Utah Blaze: Skaggs family has special night

By Jared Eborn
Deseret Morning News
Published: Sunday, March 30, 2008 12:16 a.m. MDT
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His career with the Utah Blaze was not an especially noteworthy or lengthy one. Yet, in the season and a half Justin Skaggs played for the Utah Blaze he made as big an impression on his team as any other player to put on the orange and black uniform.

Skaggs, a receiver and defensive back, died June 15 last year just a few weeks after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

Saturday night the Blaze organization retired his number in a special pre-game ceremony where his wife Tara and children Jake (6) and Abbie (3) returned to EnergySolutions Arena for an emotional night.

"When I first came through that door, it was really tough," Tara Skaggs said. "I've never been to a game here that Justin wasn't playing in. So to be here, without him, it was hard. But it was really wonderful, too."

The Blaze family has worn the number 3 on helmet stickers this year and now that number — placed against a Skaggs-trademark camouflage background — will hang from the rafters.

And though nine months have passed since Skaggs died, his wife said each day brings a different challenge.

"There are days when it feels like 10 years ago and there are days when it feel like it was just yesterday," Tara Skaggs said. "But we're doing OK."

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One thing that has not changed much is the sense of family she feels from the Blaze players and staff. She said she receives frequent phone calls from old teammates and is sometimes asked to move to Utah from her home in Missouri.

She's tempted — "I love it here, this is just like home," she said — but will be content making a trip or two each season to watch a Blaze game.

CONCERN IN THE FRONT OFFICE: The 0-5 start to the season left Blaze president Jason Jones shrugging his shoulders after the game, trying to figure out what's wrong with the team and what needs to be done to turn things around.

And while the on-field results are troublesome, so might be the effect the winless start has on ticket sales.

"We still believe in this team," Jones said after the game. "We've made some changes and brought in some new guys. But we're still working on things, I guess. It's now a question of how do we find that right chemistry."

With about eight minutes to go Saturday, Georgia scored to make the score 63-42 and hundreds of fans stood up to leave the arena. Two minutes later, after the Blaze squandered a scoring opportunity and turned the ball over, the same thing happened. After the game, the usually long lines of fans waiting to get to the field for autographs were considerably shorter than normal.

Yet, the team announced a crowd of 15,240 — the highest of the season.

"Our revenue is still on par with where it's been every season," Jones said. "Nothing would indicate that it's starting to drop off yet. But we don't want to wait for that to happen, either."

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