Utah Jazz: Longtime Jazz usher Wally Price dies at 99

Escorted on each side by a young dancer, Wally Price pushed his walker down the center line of the hardwood court that had been such a central piece of his life, even if he rarely watched the games that took place on it.

This was last April at EnergySolutions Arena.

The poppy dance tune "Happy" was bumping over the speakers, and a few of the ushers who make things run a little more smoothly at every Utah Jazz home game were on the floor performing a routine at halftime of the season finale.

"Wally, by golly!" public address man Dan Roberts exclaimed as the 98-year-old Price took his hands off his walker and shimmied along to the music.

The crowd roared.

That's how Wally always knew things were going good.

"I can tell how the game goes by the noise," Price, who was a fixture at Jazz games for more than three decades even if he only rarely watched the action, told the Deseret News back in 2007.

There will be some quiet now. On Monday, Jazz officials confirmed that Price, the longtime arena fixture, died. He was 99.

"He graced us with kindness, joviality and friendship," Roberts said. "He never complained. He always wanted to know how you were doing and talked very little about himself. He was mostly interested in who he was talking to."

As news of Price's passing spread this week, the thought that stuck in Roberts' mind was the longtime usher's draw on the players.

"They never, ever missed saying hi to Wally. He made them say hello, you know what I mean?" Roberts said. "He was so full of love, they couldn't walk by him without checking up on him and seeing how he was doing. He was pure gold."

During his time with the team, Price had interactions with most of the game's stars, but he once told a reporter that his favorite player was former Jazz forward Thurl Bailey.

"When you talk about genuine people, I just don't think they get any more genuine than Wally was," said Bailey, now a television analyst for the team. "He just had a pure love for people."

Bailey, a player with the Jazz for 10 seasons, said Price was usually the first person he saw when he arrived at the arena, first the Salt Palace and later the Delta Center, for games.

"Sometimes he was the last guy I would see when I left," Bailey said.

Years later, Bailey and Price attended the same Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ward. Some 15 years ago, after Price's wife died, Bailey began visiting Price at his home, forming a lasting friendship.

"When I would enter the arena, he'd always know how I was going to greet him," Bailey said. "I'd take his little cap off and kiss him on his head. Then I would put his hat back on and tell him I loved him."

Price was born Aug. 10, 1915, and he started working for the Jazz in 1983.

"The job is what's kept me alive," he told Fox 13 in an interview last spring. "Really, I'm sure of that. It's kept me out of that rockin' chair. You can take root in those things."

Instead, a franchise and a fan base seemed to take root around him.

"You talk about being family, he's definitely a true member of the Jazz family," Bailey said. "You knew who Wally was if you came to a game."

afalk@sltrib.com