BYU, Chicago Bears legend Jim McMahon set to graduate from college 37 years after enrolling

Nearly four decades after enrolling at BYU, former Cougars star and Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon is finally eligible for graduation.

McMahon has completed his course requirements and will get his diploma in either the winter or the spring, according to the Deseret News.

The 55-year-old played four seasons at BYU, departing for the NFL after his senior year in 1981. He led the 1985 Bears to a Super Bowl championship.

McMahon was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999, but he is not yet enshrined in the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame because of his failure to graduate. He will now be eligible.

"A big weight has been lifted off my shoulders," he told the publication last week. "I got real tired of studying. I think I studied more in the last eight months than I did in the five years of school that I went there. I'm glad it's over with. It's taken me 37 years, but I got it done."

McMahon says people have been asking him whether or not he plans to do "the walk" with the rest of the school's graduates.

"Everybody's all over me about that. I don't really want to do it in December because it's so cold there in December. But I guess I've either got to do it in December or next April."

The two-time Holiday Bowl MVP and two-time All-American racked up 9,536 passing yards and threw 84 regular-season touchdowns while setting over 70 NCAA records in his BYU career that spanned from 1977 to 1981. The Bears selected him fifth overall in the 1982 NFL Draft.