Greg Wrubell working his dream job

Memo to the teachers at Lord Beaverbrook High School in Calgary, Alberta: Remember the little Wrubell Kid? Surprise! He talks for a living.

Imagine that. They pay Greg Wrubell to do the same thing that got him kicked out of class and sent into the hall.

Teachers couldn't get him to shut his yapper, and now his employers don't want him to.

Wrubell is the Voice of the BYU Cougars for KSL Radio, which means he gets to do the two things he likes most: Talk and watch sports — BYU sports.

This fall will mark his 10th year of providing the play-by-play for BYU football games (and 14th for basketball).

After years of hustling on BYU sideline duty, he was given the play-by-play assignment following the retirement of Paul James, the Voice of the Cougars for 35 years. He still feels as if he's living in James' shadow, which might partly explain the efforts he makes to perfect his craft.

Wrubell listens to replays of his play-by-play calls in cars and planes, looking for ways to improve.

"I try to listen as if I were a listener," he says. "Did I give the score often enough? Did I provide down and distance? Did I describe the play accurately and in an interesting fashion? How did I handle the end-of-game scenario? Did I slow down enough to let things develop in front of me to let them register so I can translate those things correctly? You only get one shot to get it right."

There is one call that still irritates him: the last play of the BYU-Utah football game in 2006, a 13-second marathon that ended with John Beck throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to Jonny Harline on his knees in the end zone. "I didn't do that well," he says. "I was bothered by it for a long time."

As luck would have it, BYU fans like to greet him on the street with cell phones in hand. "Listen to my ringtone!" — It's Wrubell's call of the Harline-Beck play, which is like hearing fingernails on a chalkboard for him.

"There are a couple of phrases I repeated three times — 'plenty of time, plenty of time, plenty of time,' 'shuffling, shuffling, shuffling,' 'caught for the touchdown, caught for the touchdown, caught for the touchdown.' It's repetitive. Then I say, 'He's running to the right and throws behind him.' That's not right. Who's behind him? Who is him?"