Snow Bird – Utah’s Recruiting Weapon

Date: July 3, 2026

Title: Utah’s Secret Recruiting Weapon

By: Doctor Dunkenstein (a.k.a. Christopher Lee Winans)

This is a  reflection of details during the 1980’s era of NCAA recruiting process through the eyes of a player who became a Runnin’ Ute.

In the 1980’s the NCAA college athletic regulation and enforcement organization had strict rules regarding recruiting.  There was a 60 day period when college coaches could visit your family and hometown.  The Head Coaches along with an Assistant Coach of all the interested individual basketball programs would travel to the college basketball prospects town.  The visiting college coaches had  arranged a  ‘speed dating’ visiting schedule during August to see as many potential basketball recruits as possible.  I was deep into the speed recruiting process by the end of summer.

It  was a misnomer that Head College Basketball Coaches actually recruited you back in those days.  Assistant coaches did the actual recruiting,  Head Coaches, for the most part, made telephone calls.  They were busy running a basketball team, they visited with you once in the summer for an hour or so, then once again for few hours during your official recruiting trip visit, and they could attend games.  Rules did not allow for in person contacts during the basketball season.  Most assistant coaches broke visiting  rules, but head coaches remained cautious.  In person meetings and conversations were restricted by the NCAA rules book.   Verbal contacts during the season were limited by the NCAA rules and no Head Coach wanted to be turned in to the the NCAA for violation of the rules, although rules were often broken by many coaches. 

The phone calls from recruiters began in my Junior year of High School, as the United States Military Academies had early recruiting privileges.  For some reason, the Academies all believed I wanted to be a soldier.  It had something to do with my father’s military history in the U.S. Navy and his previous success of acquiring Academy appointments for two students from my High School.  The moment I received my first non-military scholarship offer, I let the Academy recruiters know, it was an honor to be considered, but I respectfully declined any offers.   

By August before my Senior year the phone would ring every night constantly with calls from dozens of coaches I did not know.   This became  a problem, between my four siblings phone requirements and a father who did everything in his power to avoid business related phone calls at home, something needed to change.  My High School coach, Larry Piety, who sat with me during every college visit, solved the phone issue and recruiting frenzy problems, he sent out a quick mass mailing letter to everybody and put a damper on the speed recruiting in person visits.   He stopped the calls and put a date limit on any future in person the visits.  His intervention was more than welcomed. 

Somewhat funny and quite disclosing. as a show of his power in the State of Indiana, after receiving the letter from my High School Coach, Indiana University Head Coach, Bob Knight, called up my coach and informed him he would be flying in on his private plane to visit me 3 days after the visit restriction was established. 

View Presentation: ‘Bobby The Butt Slapper’ for the complete story on Coach Knight

What began as one of the last allowable scheduled rapid recruiting introduction visits to my home town in Garrett, Indiana during August of 1979, resulted in me signing a letter of intent in May of 1980 to the University of Utah basketball program. 

The coaches utilized the opportunity to ‘play’ on a top nationally ranked team and combined the State’s natural landscape as a secret recruiting weapon to sign me as a full scholarship basketball player.  It was a brilliant clever orchestration of recruiting,  conducted by a marvelous person, Coach Tracy Tripuka. 

Soon after checking Utah out,  I was quite aware of what Utah had to offer in regards to my basketball requirements.  The team was going to be a highly ranked team during my Freshman year with great Senior players.  After those guys moved on to professional careers, there would not be any other upperclassmen big men to play in my position.  An opportunity to earn a starting position would avail itself in my Sophomore and Junior seasons. My Freshman year offered the opportunity to earn playing time as a substitute for a great team that was going to make the NCAA post season tournament.  

Most of the new basketball coaches who came in to visit me during the speedy recruiting sessions, presented themselves as all knowing, prime and proper basketball aficionados, offering instant court time.  I wasn’t that naive.  If I was going to play as a Freshman starter, your team probably wasn’t very good.  These schools didn’t make my list.  

During the summer visits, most of the coaches would show you a professionally pre-packaged promo video of how great the basketball team and respective colleges were to attend, lots of beautiful coeds walking through campus adorning their fan gear apparel and they would tell you how you would fit perfectly into that basketball program on the  promo film .  While coaches recruiting me focused these traditional basketball pitches and promo videos, Utah assistant Tracy Tripucka built a personal bond with my coach and family, and he showed me game tapes of the Utah team playing basketball games. 

