Larsen, the Weber State Assistant AD for Media Relations, and the main media contact for men's basketball and football, will retire on April 1 after a 31-year career at Weber State. He was honored with a reception on March 28. He was named Sports Information Director at Weber State in October of 1979.
Brad was a student assistant in the Utah State SID department from 1974-78 then served at the University of Northern Iowa as its SID before joining Weber State. In 1984, Larsen served as Assistant Venue Press Chief at the gymnastics and tennis venues of the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
by Jim Burton, Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner staff
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Brad Larsen is the boy who typed WOLF.
Seriously, my friend Brad, who's retiring after 31 years as Weber State's sports information director, has always had a thing for CAPITAL LETTERS.
Normally, we use ALL CAPS to get somebody's attention. Whether it's used to denote anger or excitement or perhaps to emphasize an achievement, that CAPS LOCK button on the keyboard is not to be trifled with.
I'm sure that was Brad's intention in the beginning. But over the years he became more and more accustomed to CAPPING ALMOST EVERYTHING.
At some point, his purple-colored press releases became littered with ALL CAP SPORTS INFORMATION to the point his important words may have lost their effectiveness.
I spent five years as this newspaper's Weber State beat writer. My main job was to cover football and men's basketball, meaning I got to travel all over the country with Brad and the Wildcats.
Over those years I read a countless number of Brad's press releases, and after a while ALL THOSE CAPITAL LETTERS sort of blended together, so much so that I barely NOTICED them.
Now, before you go thinking I'm being cruel or needlessly raking him over the coals, know that Brad is well aware of the issue. He's been teased about it by his FRIENDS and COLLEAGUES for years.
But that's Brad for you. He's a capital letter kind of guy, which is to say he stands out. He has a big voice and an ever bigger heart, which I suppose are two excellent traits for any sports information director.
See, Brad bleeds purple and anyone who has covered Weber State sports knows it.
But after 31 years of working with the local notebook jockeys and microphone hounds, he's retiring.
Make no mistake: HE WILL BE MISSED.
On Tuesday, the folks up at Weber State held a reception for Brad, whose last day is Friday. Stewart Stadium became a veritable who's who of Top of Utah/Weber State sports movers and shakers.
Long after the reception ended a few of us remained, sitting around a table, swapping Brad stories.
Oh it was fun.
There isn't time or space enough to tell all of them, nor would it be appropriate to do so in a family-type publication.
Well ... maybe just one.
A few years back, after a Weber State football game in Missoula, Mont., I caught a ride back to Ogden along with Brad, WSU radio play-by-play man Carl Arky and WSU assistant coach Tom Stackaruk.
Because he lives life in a capital letter kind of way, Brad ate a little too much on the trip and, as I recall, somehow got ahold of some bad food. The poor guy was sick as a dog the entire weekend.
Anyway, as we drove though the dark Montana night, Brad was stretched out in the middle seat of the van, moaning and groaning most of the time.
In fact, I think the only time he stopped was when that Montana state trooper pulled us over and told us we needed to stop in Dillon to take care of the ticket he was about to write.
That, or we could pay him in cash and he'd take care of it for us.
Well, we all dug through our wallets, came up with a suitable amount of cash and were allowed to go free.
A few minutes after we got back on the road, we noticed the gas tank was precariously low. Problem was, it was the middle of the night and we were in the middle of nowhere.
Amazingly, almost like a vision, we soon noticed a filling station off to the side of the highway, all lit up like a UFO. We stopped, filled up and paid at the pump, even though the place appeared to be closed.
And off we drove, a little freaked out but laughing like jackals the entire time.
I think it was then that Brad mustered the strength to say something like, "Don't look back, boys! If you do, I guarantee that place will be gone."
Brad says he's driven that highway a few times since and to this day, he insists he's never been able to find that mysterious gas station.
PRETTY WEIRD, HUH?