On the Road with Cruiser: A Gift of Service

A couple of weeks ago if you had been at Costco in Orem, you might have seen dozens of huge young men helping people to their cars. Each year Costco puts on a fund-raiser for the Primary Children’s Hospital, and this year the BYU football team participated in it by boxing people’s purchases for them and carrying them out to the cars. For this, the customers donated whatever they felt appropriate to the hospital.

Electricity was in the air as children walked side by side with their favorite player. Even Costco workers were buzzing. It’s not every day so many young giants invade their store to do good.

Why did the players do it? Partly because most of them are pretty good guys, and partly because Coach Mendenhall encourages them to perform community service. And when Coach Mendenhall encourages, things happen.

Although BYU football players are incredibly busy, last year they spent time visiting children in hospitals, serving the homeless, working for Habitat for Humanity, and, of course, helping people put their groceries away.

Most athletic programs around the country don’t do things like this, But Coach Mendenhall strongly encourages it. Not only does he want his players to be well-rounded, but he feels that the experiences they have while serving may actually become some of the most meaningful of their college years. Stepping out of their own lives to help others in theirs is where the rubber meets the road. It’s where self-centered boys become compassionate adults. It’s where athletes become citizens of the community. Coach Mendenhall doesn’t believe his job is to just win games; he believes it is also to mentor young men, to open their eyes to a bigger, more complex world than they find on the football field. Yes, he is determined to win games, but he is also determined to make a difference in their lives—to help them recognize that the meaning of life has more to do with helping others than with seeking glory on Saturdays.

If Coach Mendenhall has his way, BYU’s football players will become lifelong givers of service. In some ways, it is the best encouragement he could give them.