LaVell and Patti: A duo that worked as one

Editor’s note: Sixth in an occasional series exploring LaVell Edwards’ legacy of leadership.

It was an early September Friday night before BYU hosted UCLA in 1995. The Cougars gathered around LaVell Edwards to wrap up their pregame walk-through at the stadium. This is typically a bonding moment where the coach offers some final thoughts ahead of the unifying team cheer.

Rarely is it interrupted by a phone call — but on this night, it was, and Edwards answered it.

“We are all looking at him like, ‘Bro, you were just getting ready to do the team cheer and you answered your phone?’” said tight end Chad Lewis. Patti was calling. “He’s like, ‘Huh? Yeah. Yeah. How’s it going? OK. Yeah. I’m good with that. Alright. OK. See you.’”

Edwards ended the call, looked up at the team and broke the silence.

“‘Yeah, I love you, too!’ And we just started cracking up so hard,” Lewis said. “It was his dry sense of humor. We knew it was Patti and the whole team was just dying. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he is so funny.’ It was just perfect LaVell.”

Wherever and whenever LaVell went was somewhere Patti went too, and vice versa.

“I loved that he and his wife were a package deal. It was always LaVell and Patti,” Lewis continued. “Patti was always there and when I went into the pros, she pulled us aside and said, ‘Michelle (Chad’s wife), as you go into the NFL, I want you to be together as much as possible, even if it means leaving your kids with babysitters.

“Go with Chad. Be together.’ Michelle and I realized that it was fully intentional of LaVell and Patti to go everywhere together. Their greatest strength was being together.”

There’s Batman and Robin, Bonnie and Clyde, and Bert and Ernie, but when it comes to BYU football, one duo stands alone: LaVell and Patti. They were independent souls who functioned as one.

“Nobody will say it out loud, but I mean, we all liked Patti as much or more than we liked LaVell, and we liked her because she was wittier. She was funnier. She was direct. She was scarier in some ways,” said Rob Morris, one of the most feared linebackers in program history. “She would never exercise this dominion or authority, but I know she had her thumb right on top of LaVell’s. She would say, ‘Jump,’ and he would say, ‘How high?’ I guarantee it.”

While LaVell left his mark on the field, Patti worked her magic off it to make the players feel special and to find ways to support the wives of other coaches.

“Being a coach’s wife was lonely. At one convention, I sat with other wives and we decided to start our own group,” Patti once said. “That day, we gathered 50 women. Today, the American Football Coaches’ Wives Association has over 3,000 members. We focus on support, camaraderie and service, including scholarships and community donations.”

“You really can’t talk a lot about LaVell without talking about Patti. I mean, she made it all good. She made all of us feel really good,” said national champion quarterback Robbie Bosco. “For example, newspapers were all we had (back then), right? So, she would clip out every single article that had my name in it and send it to my parents. That was super special for me.”

“I still see Patti. She still makes me feel special. She always calls me over and gives me a hug and tells me how much Coach loved me and how I was one of his favorites. I’m sure she says that to everyone,” said former defensive end Jim Herrmann before Patti’s passing. “They are special human beings and I’m super grateful that I chose to go to BYU and be in a program with him as the leader.”

Edwards died nearly 10 years ago. Patti passed away last February. On Saturday, when No. 8 BYU hosts No. 2 Notre Dame in the stadium that honors their name, the duo that worked as one just might look down to see how things are going.

Can you blame them if they do? Together, they built BYU into what it is today — one of the premier programs in the country.

Dave McCann collected the content for this article while researching and writing the book “The Leadership Legacy of LaVell Edwards,” which he co-authored with Dr. Mark D. Ogletree.