Lee Johnson punted, kicked off and tried the occasion long FG for six NFL teams.
Jim McMahon was the senior quarterback at Brigham Young during the 1980 season. Lee Johnson was a true freshman. Johnson's successful onside kick in the 4th quarter was essential in the Cougars' epic 46-45 comeback win in the 1980 - as McMahon threw a 41-yard, desperation pass on the final play.
When BYU won the national title in 1983 with Robbie Bosco was quarterbacking, Johnson had the best per-punt average (50.6 yds.). The next year, he and the Cougars had another great year when Lee's roommate, eventual Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young, was QB.
In 1985, Johnson and Young were both playing pro football. Johnson started with the Houston Oilers, who made him their 5th-round draft pick. Jerry Glanville was the first of nine NFL head coaches for whom he played; and two of them, Bill Belichick and Andy Reid, are still going strong.
Oh, the stories he can tell - and does, on the VYPE Summer Series, with the man who held for him on his first field goal back in 1978, Roger Smith. Listen and enjoy Lee's account of the late Bengals' head coach, Sam Wyche. Wyche spoke shamelessly about the awkwardness of female reporters in locker rooms where men were coming in and out of the shower, and admonished debris-throwing Bengals fans that "you don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!" Lee tells what it was like to room with Young, before and after college, and what made McMahon unique as a BYU teammate.
But the most amazing thing of all is how his magic carpet football ride started.
Bradley C. Collier (VYPE)
