Editor’s note: Second in an occasional series exploring LaVell Edwards’ legacy of leadership.
The hours after BYU’s 23-16 defeat to Navy in the 1978 Holiday Bowl was a dark time for arguably the most talented quarterback to ever play football at BYU. Frustrated that he didn’t start in the game and mad as a hornet that they lost, Jim McMahon was at his wit’s end and ready to make a defining decision.
“I’m leaving! I’m not putting up with this anymore,” McMahon told his head coach during a terse discussion back at the team hotel.
“Where are you going?” LaVell Edwards asked.
“I don’t care where I go,” McMahon fired back. “I’m not dealing with this anymore.”
McMahon and Marc Wilson split time during the 9-4 season under offensive coordinator Wally English, which left both quarterbacks frustrated. Wilson had started against Navy, but McMahon finished the game with a touchdown pass and a 2-yard touchdown run.
Up to this point, McMahon’s ride at the school owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been a bumpy one — on and off the field. But Edwards had made a promise to McMahon’s dad before Jim arrived at BYU, and he intended to keep it.
“My dad had a big talk with LaVell and said, ‘Look, you know we are not Mormon, we are Catholics. What’s the situation gonna be like for him down there?’
“LaVell told my dad, ‘I’m gonna take care of him’ and he kept his word. I’m sure he got a lot of heat from a lot of administrative people about getting rid of me and things like that. But, you know, he kept his word,” McMahon said.
During the offseason, Edwards rehired Doug Scovil as offensive coordinator. Scovil terminated the time-share program at quarterback and Wilson was named the starter in 1979 and McMahon was to redshirt.
“I saw this coming when Doug came back. His first words were, ‘I’m going to get Marc Wilson back to where he was,’” McMahon said. “Doug and I didn’t have a real good relationship my freshman year and I made sure I was going to be ineligible. ‘I thought, ‘I’m not playing, so I’m not going to school either.’”
Plans changed quickly when Wilson suffered an appendectomy just before the season opener. McMahon had to get his academic status in order and Edwards was there to help.
Laura Seitz, Deseret News“I had to sit in LaVell’s office every day doing my schoolwork before practice,” he said. “So, we had a lot of intimate moments together.”
Wilson recovered for the opener and he started every game during BYU’s 11-1 season, while McMahon watched from the sideline.
“Jim was an interesting kid. I think one of the best jobs of recruiting that LaVell ever did was keeping him here when he wasn’t playing,” said Patti Edwards, LaVell’s wife. “He was a backup and learned a lot from being a backup but with his temperament, to keep him here when he could have gone anywhere was significant.”
Edwards met regularly with McMahon in his office on Monday mornings.
“He would tell me what I did all weekend from all the calls he was getting from around town,” McMahon said. “Finally, I said, ‘Coach, I don’t know who’s got it out for me here, but I don’t remember spending many weekends in Provo. I mean, as soon as our game was over, my butt was in the car going up to Weber State.’ My older brother was at Weber State. So that’s where I’d spend most of my time.”
During one contested practice, after Edwards scolded the team for using inappropriate language, McMahon watched his running back Scott Phillips take a cheap shot and he swore at the defender. Edwards was standing right behind him. Not only did his language get him kicked out of practice, but McMahon was summoned to the Edwards home later that night.
“Jim was nervous coming over,” Patti said. “Everyone dreaded visiting the house because it felt like they were being sent to the principal’s office. But they talked it out, and Jim left feeling like LaVell had his back.”
With his coach’s confidence, and a staff determined to redefine college football, McMahon turned into Superman.
“What I thought he did the best job at was he hired good people, and he let them coach,” McMahon said. “He always had the final say about everything, but he let those people coach and I think that was the brilliance of LaVell.”
Thriving in the system led by Scovil, McMahon set 70 NCAA records at BYU before playing 15 seasons in the NFL and winning two Super Bowl rings.
“I played for three different coordinators when I was (at BYU) and they all added something different as a wrinkle, but we kept the same basic offense, and it was the best offense that I ever played in,” he said. “It was like shooting fish in a barrel. The defenses just couldn’t figure out what we were doing. It didn’t matter who was in the lineup, everybody knew their jobs and that’s why we won so many games.”
When McMahon was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999, Edwards was by his side. In the 37-year quest to earn his BYU degree, Edwards was there.
“I promised my folks I’d get it done, but LaVell really was pushing me. So was Tommy Holmoe,” said McMahon. “Coach said, ‘It wouldn’t be right if your name wasn’t up there (on the side of the stadium press box). Get your schoolwork done. You deserve to be up there.’”
On Oct. 2, 2014, when the graduated McMahon was inducted into the BYU Hall of Fame, Edwards was there. A day later, in front of 60,000 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium, McMahon’s No. 9 jersey was retired and amid the standing ovation, Edwards was there.
Former BYU quarterback Jim McMahon, left, poses with former BYU football coach LaVell Edwards. McMahon was one of five former All-Americans enshrined into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame. | Mark A. Philbrick, BYU“I’m glad I got it done because it was a great night and I’m happy he was there to witness it,” McMahon said, who was also grateful he didn’t walk away from Edwards following the 1978 Holiday Bowl. “Yeah, it was a tough couple of months there, but glad I stuck it out and things worked out pretty well.”
“LaVell was an example of, ‘I’ll take any kid of any persuasion, and I’ll work with anybody.’ LaVell knew McMahon was super, super talented right from the start and he knew that he had to treat him differently — and he did,” said former Cougar star and former BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe. “I think that’s a leadership style where some coaches or some CEOs feel like you have to treat everybody equally. I don’t agree with that. I think you have to treat everybody fairly, but not equally, and there’s a difference. I think that LaVell had to go out on a limb to be able to get Jim to trust him implicitly, and which he did.”
On the day of his death, McMahon sought out a final one-on-one exchange with his coach who had always kept his word.
“The day that LaVell was dying, Jim called, and I answered the phone. He said, ‘Pat, I want to tell coach I love him.’ And I said, ‘Tell him yourself’ — and he did,” said Patti. “He said, ‘Coach, I love you and thank you for everything.” Then LaVell said to him, ‘I love you Jim, take care of yourself.’”
When told about that final phone call, former BYU quarterback Steve Young had to fight back his tears, “because I know both of them really well,” he said. “That describes in clarity what I’ve tried to express — it’s that two really different people coming together and having a deep, abiding love for each other. If there’s ever any legacy of who LaVell is, it’s probably that last interchange between he and Jim.”
Former Cougar quarterback Jim McMahon and former coach LaVell Edwards laugh as he is honored at halftime in Provo Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. | Jeffrey D. AllredDave McCann collected the content for this article while researching and writing the book, “The Leadership Legacy of LaVell Edwards” which he co-authored with Dr Mark D. Ogletree.
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