The former Cougar wide receiver, who ranks fifth — with 189 catches, 2,841 yards — on BYU’s all-time receptions and receiving-yards list, loves the school for which he played from 1996 to 2000, loves it so much he’s called for it to change the way it approaches and treats some of its athletes, athletes of different backgrounds and ethnicities, particularly African-Americans not steeped in the Mormon tradition.
Many of those athletes, such as Hooks himself, arrive in Provo in culture-shock mode, having to rapidly adapt to the LDS Church-owned university’s overall environment, its idiosyncrasies, its behavioral code.
Officials and coaches at the school have repeatedly said they want their teams to be inclusive, to be diverse, to benefit from the presence of all kinds of athletes.