He discovered my passion for water skiing in those conversations with family, and eventually he learned it would translate into a passion for snow skiing the Utah mountains.  By showcasing the potential to actually playing as a Freshman in an NCAA Final Four and showing me the dramatic peaks of Snowbird and the water recreation at Lake Powell, the coaching staff convinced me to choose Utah. No rules needed to be broken to convince me to attend Utah, as many might have believed. 

The rule book had hundreds of pages , nobody knew all the rules —   my father actually received a copy of the NCAA rules book from Tracy Tripuka, and he actually read much of it.  We often joked if receiving the NCAA rule book as a gift was actually a rules violation.  I think my father wrote a $10 check just to make sure rules were followed. It was a humorous jester by all parties.  It was just one act of kindness made by Tracy that demonstrated his humor and personality.

After your initial personal contact with Head Coaches recruiting you, assistance took over the process.  Nevertheless, I had years of personal experience and hundreds of hours with the Head Basketball Coaches I wanted to play for in college.  I had spent countless hours with all of these different coaches during the summer camp sessions dating back many years.  But I had no experience with the Utah basketball program prior to their first visit. 

I did not even know Tracy Tripuka or the Head Coach Jerry Pimm when they started recruiting me.  Tracy Tripucka was the Assistant Basketball Coach at Utah assigned to my area, and eventually he successfully recruited me to attend the University of Utah on a full athletic scholarship.  It was a lifetime dream come true accomplishment.  Tracy made it a reality. 

My list had been set before summer started, these August speed dating recruiting events just seemed like it was just going through the motions, until Tracy Tripuka and Jerry Pimm showed up at Garrett, Indiana, prepared to show me how great the Utah basketball program was by demonstrating actual game play, how good the educational opportunities would be, how I could fit into a team as a Freshman that was going to have two All-american Senior players in Danny Vranes and Tom Chamberes, and future opportunities to increase playing time. They pushed me hard to make a visit with my father.  During that visit they applied their secret recruiting weapon on me, the Wasatch Mountains and the Grand Canyons of lake Powell.

Tracy did his homework talking to the right people and attending practices.  He had a good understanding regarding my basketball skills and was absolutely confident after watching me practice and after the first few meetings that I would fit in at Utah.   

Tracy wasn’t at all like most other college recruiters.  He was a gregarious fun loving good kind man who wasn’t in awe of the hype surrounding basketball.  He didn’t present a sales pitch, he just told you the facts.  He didn’t take everything too seriously and was relaxing to be around while recruiting.  Tracy came from a famous sports family he wasn’t easily impressed by any athletes.  He knew everybody is just a normal person despite their athletic prowess.

His father, Frank Tripuka,  was a  legendary college and professional football quarterback who had played at the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend , Indiana, during the 1940s, and in then in pro football for many years.  And in 1979, Tracy’s brother, Kelly Tripuka, was an All-american basketball player, carrying on the family tradition at The University of Notre Dame.  The Tripuka’s had a deep family sports history.  Tracy was re-known for his playing days and scoring performance at  Lafayette  College.  He treated me with respect and expressed confidence in his assessment of my basketball skills level.

I had heard of the family name, but I had never met Tracy.  In August 1979 he changed that by visiting me with the Head Utah Coach, Jerry Pimm,  and his reels of actual game tapes along with a reel-to-reel film projector – there were no videos in the 1980’s, just film on reels that played on a noisy combersome machine.  They wanted to first show me the team playing in games.  It was a good strategy that stood apart from the other speed recruiters. 

My High School Coach and I  spent hours with Coach Pimm and Tracy in the conference room of a local hotel watching Utah play basketball during our first meeting.

My Coach and I left our first meeting with our eyes forced wide open about what we had just seen on film and the potential prospects for a basketball career at Utah.  There were not any promo films shown, just basketball.  They immediately got added to my list of five schools I wanted to consider attending.

We watched a game film on the exact team I would be joining if I selected Utah.  It included All-American Danny Vranes, a seven year NBA pro, and 16 year NBA veteran Tom Chambers, along with Pace Mannion, and other good players, these guys would be the core of the team returning during my Freshman year at Utah, if I decided to attend.  Jeff Judkins was also on the film, but he would be the only player moving on from Utah, he played in the NBA for years for the Boston Celtics.  Utah had some great  players, they played my style of team basketball, and they were very interested in me,  it all got my immediate serious attention. 

