Title: Rivals on the Green: A Tee-Off for Life
The early summer sun cast long shadows over the pristine fairways of the Hidden Valley Country Club in Sandy, Utah. A soft breeze rolled through the Wasatch foothills, rustling the cottonwoods that lined the course. This was no ordinary golf tournament. It was the inaugural Kidney Cup Classic, a charity event uniting the unlikeliest of allies: the football coaching staffs of the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
Historically bitter rivals on the gridiron, Utah’s head coach Kyle Whittingham and BYU’s Kalani Sitake traded playbooks for putters in support of a cause deeply personal to both. In a state where sports fandom often divided households along red and blue lines, this event was a testament to a rare kind of unity—one that transcended rivalry and rested squarely on human need.
The cause? Raising funds and awareness for Intermountain Kidney Services, a nonprofit supporting dialysis patients and kidney transplant programs across the state. Both coaches had seen firsthand the toll of kidney disease: Sitake’s brother had undergone a transplant in 2018, and one of Whittingham’s former linebackers now lived with stage 4 renal failure. Their personal connections sparked a conversation that turned into a movement.
“I’ve faced 4th-and-goals against BYU,” Whittingham joked at the opening ceremony, donning a crimson polo. “But today, we’re all on the same team.”
Dozens of current and former players, assistant coaches, and local business leaders joined in. Former Utes quarterback Alex Smith, himself no stranger to medical battles after his devastating leg injury, arrived to wild applause. BYU’s Heisman hopeful Keaton Slovis volunteered as a caddy for Coach Sitake, drawing laughs with his oversized straw hat and sunscreen-streaked nose.
As foursomes teed off, the competition remained fierce—but friendly. Whittingham, known for his gritty sideline demeanor, displayed surprising finesse with his 7-iron, sticking his approach shot within three feet of the pin on the 7th hole. Sitake countered with a booming 280-yard drive on the 12th, then high-fived fans gathered along the ropes.
Throughout the day, live leaderboards were projected onto a screen at the clubhouse, but the real scoreboard was written in donations. Each birdie added $500 to the fund; each eagle, $1,000. Hole-in-ones? A pledged $10,000 from a Salt Lake tech firm. When a former walk-on kicker dropped one in on the par-3 15th, the cheers could be heard back on State Street.
Between swings and laughter, sobering stories were shared. A young girl named Marisol, only 11 and awaiting a transplant, sat under a tent with her parents, clutching a miniature football signed by both coaches. “They’re heroes to me,” she whispered. “They make people care.”
By sunset, over $480,000 had been raised—enough to sponsor mobile dialysis units for rural Utah communities. Coaches Whittingham and Sitake, flanked by their players, stood together to present the check.
“We’re opponents for one Saturday a year,” Sitake said. “But kidney disease is an opponent every day. And together, we’re going to beat it.”
As the crowd erupted in applause, the final rays of sun gilded the course in gold. For one day, red and blue didn’t matter. What mattered was life—and a game far bigger than football.
