When Tammy Barlow married Darrell Bevell a year ago in Salt Lake City, she knew she was marrying a football player. She didn't know she was becoming the wife of a folk hero.
In their adopted home town of Madison, Wis., the Bevell's can't go anywhere anymore without attracting a crowd. "It's just nuts," said Tammy Bevell, who grew up in Orem. "Everywhere we go (in Madison) Darrell gets stopped by fans who want autographs or want to wish him luck or just talk to him. It takes twice as long to go shopping with him than it does if I go without him. We can't even go out to dinner without being mobbed."Such is life when you're married to the University of Wisconsin's record-breaking quarterback in a town starved for a winner. After years of frustration, the Big 10 champion Badgers will play in the `Grandadday of 'em all,' the Rose Bowl, today for the first time in 31 years, thanks in no small part to Bevell.
Perhaps the quarterback himself is as shocked as anyone at the turn of events his life has taken. Bevell's journey to Pasedena has been routed through Flagstaff, Ariz., Cleveland and Madison.
Bevell, a native of Scotsdale, Ariz., and a BYU quarterback wannabe all his life, was being recruited by the Cougars and others after an outstanding junior season in high school. But he missed most of his senior season due to a broken finger and college recruiters stopped calling. He accepted the only scholarship offered him, which was from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. After redshirting his first year at NAU in 1989, Bevell was set to be the Lumberjacks' starter the following season.
But he went on an LDS Church mission to Cleveland instead.
"If I hadn't have gone on a mission I probably would have stayed at NAU and my college career would have been over by now," Bevell said.
Instead of playing in relative anonymity against the likes of Weber State and Idaho State each week, Bevell has been able to showcase his talents against the Ohio States and Michigans of the world in front of 70,000 fans and national television audiences.
While Bevell was on his church mission, his quarterback coach at NAU, Brad Childress, took a job at Utah under Ron McBride and one year later moved on to Wisconsin, where he is now the offensive coordinator. Seeing he had a chance to compete for the starting job immediately, Bevell followed Childress to Wisconsin.
By the second game of the 1992 season, Bevell was the starting quarterback as a 22-year-old freshman for the Badgers. Wisconsin has gone 13-6-1 with Bevell as the starter, including a 9-1-1 co-Big 10 championship season this year entering today's Rose Bowl game against UCLA.
"In my dreams I couldn't make things work out as well as they have," said Bevell, who will turn 24 five days after the Rose Bowl. "It just doesn't happen that a person goes from the Big Sky to a two-year layoff to the Big 10. And then to be playing in the Rose Bowl - it's incredible."
The season Bevell has put together has been incredible. He became the first Wisconsin quarterback to gain first-team all-Big 10 honors since 1962. He led the Big 10 in pass efficiency all season and ended the year third nationally. He set several Wisconsin season records including completion percentage (.691), touchdowns and pass efficiency (161.1). His 423 yards passing against Minnesota set a school record as did his five touchdown passes against Nevada. He completed 17 of 18 passes (.944) against Northwestern and was named an honorable mention All-American by UPI.
While Bevell is just a sophomore in eligibility he is already the oldest player on the team and the same age as Wisconsin's other favorite quarterback, Brett Favre, a third-year pro who starts for the Green Bay Packers. Bevell is also the Badgers' only married player and only member of the LDS church - all of which leads to good-natured ribbing from teammates.
"I'm unique," Bevell said. "If I would have gone to Utah or BYU nobody would have thought much about me being a returned missionary because there are a lot of returned missionaries in Utah. But no one is used to it in Wisconsin. I get asked about my mission a lot and I get to tell people about it. I still think I'm able to be a missionary tool for the church."
BYU has had, and still has, many outstanding returned missionary football players. The Cougars are also known for producing top quarterbacks. But even BYU hasn't produced a superstar returned-missionary quarterback. The returned missionary quarterbacks BYU has had - Sean Covey, Bob Jensen, Steve Lindsley and even Tom Young - haven't had the outstanding careers the long list of non-missionaries (Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer and even John Walsh) have produced.
Some have theorized that a two-year mission layoff hurts quarterbacks more than players at other positions, but Bevell believes his mission helped him. "My conditioning was obviously hurting, but overall my mission was a plus," he said. "I grew up mentally, became more mature and was more prepared for college life."
A win in the Rose Bowl would be a perfect ending for Bevell's dream season. "We're still an underdog. People don't believe in us yet, but we're out to make some believers."
The Wisconsin fans in Madison are already converted. "I work in a credit union and people are taking out loans for up to $10,000 just to go to the Rose Bowl," Tammy Bevell said. "I think they're crazy, but they say this is a once in a lifetime deal."
With two years remaining at Wisconsin, Bevell hopes to bring a couple more `once in a lifetime' Rose Bowl opportunities to Wisconsin fans.