That Kyle Morrell has passed away.
One of the all time greats…
It is ironic that I was watching some old BYU highlights this weekend since there wasn’t a BYU game and I watched that play against Hawaii where he leaped over the Hawaii line and grabbed the QB and pulled him back preventing a touchdown. I never saw it live because the game wasn’t shown in Texas when it occurred but i have seen it several times since on Youtube. If he doesn’t make that play maybe there wouldn’t have been a national championship in 1984. I remember staying up late until about 3 am CST and listening to the game on KSL and Paul James describing it. I used to move my radio around the house trying to pick up a signal where I lived in Texas. I listened to a lot of BYU games over the years (football and basketball) after I moved here from Utah in 1977. Sometimes the signal was good and sometimes it would go in and out. That play was one of the biggest defensive plays in BYU history if not the biggest. He was a great player and an All American and one of the keys to one of the best defensive teams in BYU history. Too bad he is gone. I had heard he was ill but hadn’t heard that he had passed away.
My wonderful neighbor contracted ALS… Watching her go down hill was not pleasant. It was hard watching this once very active, caring person loose control over her body. We have on our street an annual picnic in one of the people’s yard during the summer and Christmas get together (collect food for the food bank) where everyone joined in. Although her family was not of our faith, she participated fully and we became good friends. Everyone on the street took turns helping that family out anyway we could.
To me that was an example how we should all work with our neighborhood regardless what religion people belong too.
Step up, Help out and Support others around you.
That’s the essence of the gospel, love one another, love thy neighbor, do unto others, visit the sick, fatherless, and widows. It’s all in the New Testament teachings that should bind all Christians together regardless of denomination.
Unfortunately, politics gets in the middle and tries to send us to our own corners. In our monthly community ministerial association meeting, one person said she was sad how there’s still division amongst the people after the election. She’s an ultra-left liberal who is still unhappy Republicans still have a voice and want to make sure the election was won fairly. She wants Trump and his supporters silenced. Never happy liberals.
What a great thing Floyd and his Street did for her and her family. Degenerative diseases like ALS, MS are wicked diseases.
Aro, I was a freshman at BYU in 1984. Kyle Morrell’s iconic play against UH. As Vai Sikahema says, that play was a microcosm of the excellence by that team in that season. But Kyle Morrell was more than that play—he was all conference, all American, and an NFL athlete. And he was a fierce and fun loving leader, both respected and beloved by his teammates.
The three moments I remember most about that football season:
- Bosco Game winning bomb to Adam Haysbert late in the 4th quarter vs #3 Pitt to put us in the national conversation. This was ESPN’s first nationally broadcast NCAA football game. I watched it on a giant screen in the Wilkinson center. We screamed and partied like maniacs all night.
- Bosco to Kelly Smith late in the 4th to beat Michigan in the Holiday Bowl. Michigan was a beast that opened the season beating #1 Miami, but was ravaged by injuries early in the season. They were at full strength vs BYU, Bosco was hurt, and we beat them anyway.
- Walking out of my building at DT on a cold winter morning and looking up at the Y on the hill, where overnight they had painted “#1” next to the Y. I remember that moment like it was yesterday.
Most people didn’t know that about Michigan. They just talk about Michigan’s record and not why that happened and how good they were when we played them.
Sitting in my freezing truck, in Winnemucca, Nv. in the middle of the night listening to Paul James on KSL. I was Gold Geologist newly graduated from BYU…To this day, I never travel through that town without a shutter. The temps there would vary from the hottest day in the country to the coldest, all within 24 hours. Dusty, lonely old Winnemucca.
The Town gets it’s name from Chief Winnemucca, a Piute- Shoshoni chief over the Reno-Pyramid lakes area. He was a good chief who allowed whites to settle the area. all went well until miners invaded area with the famous Comstock discovery. Some miners latched onto a couple of Piute maidens which was a big No No for the very chaste Winnemucca tribe so war ensued. The Indians killed about 100 miners when the miners poorly formed army invaded Chief Winnemucca’s camp and was ambushed.
I take the trip every spring to chase Pyramid’s world famous cutthroat trout that can weigh in excess of 40 lbs… Pyramid lake is the end of the road for the truckee river. The river starts in lake Tahoe runs 100 miles emptying into Pyramid Lake which has no outlet. ( much like Galilee and the dead sea)
Winnemucca was part of my mission (76-78).
Although it is small dusty community, as a missionary I learned to love the beauty of the desert. Yes, the desert holds it own type of beauty. Most of my mission was in these small dusty towns like Winnemucca, filled with some great people.
If legend holds true (not sure), Lake Tahoe and Pyramid are connected through an underground natural tunnel. At least that is what the residents of South Lake Tahoe told me.
These posts can take a strange twist sometimes. It went from Kyle Morrell’s passing to a history lesson of Winnemuca, Nevada. Who could have predicted that?
I heard about it from my dentist the other day. My appointments there always go longer than normal as we discuss BYU football and how the team is doing. I was serving a mission during this time and I couldn’t get the games on the radio in Paraguay… Bummer. 
I watched it late night on a small black and white TV… My wife was not exactly pleased with me waking up my infant son with all my “yelling”… 