Jim McMahon guested on Dan Patrick’s radio show today to talk about McMahon’s father’s recently-failed bid to get the former Bears QB into the BYU Sports Hall of Fame. Astonishly, McMahon has never been inducted, and BYU states that he will not be allowed in until he graduates. But McMahon had a whole ‘nother story for Patrick on the subject.
First, McMahon intimated that the reason he hasn’t been honored by the school was because he never converted to Mormonism. When it came to religion, he said that BYU football representatives lied to him repeatedly during his recruitment.
McMahon: “They mentioned the rules, this is what goes on here. If you don’t want to be part of the lifestyle there, that’s no problem. They’re (BYU officials) not going to bother you. That was a lie they bothered you pretty much every day. … The religion part.”
Patrick: “Did they want you to convert (to Mormonism)?”
McMahon: “I’m sure they did. But that was never in doubt, I was never going to do that.“
McMahon said he refused to take part in nightly prayers at his dorm, and that he was “on probation” at the school from his freshman year on after he was seen with a beer on a public golf course.
More interesting is that McMahon was essentially kicked to the curb by the school after he played his last game for the Cougars: “I was called in and told I was no longer wanted there. Because of a number of students who said I was doing certain things I shouldn’t be doing. When I confronted them (BYU officials) and asked ‘who are my accusers’, and they couldn’t tell me, well, that’s because they were all full of crap. I’ve been here five years. You guys are now just finding this stuff out?”
McMahon said he didn’t recall what he did wrong at the time, that he was accused of a “number of violations.”
Patrick to McMahon: “Do you feel they used you?”
McMahon: “No doubt, that’s what college football’s all about.”
I’m guessing McMahon’s “violations” at BYU were petty lifestyle stuff, trumped up to get him of campus once he wasn’t of use to the school.
Ironically, McMahon said later that he would go to BYU if he had to do it over again, because of all he learned in his football experience. And the hardships he encountered by being a non-Mormon at BYU.
Think we’re really getting whole story here? Yeah, I know. No way.
1:51 pm on November 5th, 2008
Kind of like going to Notre Dame without attending Sunday morning mass. Or going to Miami with a criminal record.
1:57 pm on November 5th, 2008
That's what he gets for being the punky QB known as McMahon.
Chi-town still loves ya, Jimmy!
1:59 pm on November 5th, 2008
It seems a little ignorant to attend a Mormon college named after the Mormons' leader and not expect to act like or adopt the Mormon way of life or teachings. If he didn't want to be a Mormon, there's a hundred other schools McMahon could have gone to instead.
2:07 pm on November 5th, 2008
But the fact of the matter is that the BYU football reps lied to McMahon. Promising him that he could do what he pleased, and then turn around and slap him with probation and expulsion - that just smacks of hypocrisy.
2:10 pm on November 5th, 2008
Was he put on double secret probation?
2:18 pm on November 5th, 2008
Instead he converted to MORONism…his act is tired and he is over-regarded.
2:19 pm on November 5th, 2008
The BYU dean was still sore about the time McMahon dumped a truckload of fizzies into the pool during the swim meet, and the time he delivered the medical school's cadavers to the alumni dinner.
2:24 pm on November 5th, 2008
McMahon can now join Steve Young in the very select group of BUY QBs shunned by their school.
2:26 pm on November 5th, 2008
Over? Nothing is over until we say it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!
2:30 pm on November 5th, 2008
Big-time college football school officials going back on their word? Shocking!
2:34 pm on November 5th, 2008
If he had changed his last name from McMahon to McMormon, maybe they would have left him alone.
2:40 pm on November 5th, 2008
Wasn't this stuff in his autobiography about 20 years ago?
3:38 pm on November 5th, 2008
Thanks for letting us know about his book. Apparently you were the only person who read it.
4:20 pm on November 5th, 2008
While at BYU, I would have stood out in a crowd if my shorts were above the knees or if I didn't shave for a few days … and I was nobody, not a high profile athlete. I can't imagine that McMahon's version of his recruitment is on the spot. (Like, drinking beer on the golf course was going to be overlooked. Yeah, right.)
7:38 pm on November 5th, 2008
This doesn't surprise me. I've met plenty of Mormon people, and although they've generally been very nice & polite, they are very strict & unbending when it comes to their beliefs.
7:49 pm on November 5th, 2008
In order to attend BYU, you have to sign what's known as the "honor code", which does not require you to be Mormon, but does require you to live by the same basic standards (no alcohol, premarital sex, etc.). Every student has to sign it, regardless of what they're there for. He obviously did not live up to it, so…
7:50 pm on November 5th, 2008
McMahon should have attended BYU's Hawaii campus instead. He might not have been able to play football, but he would have enjoyed the scenery much more.
7:54 pm on November 5th, 2008
Jim must have been pretty happy when TCU ruined BYU's chances of a BCS bid.
1:33 pm on November 6th, 2008
I'm a devout Latter-Day Saint (Mormon), but Brigham Young rejected me when I applied so I'm kind of indifferent toward the school. With that said, it is a private instiution and McMahon's conduct clearly contradicted LDS doctrine and standards. McMahon was an excellent signal-caller but I'm not sure if the "Y" owes him anything. Even though he's not LDS, the numerous things he's done have brought the Church considerable shame. When you represent Brigham Young University, you represent the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and in that regard, McMahon failed miserably.
4:08 pm on November 6th, 2008
Not much of a shocker that a cult would be bugging him everyday about joining that's what cults do. I have a couple friends that graduated from BYU all I needed to know about the school I found out when he told me he had to have a permit to grow a mustache. Thankfully I found the magic glasses on my own. Cults Rule
2:24 pm on February 21st, 2009
Seriously, get your facts straight. Anyone can grow a mustache. Beards, you need a permit for, but once more, that's all inside BYU's honor code. You can't even fill out the application without saying you'll agree to those standards. It's a private school. It can ask it's students to do whatever it wants. And if you agree to live by those standards, well, suck it up and live by them. Don't complain that the school isn't happy for you for breaching a contract if you don't live by the contract (the honor code) you agreed to live by.
8:13 pm on September 5th, 2009
The school sucks. The people are losers and they try to convert you at all costs. There football team is one of the most overrated programs in all of college football. They play in a horrible conference and got spanked by not only Utah but TCU as well. Drink beer and have as much caffeine as you want people. Long live McMahon for having the only personality in all of Provo
12:28 am on September 13th, 2009
I am sorry, but it appears that it is McMann who is doing the lying here. As a BYU student at the time McMahon played at the Y, I know that all students who came to BYU were required to sign an agreement that they would abide by the BYU honor code, which included not smoking, drinking alcohol, using illegal drugs, etc., or violating moral codes of conduct. McMahon admits that he violated these codes, so he should have been expelled for not living up to the honor code he signed. No one made him sign this code, so McMahon failed to live by the code he promised to obey.
7:09 pm on November 18th, 2009
The issue is not the restrictive contract that all students sign at the BYU campuses, the issue is that McMahon was not disciplined until after his final game. He was probably lied to because the LDS church did not want to see one of there own Utah boys leave the state.