James Robert McMahon Jr. is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, most notably with the Chicago Bears. McMahon played college football for the BYU Cougars, winning the Davey O'Brien Award and the Sammy Baugh Trophy as a senior. He was selected by the Bears fifth overall in the 1982 NFL Draft.
The 1980 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 19, 1980, in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1980 NCAA Division I-A football season. The game is famous due to a furious fourth quarter rally—including a last-second "miracle" touchdown—that gave BYU a 46–45 victory over SMU. Thus, the game is known as the “Miracle Bowl”, especially among BYU fans.
The Holy War is the name given to the American college football rivalry game played annually by the Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars and the University of Utah Utes. It is part of the larger BYU–Utah sports rivalry. In this context, the term "Holy War" refers to the fact that BYU is owned and administered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the U of U is a secular, public university with a substantial LDS student population. The current president and head football coach at the U of U are also LDS Church members.
Philip Joseph McConkey is a former American football wide receiver who played for the New York Giants (1984–1988), Green Bay Packers (1986), Phoenix Cardinals (1989), and San Diego Chargers (1989) of the National Football League.
The Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars and the University of Utah (Utah) Utes have a longstanding intercollegiate rivalry. The annual college football game is frequently referred to as the Holy War. In the 1890s, when BYU was still known as Brigham Young Academy (BYA), the two schools started competing athletically. The schools have met continually since 1909 in men's basketball, and met once a year in football from 1922 to 2013, with the exception of 1943–45 when BYU did not field a team due to World War II. Both schools formerly competed in the Mountain West Conference, but both teams left the MWC in 2011—Utah joined the Pac-12 Conference and BYU became a football independent while joining the West Coast Conference for other sports.
The 2007 Mountain West Conference football season was the ninth since eight former members of the Western Athletic Conference banded together to form the MW. It began on August 30 when UNLV defeated Utah State. The same night, Utah fell to Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon. Brigham Young University won its fourth conference title.
The 2007 Poinsettia Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game between the Navy Midshipmen and the Utah Utes played on December 20, 2007, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. Utah defeated Navy 35–32 in a game that came down to the final seconds. The third edition of the Poinsettia Bowl was the first of 32 games in the 2007–2008 bowl season and the final game of the 2007 NCAA football season for both teams.
The 1979 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 21, 1979, in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1979 NCAA Division I-A football season. It featured the Indiana Hoosiers against the BYU Cougars. Indiana won 38–37.
The 1984 Holiday Bowl was one of the games that determined the national championship in college football for the 1984 season. Played on December 21 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, it pitted the unranked Michigan Wolverines against the top-ranked BYU Cougars. Despite six turnovers and being down by seven in the fourth quarter, BYU rallied and won the game, 24–17; the attendance of 61,248 on Friday night was a record for Jack Murphy Stadium at that time.
The 1993 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 30, 1993, in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1993 NCAA Division I-A football season. It featured the tenth ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, and the unranked BYU Cougars. It was famous for coach John Cooper's famous bowl win guarantee, which he came through on.
The 1983 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 23, 1983, in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. It featured the unranked Missouri Tigers, and the ninth ranked BYU Cougars.
The 1991 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 30, 1991, in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1991 NCAA Division I-A football season. It featured the seventh ranked Iowa Hawkeyes, and the unranked BYU Cougars. The teams played to a 13–13 tie.
The 1981 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 18 in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season, and was the fourth edition of the Holiday Bowl. The Friday night game was the third of sixteen games in this bowl season and featured the #20 Washington State Cougars of the Pac-10 Conference, and the 14th-ranked BYU Cougars, champions of the Western Athletic Conference.
The 1990 SeaWorld Holiday Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Texas A&M Aggies and BYU Cougars on December 29, 1990, at Jack Murphy Stadium, now known as Qualcomm Stadium, in San Diego. The game was part of the 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season and was the final game of the season for both teams. Texas A&M defeated BYU 65–14.
The 1989 Holiday Bowl was a college football bowl game played December 30, 1989, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. It was part of the 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season. It featured the Penn State Nittany Lions and BYU Cougars.
The 1992 Aloha Bowl was played on December 25, 1992, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. Kansas earned its first bowl win in 31 years over an 8-4 BYU team led by reserve quarterback Tom Young, the younger brother of NFL hall-of-famer Steve Young. Young earned the start after starting quarterback Ryan Hancock went down with a season-ending injury in the regular season finale against Utah.
The 1977 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University (BYU) for the 1977 NCAA Division I football season. The Cougars were led by sixth-year head coach LaVell Edwards and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. The team competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, winning a share of the conference title for the second consecutive year, sharing the title with Arizona State with a conference record of 6–1.
The 1980 BYU Cougars football team represented Brigham Young University (BYU) for the 1980 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Cougars were led by ninth-year head coach LaVell Edwards and played their home games at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. The team competed as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, winning their fifth consecutive conference title with a conference record of 6–1. After a season-opening loss to New Mexico, BYU ended on a 12-game winning streak, including a victory over SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl, finishing 12–1 overall and ranked 12th in the final AP Poll. The Cougars' offense scored 606 points during the season for an average of 46.6 points per game. They scored over 50 points in a game five times, including two games scoring over 70 points.
The 1977 Fiesta Bowl was the seventh edition of the college football bowl game, played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona on Sunday, December 25. Part of the 1977–78 bowl game season, it matched the eighth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions and the #15 Arizona State Sun Devils of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Favored Penn State took an early lead and won 42–30 on the Sun Devils' home field.
The 1978 Navy Midshipmen football team represented the United States Naval Academy (USNA) as an independent during the 1978 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was led by sixth-year head coach George Welsh.
