Byrne Brothers Take Divergent Paths and End Up 30 Miles Apart

Steve and Kathy Byrne switched flights even before they left John Wayne Airport.

They had an hour to kill in Seattle, waiting for their connection.

They took a prop plane into Lewiston, Idaho, landing at 5:30 p.m.

They discovered their luggage was missing, rented a car, drove 30 miles north to Moscow, wandered around the University of Idaho campus until they found the basketball arena, couldn’t find their tickets, slipped past the guard at the door and sat down with five minutes to spare.

“We had to be there,” Kathy Byrne said. “It was the only time in my life I’ll get to see my children introduced at the same game.”

Kevin Byrne and Jeff Byrne, competitors all their lives but actual opponents for the first time, were introduced and squared off when Idaho and Lewis-Clark State played Jan. 3.

For their parents, it had come to this--traveling about as far north as possible in the contiguous United States to see their two Southern California kids play. It was a long way from Estancia High School.

The sons took different paths to Idaho, yet ended up on the same trail.

Kevin, who is three years younger than his brother, played at North Idaho Community College last season, then followed assistant coach Brian Hancock to Moscow. He had wanted to go away for college but hadn’t counted on spending four years in Idaho.

Jeff, meanwhile, bounced around, playing at Cal Baptist, then transferring to Southern California College, where he sat on the bench. Unhappy and ready to leave, he went north after his brother included a “Jeff Byrne highlight video” in a packet sent to Idaho Coach Kermit Davis.

So, for a year the two live 30 miles apart more than a thousand miles from home. And for one night, their parents, in what to them was their own private Idaho, got to watch them butt heads in an arena instead of in the living room.

“They were guarding each other and one of the other parents said, ‘They shouldn’t let them do that because they might take it easy on each other,’ ” Kathy Byrne said. “I told her, ‘That is not going to be a problem.’ ”

Oh, the game, the one they said was their favorite this season. Kevin Byrne finished with nine points and four rebounds. Jeff Byrne had 11 points and five rebounds. There was one significant difference.

Said Kevin Byrne: “My team won by 20 points.”

Yes, Idaho won, 80-60.

“We were expecting that,” Kathy Byrne said. “But it was close at halftime.”

The next day their luggage arrived.

KID BROTHER

Kevin Byrne always tagged along after his brother. He tried to mimic everything and was always ready to be tested.

“I came back from Cal Baptist after my sophomore year and I hadn’t seen Kevin in about three months,” said Jeff Byrne, who is 6-7 and 230 pounds. “He had grown four or five inches and was ready to challenge me. He was pretty confident and was ready to brawl. He ended up losing.”

As they grew--and really grew--they would usually be matched against each other in pickup games.

Such training paid off for Kevin. North Idaho Coach Rollie Williams was looking for one more big man and learned of Byrne from a Southern California high school coach.

“When they first contacted me, I thought, ‘Idaho, no way,’ ” Byrne said. “I wasn’t going that far north to play at a junior college. Then they sent me photos of the school. It is right on a lake and it is real pretty. Once I went there to visit, that was it.

“I thought maybe I would play a year or two up there and see what offers I got.”

Lured north, he stayed.

Hancock, an assistant to Williams, moved to Idaho and made sure his new boss took a long look at Byrne. He seemed a good fit, even if it was going to take a redshirt year for Byrne to develop.

That plan was accelerated when Byrne picked up the pace. He played in a summer league at Cal State Los Angeles and was on the same team with Paul Pierce (Kansas) and Jason Hart (Syracuse). Byrne improved rapidly.

“It was almost an additional season for him,” Hancock said. “He needed to play against quality players.”

Said Byrne: “I went from wondering if I would be the 12th man at Idaho to really believing that I could play.”

That belief was tested. Byrne had seven rebounds in the opener against Purdue and eight points the next time out against Idaho State. He then sprained his ankle.

Byrne missed three games and was hobbled for another month. When he did play, he seemed tentative.

“I had a real thick tape job, almost like cast,” Byrne said. “I thought I was into it, but I wasn’t. It was the middle of January before I got the bounce back.”

Byrne, who is averaging 4.3 points this season, is averaging 8.2 in the last 10 games. He began that streak with a nine-point, eight-rebound performance against Cal State Fullerton.

But that isn’t his favorite game this season.

BIG BROTHER

Jeff Byrne liked having his brother around. It kept him from getting complacent.

“Jeff and I would ride motorcycles a lot,” Steve Byrne said. “When Kevin was 5, he got his first bike and those two were off. They were racing all the time.”

Being older, Jeff always seemed to get there first. At least until Idaho.

While Kevin took a direct route to Idaho, Jeff’s college career meandered. He had ability but couldn’t find the right situation.

“Jeff is probably the strongest human being I’ve ever coached,” Southern California College Coach Bill Reynolds said. “He is a real Hercules specimen. I’m sure he can squeeze apple juice out of an apple. He took pride in how much the backboard shook when he made one of his thunder jobs.”

But he arrived at SCC too late.

Byrne had played at Cal Baptist as a freshman, then transferred to SCC midway through his sophomore season. He wasn’t eligible until the second semester.

“I think I played 57 minutes the whole season,” Byrne said. “I just couldn’t break into the lineup. Game days were my off days.”

His brother knew he was unhappy. So when Kevin Byrne was asked to send some material to Idaho, he slipped in a video of Kevin as well. It worked.

Davis happened to be a close friend of Lewis-Clark State Coach George Pfeifer, who happened to be looking for a rather specific player. He had one spot on the roster, and in the budget, open for one season. He needed an inside player who was a senior.

“I was up visiting Kermit and told him this and he plugged in that tape and I liked what I saw,” Pfeifer said.

Jeff Byrne had his situation.

He is used mainly off the bench and as a spot starter. He averages 5.1 points and 3.1 rebounds.

Against BYU-Hawaii, Byrne made eight of 12 shots and scored 18 points.

But that isn’t Byrne’s favorite game this season.

FAMILY NIGHT

The Byrne brothers saw each other almost every weekend until basketball season began. They have hooked up only once since, in front of a crowd.

“One of our coaches came to me with a scouting report on Jeff and I told him I had been playing against him my whole life,” Kevin Byrne said. “I was going to guard him just like I did in the park, bump him and try to get physical.”

Still, one thing on the report was missing.

“It didn’t say anything about his outside shooting,” Byrne said. “I knew he could hit those shots. But they told me to sag off him.”

Jeff Byrne hit a jumper just inside the three-point line to start the second half.

“I wasn’t going to tell the coach he was wrong,” Kevin Byrne said.

This was their parents’ first trip to Idaho and it became an all-day ordeal. Their initial flight to Seattle was delayed, so they changed airlines to make a connecting flight.

When they got to Moscow, they first couldn’t locate the university, then couldn’t find the arena. When they finally located the Kibbie Dome, they couldn’t find the gate where the players leave complimentary tickets.

“So we just snuck past the guard,” Kathy Byrne said. “We never did get our tickets. It was worth all the hassle.

“What was neat was we could cheer for every basket.”