance investing with this guy. The life insurance was all she had. Her husband was a working class guy with no savings. The were fairly new converts to the church and salt of the Earth people. Her husband home taught my daughter during a rough period in her life. Fortunately the woman remains faithful. As the financial clerk I used to write checks for her almost weekly for utility bills paid by fast offerings. I have heard from people who were at his criminal trial that the widow’s testimony was one of the things that put a nail in his coffin.
I think Ty Detmer took the HS job because he lost almost all his retirement. I wish things had worked for him at BYU. I think in time he could still be a top coordinator. The problem was he was coaching QBs as well as being the offensive coordinator. Maybe they should have just hired him as the QB coach. He probably wasn’t ready to take on the coordinators job.
Not sure why I am posting all this on a football thread except maybe as a cautionary tale. Jim Hawk’s post earlier today triggered it I guess.
Love the Granite High reference; I’d forgotten LaVell coached there…my cousin Barry played at Granite and was multiple times all state as both a QB in football and catcher in baseball (DesNews POY–I think twice). He turned down a scholarship offer to play QB for Bear Bryant at Alabama and instead signed a minor league baseball contract. He had injured his knee in basketball his senior year at Granite and reinjured it in the minors (he was a catcher) and forced to quit baseball. He came home and played QB at southern utah but the knee was already wrecked and it was never the same. Here’s the fun trivia: His STAR WR at Granite? Doug Richards! In fact when my cousin was sophomore he was the starting QB and his two WRs were Doug Richards and his older brother Golden Richards. Barry used to say, “When your WRs in high school are two of the fastest and best HS football players ever in the state, it makes the QB look pretty good.”
I was extremely close to my cousin Barry, and DEVASTATED when he died in his sleep at age 44. Literally devastated. I idolized him when I was a kid and he was always great to me. One of my earliest memories was coming to Utah to watch him play baseball in a state Legion tournament at Murray Park. He would have been about 18 and I would have been about 5. As adults we worked closely together. Barry was Mike Littlewood’s coach and mentor at T’ville, and Littlewood and I were both pallbearers at the funeral. So thanks for mentioning Granite High, because it brings up good memories of all my cousins who went there.
We had an issue with a scheme here in California called ABC. They were scamming in Utah as well and a couple other states. Members were involved. Many lost a lot of money promised 7% - 12% compounding Interest a month. It was a Ponzi scheme. One member was going to be difficult to prosecute so the Feds gave the case on him to the IRS and he spend a year and a half in Club Fed. He still thinks ABC did nothing wrong. But then he also invested in a gold mine in Chile that never existed.
Interesting Tom,
He was theT-ville coach? Do you know which years?
I have officiated baseball games for over 25 yrs including T-Ville games (HS, Legion, Automotive, Babe Ruth).
I always loved T-ville spirit and never ending belief they could hang with anyone.
I read up on Triton. Sounds very similar to ABC Alternate Business Capital. High interest rates promised and fake investment statements. Except, ABC didn’t have the gill scuba thing. ABC head spent 4 years in Utah State Prison. I thought she should have gotten more because she had tried the same scam 10 years earlier with almost the same company name. She had lawyers involved in the scam that were dangerous people too. I here she repented and joined the Church while in Utah after getting out of jail. They preyed on Spanish speaking people and people in debt, their product wasn’t fake gills. They sold LLC’s .
That was cool! He still has a thick Texas accent. He was brought in to help our elite athletes get college scholarships.
)–yes I tease him all the time. I have not met Ty Detmer but when he was coaching at BYU I got my non member star QB (now a full scholarshipTE at Univ of Montana) and my non-member star RB/LB (now a full scholarship LB at Oregon State) an invite to BYU’s elite camp. Detmer worked closely with both of them and both kids were DEEPLY influenced by how awesome Detmer was. BYU actively recruited both but after Detmer left, BYU quit recruiting my QB. Both dads were at the camp and met Detmer. Both players and their dads are now BYU fans because of the experience they had with Coach Detmer.