In what will most likely not be a weekly feature, here’s my favorite first pitch from the pages of this week’s SLC dailies:

A slow-sliding streetcar connecting Sugar House with TRAX could be ferrying passengers in three years, and the line eventually may swing north to Westminster College and the University of Utah.

This Lede of the Week comes from Derek P. Jensen’s (SL Trib) story on the slated project to build a streetcar line from the Central Pointe Trax Station to the Craig Mecham’s hole in the ground, otherwise known as the Granite Block Development (Sugar House).

For full disclosure, I am a rail transit fan (whether it be FrontRunner or the SugarHouse StreetCar), so the subject matter made Jensen’s hook that more enticing. The kicker, though, is the latter half of the lead sentence: “the line eventually may swing north to Westminster College and the University of Utah.”

Light rail connecting the U to Sugar House (and possibly beyond) has always been a dream of mine. The fact that it’s being talked about (the Trib attributed SLC Councilman Soren Simonsen to the notion) warms my heart. Rail transit (specifically to the U) has proven successful (according to a Lede of the Week semi-scientific survey) and more rail transit lines should help alleviate traffic.

Plus, a street car going to the U could prove to be beneficial in accomplishing the goals set out by the University’s Campus Master Plan. Right now, the plan calls for HPER Highway and the path connecting the Business buildings to the Union — both pedestrian thoroughfares through campus — to be open to shuttle traffic. Now I know I don’t speak for everyone, but when I smell the diesel spewing from those things, I sometimes throw up in my mouth. And, I don’t know how conducive the roar of a Mercedes 900 horsepower engine will be for those trying to learn at both OSH and LNCO (proposed thoroughfares would make the south end of those two buildings a busy intersection for shuttles).

A streetcar on the other hand, doesn’t stink (provided it’s electric), is quieter, and (call me a transit elitist) seems cleaner than the bus, I mean shuttle. Who knows. Maybe a U streetcar cutting through campus on its way to a bustling 9th and 9th and renovated Sugar House (don’t hold your breath), as well as light rail to a burgeoning downtown (you’re in my prayers, Downtown Rising) will not only make life easier for U commuters but may also attract top minds — both faculty and students — that don’t like the idea of having to drive everywhere.

At the west end of Rice-Eccles Stadium sits a nondescript brick building with few windows. Above the door, etched into the south wall, reads “Fountain of Ute.”

Originally built in 1931 to be a culinary well for campus, the site was acquired by the U in 1950, after which some of the U’s brightest biochem and geology students began using the building as a research lab. This same group of students — the “Rad Scientists” — went on an intramural sports run that has yet to be rivaled at the U, winning four consecutive titles in basketball, flag football, and gelande ski jumping.

Some of the old-timers that still remember the intramural reign by the Rad Scientists recall the team always bringing its own water cooler to every event.

After the students graduated, they moved on to different parts of the country and left the lab empty. But, before they left they hung a sign, the “Fountain of Ute,” that we see today, and they left a key to the building in a hidden spot somewhere on campus.

It is believed that basketball coach Jack Gardner knew of the Rad Scientists and their research lab and directed some of the lackeys in the athletic department to find that key. No one knows if they found anything, but Gardner’s clubs did make it to the Final Four twice during the ’60s.  However,  years later,  one of the Rad Scientists,  Adam B. Split,  told The Salt Lake Tribune,  “No way Gardner found the key to (the Fountain of Ute).  Otherwise they wouldn’t have lost a game.”

Split would not comment on what was in the Fountain of Ute or what made it so magical.

Word is, Urban Meyer and a group of assistants caught wind of the the Fountain of Ute story when he first arrived on campus and began a search for the key. For the entire summer of ‘04,  men in red and black track suits could be seen scouring campus.

Whether Meyer and the Utah football program found the key to the Fountain of Ute is still unknown, but the coach did leave a receipt to Doc’s Key Shop in his desk. Whether he made a copy of the key to the Fountain of Ute to take with him to Gainesville, is pure speculation. It is also rumored that Meyer taped a copy of the key to the bottom of his desk for Coach Whittingham.

The mainstream media credits the championship success merely to talented programs.  Some attribute the success to the Artesian well and the cold canyon stream water. Others say the well draws from a molten sample of tectonic plates boiling and stirring in the fault line’s asthenosphere. And, that this unique combination of magnesium, iron, silica, and Wasatch mountain water heightens the senses and sets off a hidden neuron in the brain that just wants to win — dubbed the ‘Win Switch’ by The New England Journal for Pseudoscience.

A University spokesperson will neither confirm nor deny the story.

We all know that winter in the Wasatch is epic. Spring skiing (and boarding) in the state of Utah is pretty legendary also. Check out U student and Freeskier Society member Jake Kirshner’s helmet cam footage and you’ll see why. Even in late April and early May, these guys (and gals) are still rockin’ the planks.

Featuring: Jake Kirshner, Carston Oliver, Kenjiro Matsuo, Eon Jarvis, Abe Fenichel & Nik Aksamit

HelmetCast 15 from Jake Kirshner on Vimeo.

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Kevin Winzeler (kevinwinzeler.com)