Brigham Young University is the reason Provo looks and runs the way it does, and most people who move here know only two things about it: the church owns it, and the football team is good some years. The rest is a 150-year story of a school that nearly failed several times, moved up a hill, grew from about 1,500 students to 25,000 in a quarter century, and then chose to stop growing.
This page is for newcomers, transplants and anyone who did not go there. The story of the downtown building where it began, now the city library, has its own page: Brigham Young Academy. This page is about the institution.
The one-paragraph version
Brigham Young founded an academy in Provo in 1875. It survived a fire, years without a building and chronic money trouble until the church took formal responsibility for it in 1896. It became a university in 1903 and moved to Temple Hill starting in 1911. After World War II it exploded in size, and since 1970 its board has held enrollment roughly level. It is now the flagship of the church's higher education system, a Big 12 school since 2023, and in 2024 the church announced a medical school.
Who runs it, and who pays
BYU is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Three facts explain most of how that works:
- The board is the church's leadership. BYU's Y Magazine says that in 1939 the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the church commissioner of education became the university's board of trustees. The Deseret News describes today's board as led by the First Presidency and including members of the Twelve and other general church officers.
- The church pays much of the bill. The church subsidizes tuition "by an annual amount in the hundreds of millions of dollars," the Deseret News reported in 2023. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published by BYU, said around 1991 that about a third of the university's budget came from tuition.
- The mission is religious. BYU's mission statement says the university, "founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," exists "to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life."
For how that plays out in daily student life, from dress and grooming to the ecclesiastical endorsement, see the BYU Honor Code, explained.
1875 to 1903: an academy that nearly did not make it
BYU's 150th anniversary timeline gives the founding as October 16, 1875, when Brigham Young established Brigham Young Academy. The first classes met on January 6, 1876, in the Lewis Building downtown, under principal Warren N. Dusenberry, who served only a few months. Karl G. Maeser, a German convert Young called to lead the school, arrived in Provo on April 21, 1876.
How the school started depends on whom you read. BYU's timeline says it opened with 70 students. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism says it "began with twenty-nine pupils in the elementary program and one teacher, Karl Maeser." Both are university publications.
The early decades were precarious. Ernest L. Wilkinson, BYU's seventh president, wrote that the school was "born in poverty, nurtured in conflict, orphaned by the death of Brigham Young, left homeless when its uninsured building was completely destroyed by fire," and "nearly abandoned on many occasions because of lack of funds." The fire of January 1884 and the eight years in borrowed rooms that followed are told on our Academy Building page.
The turning points came in the 1890s:
- January 4, 1892: the new Academy Building was dedicated and leadership passed from Maeser to Benjamin Cluff, Jr. White and blue were chosen as the school colors that year.
- July 18, 1896: the academy was incorporated as a subsidiary of the church, "ensuring financial support for the school," in BYU's words.
- 1897: BYU's timeline says the academy granted its first college degrees. (The Encyclopedia of Mormonism says instead that BYU awarded its first four-year college degree "forty years after its founding." We have left both.)
- October 1903: the board renamed it Brigham Young University.
The new name came before the size. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism says that in 1912 the board capped enrollment at 1,300 for the high school and 250 for the college, with no more than fifteen paid college teachers.
1904 to 1921: up the hill
The modern campus started as a student project. Y Magazine's history of Temple Hill says that in 1904 students raised $1,000 to buy land on the bluff northeast of town and built a banked track and a grandstand seating nearly 1,000. President George H. Brimhall, appointed in April 1904, then raised money to extend the "Upper Campus" toward the mountain.
On January 16, 1908, Karl G. Maeser's birthday, church President Joseph F. Smith dedicated Temple Hill as the site for a "university of Zion," according to BYU's timeline. The Karl G. Maeser Memorial Building, paid for by more than 1,600 donors with a large gift from the Jesse Knight family, was finished in 1911 and dedicated on May 30, 1912.
The hill was nearly lost. BYU's timeline says that in 1912 a commencement speech by Alfred Kelly, who described Temple Hill filled with students and buildings, "averts the sale of BYU land on Temple Hill." For years the school ran on two campuses, and students with classes in both had twenty minutes to walk between them.
The war years reached campus too. BYU's timeline says 16 BYU students died in World War I, and that classes were canceled from October 15, 1918, to January 1, 1919, during the influenza epidemic. BYU awarded its first master's degrees in 1919.
