Here's how the late Fred Whittingham helped save BYU’s 2014 season.
Now, before some folks get all cranked up, hear me out.
This is a tale of relationships, a four-game losing streak, the loss of the remarkable Taysom Hill to a broken leg, and the emergence of walk-on Christian Stewart.
How did Whittingham, who passed away in 2003, fit into the scenario?
Whittingham, father of Utah head coach Kyle, played football at BYU and then the NFL, and he coached at Utah and BYU. But in his early days, he was the coach at Alhambra High near Los Angeles, where his JV quarterback was Royce Bybee. Bybee became the team’s MVP as a junior. It was Whittingham, who left for BYU the next year, that guided Bybee to sign at BYU. When Bybee didn’t have the grades, Whittingham called coach Charles “Tiny” Grant at Ricks College, and that led Bybee to accept a football scholarship to play at Ricks.
At Rexburg, Idaho, Bybee earned JC All-America honors in 1974 and 1975, and rewrote nearly every Viking team passing record. But it was there that he made a decision that changed his life. He converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after his first semester. A year later he was a Mormon missionary in a suburb of London called Gravesend, where victims of the bubonic plague were taken in the 1300s. After his career at Ricks, he transferred to BYU, where he met his wife, Pam Robinson, and became a pupil of legendary coach Doug Scovil as a backup to Marc Wilson and Jim McMahon.
Because of many blowout wins by BYU football in that era, Bybee saw plenty of reserve action, throwing four touchdown passes as a junior. Many claim it is Bybee who became the first returned missionary to play significant minutes and throw touchdowns at BYU. Some believe he is the first RM to ever throw a touchdown pass in the LaVell Edwards era. It wasn’t until 2001 and Brandon Doman that a BYU quarterback who had served a mission led the Cougars to a conference title.
Bybee, a natural leader, is a soft-spoken but passionate and driven athlete that remains active running marathons today, long after his playing days.
“Fred had a profound impact on my life and the direction it took,” said Bybee.
When Whittingham pointed Bybee to Ricks and his new faith, it led to a lifetime of community and church service, including twice as an LDS bishop. He and his wife have five children and are expecting a ninth grandchild. His daughter Hayden married former BYU tight end Marcus Mathews. As a resident of Orem, he met the family of Christian Stewart.
In time, Bybee became the personal QB coach of Stewart, working with him both privately and as a volunteer on the staff at Timpanogos High, where Stewart posted remarkable passing statistics, many of which became the best in state history.
Christian's father Nick Stewart estimates Bybee has evaluated 10,000 passes of his son between the ninth grade and as recently as a few weeks ago. “Royce would own my house if I’d had to pay him,” said Nick.
Bybee, who patterned his throwing motion after his childhood hero, Pat Haden of USC, said Stewart was a fast study, picking up everything from arching of the back to leg balance and movement.
If you ask Stewart who the key forces and personalities in his development as a quarterback were, the first name that comes out of his mouth is Royce Bybee. Hundreds if not thousands of hours were spent with Bybee, a disciple of Scovil, going over footwork, release point, throwing motion, and developing arm strength and timing.
As a record-breaking passer at Snow College, Stewart was named the MVP of the Carrier Dome Bowl before walking on for the third time at BYU. Due to a freakish broken leg to Hill on Oct. 3, Stewart became the Cougars' starting quarterback.
In his short time as a starter, Stewart has thrown 22 touchdown passes on 176 of 300 passes for 2,273 yards. His completions of 83 and 82 yards are the longest since the Max Hall and Austin Collie era.
This week, Stewart is in Miami, preparing with his team to face Memphis in the inaugural Miami Beach Bowl and a possible ninth win for the Cougars.
Stewart has earned a lot of respect in the process. In a domino effect, much of the credit goes to Bybee, who has never come out of the shadows to claim such.
Here’s the rub of the story.
“Royce has done remarkable things for my son in football,” said Nick Stewart. “But being a role model and his influence as an example is something me and my wife will always be grateful for.”
The Bybee-Stewart connection underscores the weight of a simple verse in the LDS Church: “And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." (D&C 64:33). It was never more true in the connection of Whittingham making a strong but simple push in 1973 for Bybee to leave Los Angeles and go to Rexburg and a culture totally foreign to him. That ultimately led him to Stewart, and Stewart to Miami as BYU’s starting QB.
Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be contacted at dharmon@desnews.com.