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BOISE, Idaho — Greg Wrubell has said the words hundreds, maybe even thousands, of times before.
After every BYU football broadcast since the Voice of the Cougars took over for the legendary Paul James on KSL Newsradio in 2001, and continuing in his current role with BYU Radio, the well-respected and highly-regarded Canadian would end each of his game broadcasts by thanking his audience, turning to his broadcast colleague Marc Lyons and sign off “in the meantime and in-between-time” from each football game.
But this game was a little bit different.
Wrubell did his usual sign off after the Cougars’ 49-18 win over Western Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. But he didn’t say the last word for the final game of the season for BYU football and its two-dozen seniors.
After his sign off, he turned to his colleague Lyons, seated to his left on high above Albertsons Stadium in the cold, Boise night air.
This time, Lyons would get the last word.
Because this would be his final broadcast.
After nearly four decades of play calls, memorable moments, game breakdowns and plenty more “in-between times,” Lyons was calling it a career. Next season, for the first time since BYU played New Mexico to start the 1980 season, the former BYU quarterback will not be in the radio booth for a full season.
“When I think of all the great things that happened to me, I got to play football at BYU. Those experiences are such a big part of me … and I am so lucky to have had that opportunity,” Lyons said. “It was such a fortunate thing to be able to do.
“And then I got fortunate enough to talk about it on the radio, with Paul, with Greg, and with all of the people who make up what goes into this broadcast. It’s been a joy in my life.”
Wrubell, naturally, was overcome with emotion Friday night in Boise. His voice gave out several times, and the man who has called such legendary plays as Beck-to-Harline, Magic Happens, 4th-and-18, the Miracle at Memorial, and so many others could, at times, barely get a word past his throat.
You see, Greg Wrubell and Marc Lyons have become a pair over the past 17 years. A sensible odd couple with chemistry and a shared passion, BYU fans have looked forward to the duo every Saturday in the fall since Wrubell ascended from the sideline reporter role upon James’ retirement.
Now, he’ll have a new partner in 2019.
“Marc’s presence gave me comfort, put me at ease, and helped me be better,” Wrubell said. “Marc Lyons helped me to be a better broadcaster over the years. I can’t say he made me a better man, because it’s tough to be as good as Marc.
“I can’t imagine working with anybody other than Marc Lyons in this job. I don’t know how it will work going forward. This has been just perfect for all these years.”
Lyons’ arrival at BYU was among the more unlikely events of the 1960s. When then-head coach Tommy Hudspeth and offensive line coach Frank Fabris sat down with the teenager in his home in Arvada, Colorado, Lyons wasn’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the university’s sponsoring institution. He didn’t know much about BYU. He had already received a scholarship offer from Colorado State and was seriously considering staying home to play college football.
A two-sport athlete in high school, Lyons also had hopes of advancing his career in basketball.
But after taking a recruiting visit to Provo, Lyons and his mother prayed about his decision. The next morning, he wrote in BYU’s the Athlete’s Journal that his mother told him, “You don’t want to go to Colorado State.”
Lyons’ mind was made up. He was BYU-bound.
“She didn’t know anything about BYU either, but both of us felt like BYU was the place to go,” he wrote. “From that point on, I felt we had received some direction that helped me decide to come to BYU.
“It was a great decision.”
After his basketball career ended before the end of his freshman year, Lyons turned all of his focus to football — and finding his space in a school he had scarcely heard of amongst a people who barely knew.
Lyons went on to succeed standout BYU quarterback Virgil Carter, throwing for 3,345 yards and 21 touchdowns in three seasons with the Cougars and earning the nickname “Mountain Lyons” by the local press.
But much more important things happened to him at BYU than football.
Thanks to the example of teammate and close friend Kenny Call, Lyons was baptized a member of the church. Even 50 years after Call’s tragic death in a swimming accident, Lyons still remembers the impact of a close friend on his personal life.
Lyons also met and married his wife Ann thanks to a chance encounter his junior year. The couple have four children, 15 grandchildren and one great-grandchild — and many have them have followed in Lyons’ footsteps and gone to BYU, including granddaughter Madie Lyons Mathews, who finished her BYU women’s soccer career with 14 goals from 2014-17.
BYU also gave Lyons a college degree. He graduated in business management with a bachelor’s in marketing, then went on to earn a teaching certificate with eyes on becoming a coach. He stayed in Utah to take what he thought was a short-term job teaching a few classes at Olympus High School in Salt Lake City.
Lyons was there for 42 years, including 23 with the Titans’ football program.
“Since I retired from teaching, I picked one goal a day to do — one act of service, which turned into second and a third and so on,” he said. "I still want to do one good deed every day, and that has led me to having to find something to do. But that really changed the way I behave.
“I look for ways to be productive, and also for an opportunity to help somebody out. I’m going to continue that opportunity.”
Lyons’ first game on the mic was James opened the 1980 season when BYU had won “like 13 regular-season games in a row,” he recalled, and a bright-eyed local prospect from Roy named Jim McMahon was the quarterback.
Lyons' first call was a 25-21 loss to New Mexico, but the Cougars finished 12-1 with a 46-45 win over No. 19 SMU in the Holiday Bowl.
After 21 years as a broadcast tandem, James left and was replaced by Wrubell — kindling a friendship that carries to this day, 18 years later, and reignited every Saturday in the fall.
But perhaps the greatest moment Lyons experienced on the football field came just over a month ago when BYU head coach Kalani Sitake invited him to carry the alumni flag onto the field for the Cougars’ regular-season home finale against New Mexico State. He started running to make sure he could make the 100-yard jog into LaVell Edwards Stadium, and returned to the field at halftime with his family as BYU paid a special tribute to his long-standing career.
“I had a dream; every week, I recognized who the alumni are carrying out the flag,” Lyons said. “And I was so excited that I was finally going to get to carry the alumni flag. It’s been a dream.
“To have all of my kids there and the tribute on the video board — man alive: BYU is such a part of me, and it is so ingrained in me. To have that chance to be honored, with my old teammates there, it was a great feeling. It was just so swell.”
Other broadcasters will come and go at several schools, including BYU. Each of them will leave their own stamp on the color analyst role, just as Lyons and Wrubell have for the past 18 years.
But there will never be another Marc Lyons.
So what would he tell the next generation of broadcasters charged with bringing BYU football games across the radio spectrum?
“It’s such an honor to be representing the school and the sport. Always keep that in mind as you present your thoughts,” Lyons said. “It is such an honor to continue on in the life of the game — and to represent the school.
“Be respectful and humble. Try to teach the people that are listening the things you know, rather than telling people what is wrong or right. Help to explain some of the concepts you’ve learned while playing the game.”
