NCAA Football

Jim McMahon Still Not in the BYU Hall of Fame

Posted Oct 30, 2008 12:56PM By Chas Rich (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Brigham Young, Mountain West, Campus

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Jim McMahon, Jr. does not seem to care -- or at least won't publicly say anything. His relationship with BYU was always an awkward fit that twenty-some odd years later still defies logic. Almost as soon as the gun sounded on the last game on Jim McMahon's career as a Cougar, the school suspended and then expelled McMahon for violations of the school's honor code. The move left McMahon nine credit hours short of graduation. Not that McMahon cared.
"Happiness was Provo in the rearview mirror," McMahon said in his autobiography.
What not graduating also meant, however, was that McMahon was ineligible for the the BYU Hall of Fame. That graduation requirement was put in place while McMahon was playing at BYU. Some called it the "McMahon Rule." It was widely suspected that it was implemented as a way to keep from honoring a player that the school's administration disliked intensely for his less-than-Mormon-like behavior.

Jim McMahon, Sr., however, has decided that his son should be honored. First he sent a letter to the BYU Athletic Director and then started forwarding copies to newspapers in Utah.
He starts by noting that he is getting up there in age, and then makes the case.
If Jim had gone to any other university in the United States, his jersey would have been retired and he would have been in their Hall of Fame in 1982. Jim was without a doubt the greatest quarterback ever to wear a BYU jersey. In fact, he was the best quarterback in the history of college football. He set 57 NCAA records, the most records ever set by anyone who ever played the game. This is a feat that was never done before or after him. He has the best winning percentage of any quarterback in the history of BYU. He led BYU to its first bowl win and also its second bowl win. He is the only quarterback with two bowl wins to this day.

Jim was a consensus All-American for two years. Jim was the recipient of the Davey O'Brien award, given to the most outstanding quarterback in the country. Jim was first-team All-WAC for three years. Jim was the most valuable player in the WAC for three years. Jim was named first-team quarterback for the WAC's 25th anniversary team.

Jim was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible.

But! He is not in the BYU Hall?

How can you explain that? Oh! I know, he did not graduate, and that is one of your requirements. In that case, you will need to take out about 60 percent of the people in your Hall, as they did not all graduate.
That's right, McMahon was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame back in 1999, but BYU still excludes him.

McMahon, Sr. goes on to complain in the letter of how the school conspired to keep him out by passing the eligibility rule and then suspending him almost as soon as the Holiday Bowl was over. The topic doesn't even seem to divide people in Utah. The opinion pieces are in McMahon's favor. The Salt Lake Tribune collected plenty of opinions on whether McMahon should be enshrined, and the support was overwhelmingly with McMahon. Most, even acknowledging that McMahon was no (Latter Day) Saint at BYU.
Jim McMahon was and remains the best college QB I have ever seen play the game. If BYU allowed him on the field of play and benefited from his athletic talent - which it certainly did (he was never prohibited from playing football because of disciplinary action or Honor Code violations and the positive national attention for BYU that came from - and still does to this day - his play on the field cannot be denied), the school cannot now turn its back on him.
Opinion definitely seems to be with the McMahon's on this. Both for what Jim McMahon accomplished at BYU and for what most saw and still see as a blatant hypocrisy of the BYU administration.

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