BYU football: Cougar QB greats coming together for a common cause

PROVO — It's an eclectic mix of men, but they share at least one thing in common — each was an All-American quarterback at BYU.

The group, whose collegiate playing days span more than 30 years, includes an Area Authority Seventy of the LDS Church who was dubbed "The Mormon Rifle" during his days in Provo (Gifford Nielsen) and one who once graced the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine and was known in the NFL as "the punky QB" (Jim McMahon).

It includes an ESPN commentator (Steve Young), a high school head coach (Ty Detmer) and a college head coach (Steve Sarkisian).

One of them was the first LDS quarterback to play in the NFL ( Virgil Carter ). One of them led the Cougars to a national championship (Robbie Bosco). Two of them guided their NFL teams to Super Bowl titles (Young and McMahon). One of them won the Heisman Trophy (Detmer).

For the first time ever, BYU's famous line of prodigious quarterbacks — Carter, Nielsen, Wilson, McMahon, Young, Bosco, Detmer and Sarkisian — will all be together over the weekend of Sept. 3 as part of "Y Quarterback Weekend." The Cougars host Sarkisian's Washington team in the 2010 season-opener on Sept. 4.

Those quarterbacks will also be joined by the legendary coach for whom they played — LaVell Edwards.

They're coming together for one purpose: to raise $1 million to endow four quarterback scholarships, which each cost $250,000 per year.

"It's going to be an incredible weekend," said Nielsen, who spearheaded this BYU QB reunion. "I'm just really looking forward to it. Everyone's excited to do this. It's a great way for us to give back to BYU."

The scheduled events include a golf tournament, a dinner and an auction (where each QB will provide an item on which donors will bid) on Friday. On Saturday morning, there will be a breakfast for all quarterbacks who have played at BYU.

The weekend will culminate with the quarterbacks being honored at halftime of the BYU-Washington game Saturday night.

"The key to this is to walk out on the field and announce that we've endowed the quarterback scholarships," Nielsen said. "It will be a wonderful experience for all of us to be together, to walk out on to the field. I don't think people in the stands will leave their seats at halftime."

Nielsen said it was relatively easy to round up the quarterbacks for this event — even McMahon, who has been publicly critical of the time he spent at BYU. This will mark McMahon's first return to campus since 1998, when he was honored at halftime of a game for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. McMahon is not part of BYU's Athletic Hall of Fame.