Nick—The Bear—Eyre Tribute

Former BYU football consensus All-American Nick Eyre passed away on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, in St George, Utah. During the fall of 2010, I had the pleasure of interviewing nearly 60 former players, coaches and administrators for a historical book on BYU football — among them was Nick.

We met at his home for over an hour and had several follow up conversations over the phone. He was gracious, kind, humble, thoughtful and engaging. He really didn’t want the attention he thought the book might bring, but I sensed he was grateful that I wanted to include his story.  

Below is an excerpt from the book “What It Means To Be A Cougar” with Nick sharing his experience at BYU in his own words. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to meet Nick and his wife Diane and get to know them on a personal level. On behalf of BYU Athletics, we express our love and condolences to Diane and Connor, their son.  – Duff Tittle

Nick “The Bear” Eyre
Offensive Tackle
1977-80

It’s amazing what you can remember 30 years later.

A lot of people talk about the 1980 Holiday Bowl. It was an incredible comeback, but we made a lot of mistakes against a very good team. We were lucky. The last few minutes of that game were kind of a blur. They really were. 

When the punting unit came on the field, Jim basically said, “We’re not leaving.” We all looked at LaVell, thinking, “Okay, what’s going to happen now?” McMahon was using some pretty colorful words. I remember LaVell just kind of said, “Go with it.”

You’ve got to hand it to LaVell for trusting Jim. If we had punted, the game would have been over right there. All of a sudden we were running a play and we pick up a first down. Everything just sort of fell into place after that. I see Craig James on TV now and all I can remember is that guy running down the sidelines all game long. 

After the game, I remember sitting on my helmet on the sideline and President Holland came walking up to me, all excited. I was about ready to cry because it finally hit me that my BYU career was over. It was probably the greatest time of my life, and it went by too fast. We were all excited about the game, and then all of a sudden the reality sank in that it’s over, and I was thinking, “What am I going to do now?”  

I grew up in Las Vegas and began playing tackle football in the eighth grade. I was a fairly good athlete as a ninth grader so they had me playing linebacker and some tight end on the high school team. I played in a few varsity games that year. By the next season I had grown enough that I started varsity as an offensive tackle and a defensive end.

My high school coach idolized Frank Kush at Arizona State. I remember playing in a basketball game and looking over to see Coach Kush sitting with my parents in the stands. When my coach saw Frank he got all excited and started acting like a little kid. He told me, “You’ve got the greatest football coach in the world sitting in the stands watching you play!” I remembering thinking, “What if don’t end up going to ASU?”  

A lot of Pac-8 schools were recruiting me to play defensive end and other schools wanted me on offense. One of my biggest concerns was I didn’t want to sit around until I was a senior to play. I’d ask some of the bigger schools about their depth chart? Some were eight deep at different positions. I thought, “Nah, I want to play.”  

On signing day I told my mom and dad, “I think I’m going to Arizona State.” My mom started crying, and my dad was so mad he called me a name that I can’t repeat. So I called Norm Chow, who was in Las Vegas, and said, “Well, I guess you’d better come get your papers.” He came over, and I signed with BYU. I had a lot of family in southern Utah and that’s where my parents wanted me to go. Thank goodness for my parents. It was the greatest decision I ever made—or they made.  They had good sense. I didn’t at the time.  

When LaVell came and visited at our house, he walked in and sat down in our big recliner chair. I’m thinking, “He’s going to give us some big sales speech.” Next thing I know, he’s undoing his tie and reclining back in the chair—just chatting away with my mom and dad.

I’m thinking, “Something’s funny about this.” But LaVell Edwards is LaVell Edwards. Next thing I know they’re eating ice cream, and I’m thinking, “When’s he going to start talking to me?” He just kept on talking to my mom and dad, which is pretty smart. That’s the first time I met LaVell Edwards.  

My freshman year was 1977. I played behind Kelly Harris, but I traveled and played a lot. LaVell told me it would take a little time because we threw the ball a lot. He said, “You’re an athlete. You’re going to pick it up fast.”

Gifford Nielsen was the starting quarterback until he got hurt at Oregon State. That was a shame because he was one of the leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy. 

During my time at BYU I blocked for Gifford, Marc Wilson, and Jim McMahon. You’ve got a wide variety of styles right there. Marc and Gifford were obviously straight drop back passers. They were tall and could throw over the line. You just had to provide a pocket for them. I remember Marc throwing seven touchdown passes against Colorado State. He was tall, a big 6’5” guy who could stand back there and really throw it.

