BYU is proving that sports and service can be a winning combination.
Bears and cougars. Pineapple and pizza. Chocolate and cinnamon bears. Some things don’t seem naturally to go together. But sometimes the most unlikely combinations can create the most meaningful impact. Like bringing diapers, socks, canned food, and books to a tailgate party.
Since 2019 the BYU Alumni Association has organized tailgates ahead of away BYU football games with a vision to create a unique game-day experience—what BYU President C. Shane Reese (BS ’94, MS ’95) now passionately calls a “party with a purpose.” These tailgates bring together a host of alumni, fans, and friends and a local charity identified by the alumni chapter for a Cougs Care service project. What started as an unlikely pairing has evolved into a tradition of showing love for neighbors through meaningful, lasting service and gratitude to the people who so generously host us in their hometowns.
Cougs Care examples from 2025 included literacy and book drives in Boulder, Colorado; Tucson, Arizona; and Lubbock, Texas; food, coat, and personal hygiene donations in Greenville, North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Dallas, Texas; and shoes and winter clothing collections in Ames, Iowa.
Long before modern researchers put numbers and brain scans to it, the benefits of service were already well understood. For decades, studies across psychology, medicine, and sociology have consistently shown that serving others improves mental health, reduces stress, strengthens relationships, and even supports physical longevity. Helping someone else activates neural pathways associated with joy, connection, and meaning. This body of evidence doesn’t reveal something novel; rather, it confirms something timeless: we are designed to thrive when we look beyond ourselves. That design points to a Creator who built joy, resilience, and purpose into the very act of lifting others.
The spirit of BYU isn’t just something we cheer about— it’s something we live.
BYU’s Cougs Care tailgate service projects bring this divine design to life in a uniquely BYU way. On game days, while fans gather to cheer on their teams, Cougs of all ages donate food, shoes, books, socks, coats, and more. The oft-divisive energy of athletic competition gives way to unity of purpose, reminding us that the spirit of BYU isn’t just something we cheer about—it’s something we live.
Cougs Care events reframe what it means to show up for a game. It channels the excitement, loyalty, and community of BYU athletics into tangible acts of good, proving that service doesn’t require a separate calendar or special occasion. It belongs right where we already are—together. When Cougars serve, hearts are lifted, lives are changed, and givers are transformed just as much as receivers.
BYU doesn’t have a corner on the market of good in the world. The ripple and flywheel effects of localized service are expanding beyond BYU and its ever-growing community of alumni and friends. Other universities, businesses, and individuals are joining the service movement in meaningful ways, shining the same light of Christ that points us all toward Him. And that’s a combination that wins every time.
Hillary Nielsen is the past president of the BYU Alumni Association.
Michael Johanson is the director of alumni relations at BYU Alumni.