1921 to 1945: becoming a university in fact
Under Franklin S. Harris, president from July 1921 to 1945, BYU built the institutions that make a university recognizable. BYU's timeline and the library's 150th anniversary exhibit, as described by the Deseret News, list:
- 1922: the first official football win, over Wyoming on November 11. (The archivists note that the school had played football from 1896 and dropped it three years later after deaths in the sport elsewhere.)
- 1923: the cougar became the mascot. Students adopted two live cougars, Cleo and Tarbo, the next year.
- 1925: the Heber J. Grant Library, the first central library, was dedicated at the school's 50th anniversary.
- About 1928: accreditation by the Association of American Universities, which the archivists described as recognition of BYU "as an actual university."
- 1930: the first college of religious education.
- 1939: the church's top leadership became the board of trustees.
World War II took a heavy toll. BYU's timeline says 119 BYU students died in the war.
1945 to 1971: the boom
Nothing in BYU's history compares with the quarter century after the war. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism says the university "grew from 1,500 students in 1945 to 25,000 by 1970." Y Magazine says enrollment went from 1,508 in 1944 to 6,359 in 1952, and that BYU housed the first wave in 26 surplus barracks bought from the Ogden Arsenal.
Much of the growth happened under Ernest L. Wilkinson. The sources give different starting points for his presidency: the Encyclopedia of Mormonism lists him as president from 1949, the Deseret News's list of presidents says February 1951, and BYU's timeline dates his inauguration to October 8, 1951. All agree he served until 1971.
A short list of what that era built, from BYU's timeline and Y Magazine:
- The first honor code, written by students in 1948.
- Heritage Halls, whose first dormitories opened in 1953 at $20 a month, and Helaman Halls, dedicated in 1959.
- A 1957 campus plan that, in Y Magazine's words, proved "remarkably accurate in predicting two decades of expansion."
- The first doctoral degrees, in 1961.
- Cougar Stadium, finished in 1964 and renamed LaVell Edwards Stadium in 2000.
- KBYU-TV, on the air in November 1965, and the campus entrance signs reading "Enter to learn; go forth to serve," unveiled in December 1965.
The era also brought BYU into national controversy. Until June 1978, according to the church's own published essay on the subject, the church did not ordain men of Black African descent to its priesthood. On October 17, 1969, the University of Wyoming's coach dismissed fourteen Black players who asked to wear black armbands in a game against BYU, the Associated Press reported, to protest racism some had experienced in earlier games against BYU and the church's priesthood restriction. The players became known as the Black 14, and Wyoming has since honored them.
1970 onward: the decision to stop growing
In 1970, the Encyclopedia of Mormonism says, the board decided to hold enrollment between 25,000 and 27,000 students, and growth continued "in less visible ways," through facilities, students and faculty. The same entry notes that BYU felt steady pressure to admit more students than it could accommodate.
The 1970s added much of what visitors see today:
- 1971: Dallin H. Oaks became president on August 1, and the Marriott Center opened, then the largest arena of its kind on a university campus. It seated 22,700 then and seats 17,978 today, according to the Deseret News.
- 1972: the Provo Temple was dedicated on February 9, on the hill above campus. Our new Provo temple explainer covers its current rebuild.
- 1973: the J. Reuben Clark Law School enrolled its first class.
- 1975: BYU marked its centennial, and church President Spencer W. Kimball gave what is remembered as the "Second Century Address."
- 1976: the Missionary Training Center was completed on June 30, next to campus. Our MTC visitor guide explains what goes on there.
1980 to 2014: a national name
The next three decades put BYU in front of a national audience:
- 1980: Jeffrey R. Holland became president.
- 1984: the football team finished 13 and 0 and was ranked first by every major poll on January 2, 1985, a story told in our page on the 1984 national championship.
- 1987: the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies opened.
- 1989 to 2003: Rex E. Lee and then Merrill J. Bateman served as president. Quarterback Ty Detmer won the Heisman Trophy in 1990, and in 1997 chemist Paul D. Boyer became the first BYU alumnus to win a Nobel Prize.
- 1999: work began turning the old Academy Building downtown into the Provo City Library.
- 2000: BYUtv launched, and the Creamery on Ninth East opened, which BYU calls the first full-service grocery store on a U.S. campus.
- 2003 to 2014: Cecil O. Samuelson was president. The Napoleon Dynamite filmmakers, BYU alumni, premiered their film at Sundance in 2004, and Jimmer Fredette's 2011 season set off "Jimmermania." Preston, Idaho, where it was shot, is now a day trip from Provo.
