Over a decade later, Jimmermania is still alive and well as cheers greeted BYU basketball legend Jimmer Fredette and his wife, Whitney, as they walked onto the stage at RootsTech 2024.
With his 3-pointers, Jimmer took the basketball world by storm and in 2011 led BYU to its first Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1981. After graduating from BYU, he went on to play in the NBA for six seasons and played a handful of years in China for the Shanghai Sharks.
By sharing stories from Jimmer’s basketball career, their time at BYU, and their marriage, the Fredettes emphasized the importance of learning the stories of our ancestors and recording our own stories.
The Power of Sharing Memories
During the Fredettes’ RootsTech class, photos popped up on the screen of Jimmer playing basketball as a child, Whitney as a BYU cheerleader, Jimmer taking in the storming of the court after BYU beat previously undefeated San Diego State in 2011, Jimmer being guarded by Kobe Bryant, and the birth of their first child.
The couple shared the story behind each photo as it came on screen and described why those photos and their associated memories mean so much to them. Each photo was then added as a memory to their FamilySearch account.
“I just think for my kids and for my grandkids and great-grandkids, these stories can easily be lost by the wayside,” Jimmer said. “A few generations down the line, we have no idea how we met or how our family kind of came together, so I think being able to have that memories portion in [the FamilySearch] app to be able to kind of remember it, be able to see it and have our kids look at it, it’s going to be something that just kind of makes things come to life.”
The Fredettes are looking to add a trip to Paris this summer for the 2024 Olympics to their FamilySearch memories collection. Last year, Jimmer joined Team USA’s 3x3 basketball team, which qualified for the Olympics, and he is now waiting to see if he will be included on the team’s Olympic roster. If he is, Whitney and their three kids will be there to cheer him on.
“[Being an Olympian] would obviously be one of the most memorable things that I’ve done in my career and kind of the icing on top of a long career,” Jimmer said.
Whitney’s First Impression of Jimmer
When Whitney first saw Jimmer, she wasn’t impressed, she admitted to the crowd after a picture of her in her BYU cheerleading uniform appeared. But the first impression had nothing to do with Jimmer himself.
It was BYU or bust for Whitney, who grew up in a BYU-loving family—her dad used to wake her up with the BYU fight song and still does—and she wanted to follow in her mom’s footsteps as a college cheerleader and cheer at BYU.
She was devastated when she opened her acceptance letter and learned she had been put on a waitlist. Instead of moping around for too long, she got a tutor, retook the ACT, and earned a higher score. During her visit to campus for cheer tryouts, she showed the dean of admissions her new ACT score and was accepted on the spot.
After being accepted, she rushed to cheer tryouts and was one of the two girls to make the team out of the 181 who tried out. To celebrate, she joined her family at Legends Grille, where a sophomore Jimmer walked in. Whitney’s dad excitedly told her that Jimmer would be “the best basketball player BYU has ever seen,” but Whitney didn’t care, because she had just accomplished her dream of making the cheer squad.
The two ended up meeting later under different circumstances, which led to Whitney asking her cheer teammate (who happened to be Jimmer’s brother-in-law’s sister) to set the two of them up. But after that first date, Whitney was no longer interested. Luckily, Jimmer was persistent.
“I had a hard work ethic at basketball [and a] hard work ethic trying to marry her, and both ended up OK,” Jimmer joked.
A Special Surprise and a Connection to a Beloved Apostle
RootsTech had a surprise for Jimmer. Using FamilySearch, the basketball star learned he is ninth cousins twice removed of the late President M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which added a deeper meaning to a heartwarming moment the two had years ago.
When Jimmer was a rookie in the NBA, playing for the Sacramento Kings, he struggled and expressed that life “wasn’t going exactly the way that I wanted it to.” He went from being “at the top of the world” at BYU to struggling to even make it off the bench in the NBA. He was also on his own with Whitney still in school, and though he had confided in her and his parents, Jimmer didn’t know what to do from there.
That all changed one December morning after practice, when Jimmer returned to his locker and found a voicemail from none other than Elder Ballard. The Apostle had been thinking of him and told Jimmer to call him if he needed anything. That’s exactly what Jimmer did. The two spoke for an hour, while Jimmer confided in the Apostle about his struggles.
Then Elder Ballard said something that changed Jimmer’s life. He challenged him to start reading the scriptures daily, especially the Book of Mormon, and promised him that if he read the Book of Mormon every day until the end of the season, “things will change in your life.”
Jimmer listened, and he read it cover to cover. Elder Ballard’s promise was fulfilled—just not in the way Jimmer expected. He still wasn’t playing much, and his quality of play was still inconsistent.
“But everything [else] changed in my life. I was feeling much better. I was much more happy with what was going on. I was much more in tune with the Spirit. I felt much better. [My] perspective completely changed, and because of that, it changed my life to this day,” Jimmer shared.
“He for some reason, somewhere, somehow, felt inspired to call me and knew that it was something that he needed to do, and because of it, it literally changed my life.”
After the class, Jimmer called it “super special” to find out he was related to President Ballard because of the big influence he had on his life, from that life-changing phone call to their several other meetings over the years and President Ballard’s talks during Church conferences.
Finding Parallels in the Past
Travel is a major part of being a professional athlete and a professional athlete’s wife. Whitney was pregnant with their first child when Jimmer was given the opportunity to play in China, which meant the couple would be apart.
Shortly into Jimmer’s stint in China, Whitney’s doctor discovered intrauterine growth restriction, a complication with the baby’s growth that would make the pregnancy high-risk and prevent Whitney from visiting her husband in China. The couple had to spend roughly four months apart, relying on FaceTime until the baby’s birth, when they would see each other again. That reunion ended up being cut short, with Jimmer having to rush back to China to rejoin his team after leading them to the playoffs.
At RootsTech, Whitney and Jimmer learned their stories of separation were not unique in their family’s history. Jimmer’s third-great-grandparents Myron Miller and Zorayda Kingsley spent a portion of their marriage apart.
By combing through records, the family history sleuths at FamilySearch unearthed a parallel between the Millers and the Fredettes when they found Myron’s 1863 Civil War draft registration and learned he was a military veteran. The Fredettes admitted that military deployment and time away for basketball aren’t the same but noted that the connection is comforting.
“This is way worse than anything that we have experienced, but it’s interesting to know that there are family [members] that have gone through it, and I wish I could have talked to him about it, [gotten] their perspective,” Jimmer expressed.
The Fredettes’ story demonstrates the importance of recording one’s personal history and the strength descendants can receive by reading it.
“[Through family history], you realize you’re not alone, and so many of the things that you do—whether it’s your occupation or maybe you just feel like you’re lonely—someone has always gone through it,” Whitney said. “I think making these connections through FamilySearch helps you realize there are so many people out there connected to you and [that] you’re not alone, and someone out there has done the same thing or has had a similar experience.”
Like the Fredettes, you can preserve your own memories in FamilySearch Memories as photos, stories, and audio recordings.
A recording of Jimmer and Whitney's class will be available to watch on RootsTech.org for a time. Click here to watch it for free.
What Is RootsTech?
RootsTech is a place to learn, be inspired, and make connections through family history. Hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by other leading genealogy organizations, RootsTech has hundreds of expert classes, tips and tricks videos, and inspiring stories that can help you experience family history like never before. Visit our on-demand learning library, or make plans to join us for our next virtual or in-person conference event.