Now Jim, he might be in the pocket, or he might not be there. You never knew. He usually made offensive linemen look really good. 

As an offensive line we hated giving up sacks. We just hated it. We had a goal not to give up any. We took a lot of pride in that. Jim would make you look good because he could escape, a lot like Steve Young. Jim wasn’t going to take a sack. He would improvise and do whatever he had to do to get rid of it.

Doug Scovil was our offensive coordinator. We had a couple of plays, like a quick screen, where he would let the tackle pull. I was fast enough to pull it off and he started calling me “The Bear.” The nickname just stuck. It was funny.  

Doug had this ability to adjust to the different types of personalities and styles on the team. He knew what Marc and Gifford could do. He knew Jim’s ability to improvise and used it to our advantage.

I think that’s part of the genius of LaVell Edwards. He let his people coach. Jim was a tremendous competitor. He was going to find a way to win. Sometimes he would throw a tirade, and LaVell would have to settle him down a little bit. That’s also where LaVell’s genius was. He knew how to handle the individual players and he would let his coaches coach.  

People have misconceptions about Jim. A lot of the flamboyant stuff was just to grab attention. When we were hanging out in our apartment he was just a normal guy. He was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but boy was he a competitor. He had a tremendous will to win. He would do whatever it took. He was an incredible athlete.  

When Jim was on his game it was uncanny. I remember one time we were talking and he said, “When I’m on my game things just slow down. It’s like everything is in slow motion. I can see all my reads and go through my progressions.” For some reason the game just came so natural to Jim.

As a junior and senior, things started to slow down for me too. I remember trying to have perfect games. If I got my job done, I’d try to go get someone else’s guy. I’d try to have a second knockdown. They would grade the offensive linemen after every game and my goal was to have perfect games.

I started to get some attention my junior year in 1979. We played Texas A&M the first game of the season. They had a kid named Jacob Green they were touting for the Outland Trophy. We shut him down pretty good and we ended up beating them 18-17. Danny Frazier, one of our linebackers, broke his neck in that game. That was one of the first times I saw anybody get seriously hurt playing football. It was scary. It made you kind of think about what was really important.  

One game that stands out was at San Diego State later that season. We led 35–7 at halftime and the coaches took the starters out. It was kind of fun that we had played so well that they could let other guys play in the second half. 

I remember Norm Chow talking to me before my senior year in 1980. He told me that I would be getting a lot of attention and I needed to keep everything in perspective.” I said, “What is there to keep in perspective?” He said, “Well, a lot of things are going to happen for you this year.” I said, “Norm, it really doesn’t mean that much.” 

I know that sounds kind of funny, but to me I just liked playing football at BYU. We won a lot of games—a lot of big games. That’s really what I liked. I liked scoring a lot of points. That was exciting. The rest of the attention really didn’t mean that much. 

At the end of my senior year I was hanging out at my apartment and I got a call from Norm. He said, “Hey, you’ve been named All-American.” There have been a lot of great players come through BYU, and I think I was really lucky to play when I did. A lot of it is just timing, I think.  We had some great teams and we helped lay the foundation for the national championship team a few years later.

I loved it at BYU. I remember after my first year I couldn’t wait to head back home. By the end of my career I loved it there. I got to know a lot of people that we still keep in contact with today. My wife is from the Bay area and I’m from Vegas, but we chose to stay in the Provo area. I like the lifestyle here. This is where I wanted to live. This is where I wanted to raise my family.

I learned a lot of important life lessons at BYU, and I think a lot of it had to do with LaVell Edwards. He had a very big impact on my life. I look at the way I run my business today, and I have to stop and laugh sometimes. I feel like I’m LaVell Edwards.  

He showed me that you have to let people have ownership in what they do. You can’t do everything yourself. I learned if you work hard you’re going to be successful. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to work 24 hours a day, but you work hard when you’re there. You give your word, and your word’s good. Keep it real simple. Sometimes I think we make life way too complicated.

__________

Nick “The Bear” Eyre was a four-year letterman, and a three-year starter for BYU from 1977-80. As a senior, he became the Cougars’ first Consensus All-American lineman and finished third in the Outland Trophy voting. Eyre was a two-time first-team Western Athletic Conference offensive tackle. He helped lead BYU to four WAC titles and three Holiday Bowl appearances. Eyre was selected in the fourth round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers. He played four seasons of professional football for the Oilers and the Arizona Wranglers of the USFL. He was inducted into the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.