With contacts between Tracy and I increasing over the weeks, the only thing Tracy ever demanded from me was that I make a set date for a four day weekend official recruiting visit to Utah,  demanding that my father would accompany me on the forthcoming trip – rules required my Dad pay his own expense on such a trip. It wasn’t difficult for that to be arranged.  Tracy and my father had much in common, they enjoyed each other’s company, and Tracy’s phone calls were part of the limited number of calls welcomed by my Dad.  As a busy man at work,  he did not have time to play phone tag with anyone or any recruiters.  He had many more important matters than my recruiting process.  But he enjoyed talking to Tracy and Johnny Orr, with whom he befriended years earlier.   

I could play the Utah style of basketball, I had minutes waiting for me, no other underclassmen big men were going to be in the program during my Freshman year, the team was going to be loaded with big men talent with the two Senior stars: Vranes and Chambers, as well as two other returning Senior starters, and Pace Mannion,  who was a very talented big tall guard.  Pace played years in the NBA and professional basketball in Italy until the age of 40,  he would be a year ahead of me in school and a three year Utah teammate.  Having  a chance to play as a Freshman on a very good team was all I wanted.  This was only made obvious to me after investigating the program, watching game film and listening to the Utah coaches.   

In the late 1970s, cable television was showing a very limited amount of college basketball outside of your living broadcast area.  I knew almost nothing about the Runnin’ Utes of Utah, I had watched them only once on TV when they played in a game in the NCAA tournament during my Junior year.  I was impressed but it wasn’t something in the front of my mind in August of 1979, during the recruiting frenzy period, that changed.

The  volume of different coaches who put me on the ‘Speed Dating Recruiter List’ for summer time was somewhat overwhelming.  My High School Coach began to filter out all visitors and calls.  Things calmed down and my direction was established. 

Coach Piety had taken control and was in charge of running the process.  My father did not have hyper-active participation in my recruiting.  He had work and a large family to tend to … … .  He stayed informed, and let me make my own decisions about where I visited and what to do.  He just let things work out on their own, and in the end, they did indeed work out for the best.

My recruiting door had a small opening.  All the coaches I wanted to play for in college were already inside the door.  There were some funny underhanded attempts to subvert Larry’s rules and system.  The University of Louisville and Richmond University come to mind.  Louisville tried to use cash on me, and Richmond offered Larry Piety a coaching job if he would deliver me to them.  Neither acts of subversion got anywhere or they were not successful.

I had many years of contact with all of the college basketball coaches I wanted to play for,  and I was certain that was what I would do, eventually.  Utah was on my desired list even though I had no history with the program.

In my mind, I was going to play for one of those coaches.  They all had one thing in common, they had taken a basketball team to the NCAA Final Four weekend. 

I had personal contact and many hours of playing demonstrations over a period of years in front of the coaches I wanted to play for in college.  They all knew my basketball skills level and personality well.  My first choice was Dean Smith, I had years of attending the ‘Dean Smith Basketball School’ at the University of North Carolina.  But I was not ever going to play as a starter in front of James Worthy or Sam Perkins.  The UNC staff went to great lengths to investigate whether I could play the small forward 3 spot.  I did not fit. I did not want to spend years as a substitute bench basketball player, even though I liked the coaches and loved Chapel Hill.   In the end, they selected Matt Dohrety for that position. 

I had just survived a demanding week of playing basketball in front  of Bobby Knight of Indiana, … … .  (read:  ‘Bobby The Butt Slapper’)  Playing at IU did not seem very enjoyable and I just  did not need to join a basketball program that was like the military with a raving General.  Not selecting Indiana was made by Knight’s awareness of the misfit of the program to the player.  He was right, by Christmas time of my Senior year,  we both knew I was not going to be a basketball player at Indiana.  Eventually, he moved on from me …

Rick Majerus, of Marquette – who won the 1977 national Championship – had run the Medalist basketball camps I attended for three years.  We talked about Marquette until the week I made my decision to go to Utah.  We stayed friends for decades after my time in college.  He was honest and told me I wouldn’t fit well into the team, and I didn’t much like Milwaukee. 

Lee Rose was close to my coach Larry Piety.  We visited Purdue many times, and I made an official weekend visit to Purdue.  Coach Rose told Coach Piety before it was made public that he was leaving Purdue and the  coaching profession all together, early during my Senior year of High School.  I think he knew he was leaving before he even started recruiting me in the summer.  I instantly had verbal conflict issues with Gene Keady, and had already signed my letter of intent by the time he became Coach at Purdue.  Issues of conflict extended for decades between us, unfortunately.

