University of Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois on Sunday apologized for what she called "an unacceptable chant" aimed at BYU men's basketball players following the Wildcats' 96-95 win over the Cougers at McKale Memorial Center.
As BYU players were exiting the court, the chant emanated from the Arizona student section, known as the ZonaZoo.
More than an hour after the game, Arizona Athletics issued a statement to the Deseret News and on social media apologizing for the change, which was the exact same chant that Providence fans employed in December, and Oregon and USC fans have used in the past four years. All of those school also apologized.
“Following tonight’s men’s basketball game, it was brought to our attention that an unacceptable chant occurred," Reed-Francois' statement read. "On behalf of the University of Arizona Athletic Department, we apologize to BYU, their student-athletes, coaches and fans. The chant is not reflective of who we are and should not have happened.”
The offensive chant was directed at members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, colloquially known as Mormons. The church is the sponsoring institution of BYU.
The chant was "{expletive) the Mormons."
For those interested, this @Kevinreynolds30 story provides interesting and helpful context around the "[expletive] the Mormons" chants we hear at a variety of BYU road games. Here is the statement, in full, that BYU Athletics provided to the Tribune for this story. https://t.co/gQFkL16FlY pic.twitter.com/PniBb77kY8
— Jon McBride (@jMcBee84) February 23, 2025
BYU Athletics issued its own statement in response to the incident.
“After these kinds of chants happen, we’re always thankful for an apology from a university leader or an athletic director, and we hope that productive conversations can happen on those campuses,” the second paragraph of the statement reads.
“We hope that opposing fan bases can understand that when they are disparaging The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and/or its members, they aren’t just disparaging BYU. There are members of their community, fans of their school and even coaches and student-athletes on their teams who are members of the very faith they are chanting about.”
