BYU50 Presented by Delta Comes Full Circle with Fans Flown in from Across the Country

Back in July, participants vied for grand prizes in each U.S. state that included round-trip Delta Air Lines flights, accommodations, ground transportation, food and tickets to the BYU-Texas Tech homecoming football game. With check-in locations across the country, participants had a chance to check-in and be entered into a drawing for the chance to win.

With the 49 winners, and a designated guest each, It was a memorable experience for many.

Among the winners were many alumni, other life-long fans, older couples, younger couples, dads and kids, alums who hadn't been back to campus in 20-30 years and even a couple who entered the BYU 50 sweepstakes in Pittsburgh who just happened to be walking by the check-in area and decided to enter on a whim, with no connection to BYU whatsoever.

Meet Dorothea Austin and Zaine Mattox. On July 22 the couple had just parked their car near downtown Pittsburgh, on their way to the popular Picklesburgh festival. Zaine spotted the BYU50 check-in location and told Dorothea that they needed to check it out. After learning about what BYU50 was and how to enter, Dorothea and Zaine both downloaded the app, took pictures with the sign, posted to Facebook and provided all of the necessary information to be entered into the drawing. They did all of this despite having no connection to BYU or to BYU’s sponsoring institution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“We’ve never been to Utah,” Dorothea said. “Neither of us went to school here. We knew that BYU existed, from seeing games on TV, but we knew absolutely nothing about it.”

Dorothea got the notification that she won, told Zaine, got flights booked, came to Provo, and it wasn’t until Friday night at the hotel when they started meeting other winners that they realized most of them were life-long fans and alumni of BYU. It wasn’t until lunch on Saturday when BYU Athletics staff discovered Dorothea’s and Zaine’s story.

Dorothea said the kindness of everyone they’d met is what stood out the most to her on the trip. For Zaine, it was the setting of LaVell Edwards Stadium.

“We both love to travel, but these mountains — we have never seen anything like it,” Zaine said. “Being surrounded by mountains like this, we’ve been in awe.”

One overarching purpose of the BYU50 campaign over the years, and a common talking point among Cougar Nation about the campaign, is to show the world that BYU has existing fans everywhere in the United States, thanks in large part to Church affiliation. This nationwide fan base enables BYU Athletics to run a campaign such as this, that few other athletic departments could. However, in the middle of showcasing the existing fans, this campaign created two new ones. 

“We’ll be back,” Dorothea said, while decked-out in BYU gear from head to toe, standing at the 50-yard line in LaVell Edwards Stadium. “We’ve put in on our actual bucket list to come back and spend some actual time here.”