I don’t know if I am just getting old because nobody has commented on the death of a BYU icon and maybe most here are a lot younger than me and don’t really remember Paul James that much. I realize he hasn’t broadcast BYU football since 2000, and he quit doing basketball sometime in the 90s, but everybody who was a BYU fan anytime between 1965-2000 would remember Paul. Greg Wrubell does a fine job but there will never be another Paul James.
Paul was there for most of the great moments in BYU sports history, he broadcast most of the great Holiday Bowl wins, Ainge;s last second drive against Notre Dame in 1981, the 1966 NIT championship, and countless other events. For years BYU was rarely on TV and Paul’s radio broadcasts were our access to BYU sports for those of us in Utah who couldn’t afford to attend many games, or when the team was on the road. When I moved to Texas in 1977 for many years after it was rare to pick up a BYU game on TV. I had to listen to radio broadcasts at night. KSL had a strong signal and I could generally pick up most of the basketball games since most were at night. I remember living on a hill in a rural Texas town and when I couldn’t get the KSL signal in the house I would drive to another spot on the hill until I could get a good signal and listen in my car. For a few years in the late 70s KSL would replay the football broadcasts late Saturday night and as a BYU fan in the wilderness I was grateful for that. I was a huge BYU fan from about the age of 10 years old in 1960 to the present day and KSL and Paul James was all I had to keep me in touch with the Cougars for a a number of years after moving from Utah.
RIP Paul. You will always be loved by many of us older loyal Cougars!!