BYU Cougars

Former BYU football star Jim McMahon named Davey O'Brien Legends Award winner

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:21 a.m. ET

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Former BYU football great Jim McMahon is the 2016 Davey O’Brien Legends Award winner. Good for Jimmy Mac.

Jim McMahon is one of the best to ever put on a BYU football jersey. Good ol’ Jimmy Mac broke 75 NCAA football records while in Provo and gave BYU football fans one of the three greatest wins of all time.

Sure, he wasn’t always on the best terms with BYU, but that doesn’t take away from what he did on the football field.

Now he’s receiving his second award from the Davey O’Brien foundation.

The foundation’s website announced on Friday that McMahon would be the 16th recipient of the Davey O’Brien Legends Award.

The Legends Award was established in 2001 and recognizes a quarterback who has made “significant contributions to the game of football on and off the field.”

Jimmy Mac was an All-American in both 1980 and 1981 for BYU football. He threw for 9,536 yards and 84 touchdowns in Provo and led the Cougars to a 41-9 record.

Among those wins is the 1980 Holiday Bowl.

Now known as the Miracle Bowl, the game is immortalized in college football. ESPN named in one of the 10 best bowls ever. EA Sports NCAA Football featured it as one of its classic games.

Rightfully so.

Trailing SMU by 20 points (45-25) with four minutes left, McMahon engineered back-to-back scoring drives. With the score at 45-39, BYU forced SMU to punt – then blocked the punt – and took over at the 41-yard line. McMahon launched a Hail Mary to Clay Brown, giving BYU football its first bowl win, 46-45.

McMahon completed 32-of-49 passes for 446 yards in the win.

After his BYU football playing days were done, McMahon was selected 5th overall by the Chicago Bears in the 1982 NFL Draft. He won two Super Bowls (XX and XXXI) over his 15-year career and was an All-Pro in 1985.

Congratulations to McMahon, one of BYU football’s best.

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