When Bryson Decker first moved to BYU as a freshman, he took a trip to the Marriott Center to visit a familiar name.
“My mom was like, hey, you should go to the Marriott Center and see if you can find Grandpa’s name,” Decker said. “His name was actually on one of the banners they have up there at the very top for the All-American Award.”
Decker’s grandfather, Gary Earnest, played as a guard for BYU basketball from 1958 to 1961, according to BYU Athletics. It was there that he was named a third-team All-American.
Decker said his grandfather was a man who lived for the love of the game.
“He was a sports fanatic,” Decker said. “Whenever I’d call him, I could hear some type of sport going on.”
Decker and his grandfather didn’t see much of one another when he was young, but once he enrolled at BYU, Decker said he started to connect with Earnest more than ever before.
“I never really dove into his life or talked to him about it until two years ago, when we started connecting more, like when I’d call him and ask about BYU sports and how he was liking it,” he said.
This love of sports unites them in a unique way, Decker said.
“I feel like the black sheep (of the family), sometimes because I love playing sports, being outside (and) being active, so that’s the one place where I can connect with him and see his drive and love for sports,” Decker said.
After his graduation in 1961, Earnest made a career in athletics. He coached BYU’s freshmen basketball team before working as an athletic director and basketball coach at Lower Columbia College. He eventually served 20 years as a commissioner in the Northwest Athletic Conference and was inducted into the NWAC Hall of Fame in 1997, according to an NWAC press release.
Erin Decker, Earnest’s daughter and Bryson Decker’s mother, said her father stayed involved in sports even after retirement. Earnest regularly did research and commentary on a local radio station. She said he did this to stay busy and give back to the community.
“My dad would do all the research, all the homework because my dad wanted to educate people,” Erin Decker said.
Earnest died Oct. 18, 2025, at the age of 89. Erin Decker said her father was proud of his family and the way they commit to what they feel passionately about.
“My dad felt very blessed to have his grandkids,” Erin Decker said. “He feels like they all turned out amazing. They’re all hard workers, and I would say they’re committed.”
Bryson Decker takes this message to heart.
“My motto has been just work hard. Just try hard. As long as we try hard, we can be good and do most anything we put our minds to,” Decker said.
He said he will remember Earnest for his effortless display of leadership on and off the court.
“He just had a sense of leadership that was natural, but I could tell that he was a hard worker and he wanted to do good,” Decker said. “I want to follow him in that way — be a good leader, follow in his footsteps, and follow my passions.”
But for Decker, that kind of passion doesn't center around ball-handling and playmaking. Instead of securing rebounds, he's breaking ground in the medical field. He studies electrical engineering at BYU with dreams of designing biomedical devices.
“I want to help people, and I think technology can do that in a big way,” Decker said.
Decker recently traveled to Ecuador with BYU's Global Engineering Outreach. There, he and a student team worked with a clinic to test a type of pressure mat designed to assist people in wheelchairs.
He said he is grateful for these kinds of opportunities BYU provides him to grow intellectually and spiritually.
"This university does push us, but when we have faith, when we pray, and we work hard, it makes things so much easier, and the opportunities come," Decker said.
And more opportunities appear to be on the aspiring engineer's horizon. He and some friends are currently working on an entry for the University of Utah’s Bench to Bedside competition, where student teams design technology solutions to address unmet clinical needs.
But more importantly, Decker said he hopes to continue fostering a life of faith and character development. He aspires to follow Earnest's lead in becoming a true leader who leaves his mark wherever he goes.
"Similar to my grandpa, I want to leave as a leader, someone who depended on God and is the evidence of answered prayers," Decker said.