So Jim McMahon will finally have his jersey retired and enter BYU’s Hall of Fame on Friday night during halftime of the BYU-Utah State game.
McMahon is the greatest player BYU has ever put on a football field, period. Ty Detmer, Steve Young, Austin Collie, Eldon Fortie, etc., — they’re vying for second best.
It’s been 33 years since McMahon threw a pass for BYU. As most fans know, his induction into BYU’s Hall of Fame was delayed because the school requires inductees to have degrees, which McMahon only just completed because he was previously too busy winning a Super Bowl and playing in celebrity golf tournaments. Academic requirements aside, not having McMahon in the school’s Hall of Fame and not retiring his No. 9 jersey were glaring omissions.
But not the only ones.
I’m not sure what subjective criterion is used for determining who qualifies for the hall and who qualifies for jersey and/or number retirement, but some of the decisions don’t make sense (which pretty much is always the case in these matters).
Counting this week’s induction, only six BYU football players have had their jersey numbers retired — Marion Probert (81), Fortie (40), Gifford Nielsen (14), Young (8), Detmer (14) and McMahon (9).
But what about Marc Wilson, who was 22-4 as a starting quarterback and played so well that he was picked in the first round of the NFL draft?
And what about Robbie Bosco, who was 24-3 as a starter and led BYU to a 13-0 season as a junior and — oh, we almost forgot — the national championship?
Do Steve Sarkisian and Gary Sheide even come up in the conversation? They both won the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation’s top quarterback. Sheide finished eighth in the Heisman balloting and it almost took an act of Congress to get him into BYU’s Hall of Fame, 36 years after he left school. Sarkisian led BYU to a 14-1 season and a Cotton Bowl victory.
What about Jason Buck and Mo Elewonibi? They both won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top linemen. Buck was another first-round draft pick.
What about Luke Staley, winner of the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back?
What about all those prolific receivers who have passed through the program? Austin Collie, the best of them all, was so good that he was voted to six All-American teams during his junior (and final) season. He once had 366 all-purpose yards in a single game and 106 catches in a single season.
What about all those great tight ends — Gordon Hudson, David Mills, Trevor Molini, Chad Lewis, Dennis Pitta?
And linebackers Kyle Van Noy, Rob Morris, Leon White and, my personal favorite, Kurt Gouveia?
What about the great linemen who perform the thankless job of protecting all those quarterbacks? What about Bart Oates and Trevor Matich?
Let’s face it, this business of Hall of Fame inductions and jersey retirements can get out of hand fast. It can also be impractical. The Cougars have already eliminated about 6 percent of their available numbers for future rosters. If they retired the numbers of all the players who had credentials equal to those who have already had numbers retired, it would be 10-15 percent.
No wonder the University of Utah doesn’t retire jerseys or numbers and Utah State has retired only two of them (Elmer Ward and Merlin Olsen, the greatest player ever to come out of the state).
But if the Cougars are going to retire numbers, how do they not retire No. 6 — the number worn by both Wilson and Bosco? They both finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
Bosco did it twice. For those too young to remember, he’s the guy who beat Michigan in for the national championship — on one leg.
Wilson won 11 of 12 games as a senior and came within a missed chip-shot field goal in the Holiday Bowl of winning all of them.
Wilson, by the way, is in the College Hall of Fame, one of only six BYU players to be given that honor, along with McMahon, Young, Hudson, Detmer and Nielsen (and coach LaVell Edwards). So, to review, Wilson and Hudson are in the College Hall of Fame but haven’t had their jerseys retired. Probert and Fortie are not in the College Hall of Fame but have their jerseys retired. Does this make sense?
Getting into the College Football Hall of Fame is an extremely rare feat, and about as unlikely as a woman getting into Augusta National. Only one other player from an in-state school other than BYU has been inducted into the College Hall of Fame — Olsen. Utah’s Larry Wilson was good enough to make the Pro Football Hall but not the College Hall. If you are in the College Hall of Fame, you were the best of the best.
And while I’m wandering around on this subject, how is Fortie not in the College Hall of Fame? I’ll tell you why, because BYU, as far as the rest of the country was concerned, didn’t exist until the LaVell Edwards era and with good reason. The Cougars just weren’t good. Then, from 1976 to 1990, the Cougars produced 13 seasons of nine wins or more and were a Top 20 program. All six of BYU’s Hall of Famers played from the late ’70s on.
Fortie, the first BYU player to earn first-team All-American honors, finished second in the nation in total offense in 1962 behind Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker of Oregon. He collected 1,963 yards and 14 touchdowns — in a 10-game season. He was the first BYU player to have his number retired. But he’s not in the College Hall of Fame.
Good luck trying to make sense of these things.
Doug Robinson's columns run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Email: drob@deseretnews.com