I had many years experience and many days of basketball with Johnny Orr of Michigan, he had befriended my father years before he recruited me to play at Michigan.   He spent dozens of days with me at the HBC basketball camp.  I was all set and going to play for Coach Orr, then he left Michigan.

Johnny Orr left Michigan to go Coach at Iowa State,  he asked me several times to consider Iowa State, but he knew I wanted a school that was going to the NCAA tournament.  Iowa States was years from doing that with Coach Orr at the helm.  His replacement, Bill Frieder. was still recruiting me as my Senior season in High School ended, he was very ingratiating, but not a guy I trusted at that time.  I later in life learned that I had completely misjudged Coach Frieder. 

In my mind, I was going to play for one of those coaches.  They all had one thing in common, they had taken a basketball team to the NCAA Final Four weekend.   It was almost certain, Utah was also going to play in the NCAA tournament during my Freshman season.  I liked the program, the people and the location.  

My basketball program requirements were simple, play in the NCAA final Four.  Don’t sit and watch the games in the tournament, play in the games as an active participant, not as a substitute bench player. 

I knew I wasn’t going to walk into a top program and take a starting position on a good team.  But I had excellent team skills and defensive abilities. I needed a place where playing time would be available and starting would be possible in my later college years, I was counting on my ability to improve.

I needed to select a coach and basketball program that was going to make the very limited 32 team invite NCAA Tournament dance list, not the current 2026 year 68 team dance invite list.   I had my list of coaches, schools, and teams set, with a few alternative possibilities if things didn’t work out and offers to play were not made by my desired coaches. 

Evansville, was about to be coached by Jimmy Crews, Oklahoma was coached by Dave Bliss, a former Knight assistant at Indiana University,  and Toledo University, which made the tournament in previous years, had all made me a full scholarship offer before my Senior year in High School.

I maintained contact with all these schools through Coach Piety and I took recruiting visits to each of these schools. 

On my recruiting visit to Utah,  I felt welcomed and wanted by the players that were a year ahead of me, Pace and Pete,  they was showed me just how much damn fun it was to live as a college student and play in Utah.  My eyes were completely open after the first few visits that Tracy Tripuka made to Garrett Indiana, but my visit to Utah was pulling me toward the Mountains. 

But they were not my first selection.  The distance from home was a drawback for me.   I was a home small town boy comfortable in my surroundings.

All the schools and coaches recruiting me were aware of my personal long term relationships with all the other coaches.  There was no recruiting war, the coaches who wanted me to play for their teams were not trying to out recruit each other.  There was no surprises to anyone involved in the ordeal.  Relationships between us were long existent and settled.  My desires and list was set.  Utah was on my list.

There would not be any chance at all for any under the table deals and rules violations in my recruiting.  My High School Coach, Larry Piety was a straight arrow, he always  played everything by the rules book.   He was in charge of the day-to-day activities.  He was not only my basketball coach in a small Indiana town, had been extended family to me for years.   

Regarding how my recruitment would be conducted was also my father, he was a walking ‘Book of Rules’.  He had memorized rules and laws for decades.

My father was a 25 year District Criminal Prosecutor.  He also ran a general law practice.  He graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1957.  Nobody broke many rules around him during my lifetime.  He also knew when a person was lying, or exaggerating circumstances, it was part of his profession.   He made visits to schools with me but showed no concern which school I attended, just as long as I was happy, and I obtained a college degree.  Basketball was to be used as a temporary path to higher education.  He wasn’t concerned which court the basketball bounced on for me and all of my considerations offered a great education, good coaches who were good people.  This fulfilled his requirements.  Any attempt to recruit my father or convince him of where I should attend college was not going to be very effective.   He had five children to put through college.  I was just in the middle of that pack.  The coaches did not try that path of recruiting. 

Long before my Senior year of High School, I had figured out in life that it was just better to tell my father the truth immediately in a bad situation rather than to lie about something to his face.  He seemed always to have already known the truth about things before issues were discussed, and it was always better to immediately deal with the consequences.  We had an open honest relationship.

I was close to my father and my eventual decision to attend Utah was only hindered by being 1500 away from him and my family.

This following story illustrates how Utah used outdoor adventure and personal connections to serve as  powerful incentives that landed me as a recruit to their prestigious basketball program.