For years, Brigham Young University Professor Hal L. Black has been inviting students and the public to join him and his team to visit a bear's den in the Utah mountains.

So out of tradition -- the Brigham Young study focusing on black bears has been going for 14 years -- he made the offer again during a guest lecture at an environmental biology class in March. However, there was something different about one of the volunteers the invitation attracted that set her apart from any who had taken advantage of the opportunity in the past.

Kim Yeoman was born with spina bifida, a condition that causes deformity in the spine, and the 19-year-old student had been confined to a wheelchair since 2000.

While Black didn't immediately dismiss Yeoman's interest, her participation would require a bit of thought and creativity on his part. Although there were dens that were reasonably accessible, navigating the difficult terrain of Utah's Book Cliffs, the destination of the field trip, would be impossible in a wheelchair.

"But her personality and her excitement made me commit to it," said Black, who noted that two weeks after the lecture, Yeoman visited him in his office to confirm whether she'd be able to participate in the field trip. "BYU has a sign at the entrance of the campus that says, 'The world is our campus.' At least philosophically that drove us because we thought, 'Here's a girl who wants to visit another part of campus.' There were lots of other students going and we needed to accommodate her."

While Black jokingly noted that he had mentally challenged graduate students accompany him into the field before, it was the first time a physically challenged student had participated (although the program once accommodated an 84-year-old man).

Black went to work formulating a strategy. He contacted the Utah County Sherrif's Office and secured a rescue sled, ropes, a helmet and other equipment to pull Yeoman. A colleague reminded Black that he would need some muscle to move the sled and suggested he get in touch with head football coach Bronco Mendenhall, who relayed the need to his team.

Enter Cougar football student-athletes Eric Watterson, Jeremy Gillespie, Dustin Gabriel, Brett Cooper and Kayle Buchanan, who happily volunteered to make the five-hour trip to Book Cliffs to provide their assistance.

Once ropes were tied to the front and back of the sled, Yeoman took her place in the bed of the sled and, accompanied and guided by search and rescue personnel, the five football student-athletes pulled Yeoman through the snow. Although the den was just a few hundred yards on a straight line from the road, the party had to weave its way to the selected spot. In areas where there was no snow, they carried Yeoman, and in places where it was steep, they used ropes to anchor the sled to ensure it wouldn't flip.

While the strain of pulling the sled may have seemed overwhelming, Cooper actually described the exercise as a break from the team's winter workouts.

"Our winter workouts are really, really tough," he said. "It was hard, but workouts with lifting and running, those are a lot harder than it was to pull her."

Upon arrival at the den, Yeoman, the student-athletes, and the rest of the group of 30 were rewarded for their efforts.

After tranquilizing a baby bear found inside the den, Black and his team retrieved the cub and placed it in Yeoman's lap for everyone to enjoy. In appreciation of the assistance provided by the football program, the cub was named Bronco, in honor of Coach Mendenhall.

"What stands out most to me, besides seeing a bear in the wild -- was how rewarding it was to be able to help somebody and see how happy she was to be out there. Being a part of that was amazing," Cooper said of the experience.

Once the team of researchers had collected the necessary data and samples, Yeoman was secured once again and the student-athletes pulled her along the mostly uphill terrain back to the main road for the return trip to campus.

Black's strategy had been a clear success. Knowing they had played a role was thanks enough for the Cougar gridders.

"To us, it was just rewarding to be out there doing it for her," said Cooper. "I was getting e-mails from people all over campus who knew somebody with spina bifida or who had a disability. To have somebody to help, let alone a football player, I think it touched a lot more people than we thought. That makes me feel pretty good that there's a lot of people out there who appreciate what we did."