By Richard Dye
The punt was off. Number 23 caught it in the air and made a mad dash for the end zone ? an 83-yard touchdown. The momentum of the game suddenly shifted right before halftime, said BYU Hall of Fame football coach LaVell Edwards of the legendary 1980 game known as the Miracle Bowl. Number 23 just ran and hasn?t seemed to stop ever since.
Vai Sikahema was the man in the jersey. As a freshman he was all about ?football, little academics and partying,? said Wendell Beck, college friend of Sikahema?s and father of current BYU quarterback John Beck.
Then something changed.
Sikahema, who didn?t initially want to come to BYU or serve an LDS mission, was having a change of heart.
After talking with teammates who had and hadn?t served LDS missions, he noticed a difference.
?Those that went on missions were more grounded ? came home and got married ? and seemed to have more direction in their lives,? he said.
More important to Sikahema was that those who hadn?t gone on missions regretted it.
?I just didn?t want to miss out on something that is literally once-in-a-lifetime,? he said.
He left BYU for the next two years to serve in South Dakota. Beck said Sikahema came back a changed man.
?He was just about as serious as can be, more focused in school and football, but he was still a fun-loving guy,? Beck said. ?But [his mission] really helped turn him around, and he has been successful ever since.?
But it isn?t just success that has made Sikahema so well known. It?s just the way he is around people.
?Everybody liked him,? said current BYU football assistant coach Lance Reynolds, who also coached Sikahema. ?He had a flamboyant, upbeat and charismatic personality. He was just fun to be around.?
It was this personality that helped Sikahema land his first television job while playing for the NFL?s then-Phoenix Cardinals. He would later sign with the Green Bay Packers and continue working in broadcasting in Wisconsin until moving on to Philadelphia to play for the Eagles, where he retired from the NFL in 1994. In all, Sikahema played in the NFL for eight seasons, starting with the St. Louis Cardinals where he was a two-time All-Pro kick returner.
It was his love for sports, his strong broadcasting background and warm personality that got Sikahema his current job as the sports director/anchor for NBC affiliate WCAU 10 News in Philadelphia.
Sikahema finally received his degree in broadcast journalism from BYU in 2002. He originally tried majoring in English and was denied from the major. He then considered physical education but decided it was too stereotypical, and finally tried broadcasting, only to be denied again.
Then one professor took pity on him, Sikahema said. Bruce Olsen, a former BYU professor and current managing director of the LDS Church Public Affairs Department, assigned one of his teaching aids to help tutor Sikahema, eventually helping him get accepted into the Communications Department.
However, Sikahema was already headed to St. Louis to play in the NFL.
?I went to the pros thinking if I get cut, I?ll come back,? he said.
That wasn?t the case. He studied public relations at different colleges over the next few years while playing in the NFL before switching to broadcast journalism.
?We moved to Philly and I got my job in television so I stopped taking classes,? he said. ?I said ?you know what, forget that. I don?t need a degree anymore I?ve got a job.??
About 10 years had passed since he took his last class, and Sikahema said it didn?t seem important anymore to get a degree. Then one day his oldest son asked him an important question while visiting the BYU campus prior to a football game: ?Dad, how come you never graduated??
Sikahema said he ?hemmed and hawed? and finally blurted out his response.
??You know what son; dad-gum-it, I?m going to graduate,?? he told him. ?So that?s what I did.?
It turned out that Sikahema had just two general education requirements left to graduate.
?I?m the king procrastinator in the world; it took me almost 20 years to get my degree,? he said. ?It had been a burr under my skin all those years.?
Although it took him so long to get his degree, he says it was worth it, and not only for the education.
Not too long after Sikahema graduated, he was inducted into the BYU Hall of Fame.
?I guess from BYU?s standpoint, they were waiting for me to graduate. ? I graduated in April and they inducted me in June or July. It was like they were waiting around,? Sikahema said.
?Had I known that they were going to induct me into the Hall of Fame after I graduated I would have graduated on time,? he joked.
He is one of only a handful of people to be inducted twice, once as an individual and the second time when the entire 1984 National Championship team was inducted.
?It was such an honor,? he said. ?I never expected it, but I was so thrilled. Nobody ever expects it.?
With all the accolades and recognition aside, Sikahema is just a normal guy who enjoys having a good time.
Friends Dale and Rebecca Cressman remember when they first met Sikahema. Cressman, a BYU assistant professor in broad-cast journalism, was working for a local television station while in Green Bay and happened to be in the ward Sikahema attended. After meeting at church, the Cressmans invited him over to dinner.
?He had a huge appetite,? Rebecca Cressman recalled. ?He could eat triple of my husband and he?s [my husband] a large man.?
But it wasn?t his large appetite for food that made him so popular in the Cressman home. Instead it was his appetite for life, football and the gospel.
?He?s one of those people who proudly lives by his principles,? she said. ?And he asked others to live by theirs also.?
Her husband echoed those same feelings.
?You could almost forget he was a pro football player, but you couldn?t forget that he was a Mormon ? you knew,? he said.
The Cressmans say Sikahema was always deflecting away from himself and toward other people. It is this interest in others that makes him so popular in Philadelphia.
Sikahema hosts a show each week called ?Wednesday?s Child? where he profiles children up for adoption in the local area. He also takes part in what is known as ?Vai?s Challenge? where people write in and challenge him to a sport or job.
?He?s at his best going out there with the community,? said Colin Macaulay, the executive sports producer at NBC 10 in Philadelphia. ?You don?t see that with other sports guys.?
Macaulay calls him a ?consummate pro? in whatever he does.
?What you see with Vai is what you get,? he said.
But it may be what you don?t see that matters most. Sikahema is currently the second counselor in the Cherry Hill Stake presidency and is actively involved in many different community and church-related activities.
He said one of the most important lessons he learned from BYU was to ?enter to learn, go forth to serve.? It was the title of his BYU Devotional address more than a year ago.
Sikahema said he believes ?the great secret in life is service.? It?s service that makes a difference in someone?s life, he said, and that is what students are taught at BYU.
With all the attention he receives, some wonder if it?s hard to be LDS and in the limelight.
?It?s no challenge at all ? but it is a responsibility,? he said. ?It?s a bigger challenge not to have the church. To have the church is a blessing, and it will enhance whatever vocation you are in.?
He said he?s living proof of second chances, including his opportunity to come back to BYU later in life and get his degree.
?Our life does offer second chances, it?s part of the great plan of salvation,? he said. ?It?s central to the atonement that we would have a second chance, and that we would make mistakes and would hopefully learn from them. Even a knucklehead like me who had made the mistake of not paying attention in school and not being a better student ? I had the opportunity to rectify that, to make that up.?