2014 to now: belonging, the Big 12 and a medical school
Kevin J Worthen, president from 2014 to 2023, earned his bachelor's and law degrees at BYU, as the Deseret News noted when his successor, another BYU graduate, was named. BYU's announcement of his successor credits him with expanding mentored research through the Inspiring Learning Initiative and with steering athletics through years of football independence and West Coast Conference membership into the Big 12.
The recent milestones, from BYU's timeline and news releases:
- 2020: instruction moved online on March 12 because of COVID-19.
- 2021: after a committee on race, equity and belonging directed by then academic vice president C. Shane Reese issued 26 recommendations, BYU announced an Office of Belonging and a Statement on Belonging in August.
- 2023: BYU joined the Big 12 on July 1. Reese, a statistician and BYU graduate, became the 14th president on May 1. The Deseret News noted he had once turned down an NFL job to stay on the faculty.
- 2024: the First Presidency announced in July its intent to create a BYU school of medicine; our medical school explainer covers the accreditation path.
- 2025: BYU turned 150 on October 16, with more than 35,000 students, and the library mounted an exhibit running through the school year, "By Study and By Faith."
The leaders, in one table
| Leader | Years | What changed on their watch |
|---|---|---|
| Warren N. Dusenberry | 1876 | First principal, for a few months |
| Karl G. Maeser | 1876 to 1892 | Survival, the 1884 fire, the new Academy Building |
| Benjamin Cluff, Jr. | 1892 to 1903 | Church sponsorship (1896), renamed a university (1903) |
| George H. Brimhall | 1904 to 1921 | The move to Temple Hill |
| Franklin S. Harris | 1921 to 1945 | Library, mascot, accreditation, football |
| Howard S. McDonald | 1945 to 1949 | Postwar enrollment surge, first honor code |
| Ernest L. Wilkinson | 1949 or 1951 to 1971 | Growth from thousands to 25,000 |
| Dallin H. Oaks | 1971 to 1980 | Marriott Center, law school, MTC |
| Jeffrey R. Holland | 1980 to 1989 | Jerusalem Center, 1984 title |
| Rex E. Lee | 1989 to 1995 | Ty Detmer's Heisman season |
| Merrill J. Bateman | 1996 to 2003 | BYUtv, the Creamery on Ninth, an alumnus's Nobel |
| Cecil O. Samuelson | 2003 to 2014 | Wheatley Institute founded (2007) |
| Kevin J Worthen | 2014 to 2023 | Inspiring Learning, Big 12 admission |
| C. Shane Reese | 2023 to present | Big 12 entry, medical school, 150th |
Years follow the Deseret News's 2023 list, except where noted above. BYU's timeline gives November 2, 1995, as the day Bateman was named, and the Deseret News says his term began in January 1996.
Seeing BYU if you never enrolled
- Walk the hill. The Maeser Building, the first on Temple Hill, still stands. Our BYU campus visitor guide covers parking and the route.
- Go to a museum. The Museum of Art is free.
- Sit in on a devotional. The Tuesday 11:05 a.m. devotionals and forums are open to the public; our devotionals explainer says what to expect.
- Visit where it started. The Academy Building downtown, now the library, is south of campus on University Avenue; our Provo City Library guide covers visiting.
- Compare it with its neighbor. If you are choosing a school, our BYU vs. UVU comparison sets the two side by side.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was BYU founded?
Who owns BYU?
How big is BYU?
Why is BYU on a hill away from downtown?
Who has led BYU?
When did the BYU Honor Code start?
When did BYU join the Big 12?
Can people who are not students visit BYU?
Sources
The facts in this guide were checked against these sources. Hours, fees and rules change, so confirm anything time-sensitive with the source before you go. How we make Provo.com.
- BYU 150 Timeline, Brigham Young University. Checked October 20, 2026.
- 100 Years on Temple Hill, Y Magazine (BYU). Checked October 20, 2026.
- Brigham Young University (Encyclopedia of Mormonism), Brigham Young University. Checked October 20, 2026.
- C. Shane Reese named Brigham Young University's 14th president, BYU News. Checked October 20, 2026.
- BYU mission and aims, Brigham Young University. Checked October 20, 2026.
- Race and the Priesthood (Gospel Topics essay), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Checked October 20, 2026.
- BYU celebrates 150 years of history and tradition (Oct. 2025), Deseret News. Checked October 20, 2026.
- New BYU president: who is Shane Reese? (with list of past presidents), Deseret News. Checked October 20, 2026.
- 14 black football players kicked off team over protest armbands are honored 50 years later (AP), NBC News. Checked October 20, 2026.
