Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
The alarm to the start of a momentous day came early. On a reporting assignment in New Jersey for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” I woke with a handful of states to hop if I was to make it back for graduation ceremonies inside BYU’s Harris Fine Arts Center.
With no shortcuts available, the long flight across the country provided plenty of time to ponder — why was a degree from BYU so important to me? It’s just a slip of paper.
As the plane flew over Indiana, my mind went back to a conversation from the year before with a news director at a television station in Terre Haute. As the BYU-required internship was winding down, he offered me an anchor job that would require a move prior to my senior year.
Surprisingly, this was a tough decision. I wanted to be a sports anchor, but more than that, I wanted to be a BYU graduate. I wanted BYU’s reputation to get to wherever I was going — before I did.
The news director, a BYU grad himself, didn’t give up. In fact, after some research, he called back and presented a scenario where I could finish my classes at Indiana State and still graduate from BYU — and his station would pay for it.
Still, I felt impressed to turn it down and return to campus.
“Why did I feel so strongly about that?” I wondered as the flight rolled through some rough air. I’m not a great traveler, so it requires great focus during turbulence to keep my stomach from charging up my throat. As the plane settled, my mind meandered away again.
A few weeks after returning home from my internship during the summer of 1990, I was asked by a producer from “Good Morning America” to fly back to New York for an interview. The national morning show on ABC was looking for a student to be its college editor and report on stories pertinent to campus life.
A few days later, a group of network visionaries escorted me into the Manhattan office of Phil Bueth, senior vice president of Capital Cities, which owned ABC, ESPN and Disneyland. This was the grand finale of the visit. I needed to nail the interview to get the job.
Fortunately for me, BYU got there before I did.
“Where did you do your service?” he said as we shook hands.
“Service?” I inquired.
“You know, your two years of service,” he said. “Isn’t that required at BYU?”
“Oh, my mission?” I said. “Missions aren’t required at BYU, but most of us go on them. I went to San Antonio, Texas.”
He smiled and said, “I’ve got two of the nicest guys riding their bikes up and down our street every day!”
“You should feed them!” I said.
“Oh, my wife gives them lemonade all the time,” he replied.
“Someday, you should listen to them,” I offered with a little more confidence.
“Maybe I will,” he laughed.
A series of questions followed, with each one linked to BYU in some way, including the ABC employee guide of conduct, which he dismissed reviewing because, in his words, “I was already living it in Provo way more than they were.”
He looked up at the group who had brought me in and then he looked at me.
“How is it we searched the entire country for our first college reporter, and we get the perfect square?”
“You are just lucky, I guess,” I quipped.
He laughed and hired me on the spot.
For the next year, as I traveled the country for “GMA,” I was referred to as “the BYU guy” way more than Dave McCann.
“Welcome to Salt Lake City,” announced the flight attendant as the plane touched down and snapped me back to reality. Still ahead was a 45-minute drive to Provo and a quick change into a cap and gown.
Arriving at the Harris Fine Arts Center, we handed over our 5-month-old daughter to her welcoming grandparents and found some reserved seats on the front row, right next to Greg Wrubell.
Regrettably for those around us, we talked about our respective adventures through most of the program. Greg was off to a career in radio, and I was chasing television with no idea that years later, we would both be back at BYU — doing the same thing.
The pattern of BYU showing up in places before I did started with my dad, Dale McCann — a BYU grad himself who spent 25 years as the executive director of the Cougar Club — and it has continued ever since.
Graduating from such a strong broadcasting program also helped land news and sports anchor jobs in Las Vegas (KLAS) and Salt Lake City (KSL), play-by-play assignments with BYU and UNLV, sportswriting opportunities for the Las Vegas Review Journal and Deseret News, and the creation of the weekly “Y’s Guys” livestream show that speaks to BYU fans around the world.
Perfectly imperfect on this wild ride, I am grateful for those who went before and paved the way for the rest of us, and hopefully we are doing the same for this next group. The tie that binds it all together is a BYU diploma, something thousands of new graduates are celebrating this weekend in Provo.
As they will soon discover, the declaration of their degree is so much more than a piece of paper. It is a passport into a world where BYU will get to their job interview long before they do.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.