He was in second grade, living at the Boysen Marina that his father Hugh built. There was only one TV station in those days, KWRB, Channel 10, broadcasting from Thermopolis, owned by Joe and Mildred Ernst.
As he watched the snowy, black-and-white image of a Baltimore Colts game, he saw future Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas leading the Colts. Fourteen years later, on October 21, 1973, he stood with his helmet under his arm as the National Anthem played at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
“I couldn’t believe it, there he was, straight across the field from me, Johnny Unitas,” retired National Football League tackle Nick Bebout said.
Unitas played a season for Pittsburgh, spent almost his entire career in Baltimore, and one final season for the Chargers.
Nick grew up near and then in Shoshoni with his parents, Hugh and Dessie Bebout, and older siblings Ruby and Eli. Nick graduated from Shoshoni High School in 1969.
While in high school, Nick was a standout football and basketball player and thrower on the track team. The family later moved into town, living above the Derby Bar and Restaurant owned by his uncle, Nick Svilar, his namesake.
The Wranglers played 11-man football during Nick’s freshman and sophomore years, but numbers were a problem.
“We only had 13 guys out in 1966,” Nick said.
The following year, they moved to 8-man football.
“In basketball we could hold our own, but in football they humbled us,” Nick said. “We had mediocre teams.”
Only a couple of teams remain from the schools Nick and the Wranglers played in those years, Burlington and Meeteetse, and they’re now both 6-man programs.
Byron, Cowley, Deaver, Pavillion, Morton, and Manderson have all consolidated.
The Wranglers were a power in basketball, winning the 1967 Class B State Championship with a 21-3 overall record. They beat Guernsey in the finals 61-46 with Nick as a sophomore in the low post.
At 6-4 and 200 pounds, Nick was a force on the offensive line and on the low block.
College scouts took notice. He had offers from Colorado State, Stanford, Montana State, Black Hills State, and the Colorado School of Mines, but he had his sights set on being a Cowboy.
“They’d just played in the Sugar Bowl the year before,” Nick said. “They offered me a basketball scholarship too, but I was just 6-4 and couldn’t handle the ball.”
He came to Laramie to play for head coach Lloyd Eaton. The Cowboys were a national powerhouse in those days, with many predicting a national title in the near future. Those hopes came quickly to an end just two months into Nick’s college career on a historic day in October.
The “Black 14” incident took place when Eaton kicked 14 Black football players off the team for asking to wear black armbands to protest the racial policies of Brigham Young University.
Wyoming was 4-0 and ranked 12th in the nation before the incident.
“I was sitting in the dorm commons area on Friday evening when Lloyd cut all 14,” Nick said. “He told them, ‘Turn in your gear. You’re done.’ We won the next two, then lost the last four games.”
Nick earned a starting position at tackle the following season, but 1970 turned out to be one of the worst in school history.
The first blow came on September 12, when starting senior quarterback Ed Synakowski drowned at Lake Hattie while fishing. His young wife watched it helplessly from shore. That put the Pokes into scramble mode.
“We started Gary Fox, the backup at quarterback,” Nick said. “But he was hurt, and Scott Freeman of Laramie took over.”
Nick roomed with future Cowboy great Steve Cockreham from Lusk one year.
The Cowboys had a dismal 1-9 season, with the only bright spot a 16-6 win over Colorado State.
Eaton was fired at the end of the season.
In Nick’s senior year, the Cowboys played one of the most memorable games in Wyoming history. On September 30, 1972, at War Memorial Stadium, the Pokes hosted 11th-ranked Arizona State.
Cockreham, a junior, rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another as Wyoming built a huge 45-0 lead over the Sun Devils. Arizona State roared back, but the Cowboys held on for a 45-43 upset.
“It was one of those things,” Nick said. “Everything went right.”
Wyoming finished the 1972 season 4-7 under head coach Fritz Shurmur.
Nick graduated in the spring of 1973 with a degree in mathematics.
“Pro football never came to mind, halfway through my senior year, I started to think about it,” Nick said. “As my senior year came along, pro scouts started to come in. One of them asked if I’d go into a van with him. I said sure. He had a board with different shapes cut out of it. He told me to put the correct shape in the correct hole and he timed me.”
Nick was injury-free until his senior year, when he suffered a severe shoulder separation. He missed a couple of games with it.
“There was a big bump sticking out of my shoulder, they pushed it down and taped it in place so I could play,” Nick said. “Jack (Wyoming trainer Jack Aggers) came up with a leather brace that kept it in place.”
With a possible NFL career, Nick decided to have shoulder surgery. He had the surgery over Thanksgiving; it went well.
The NFL draft was in April.
“The Falcons drafted me in the sixth round,” Nick said. “Norm Van Brocklin called me and said, ‘How would you like to be a Falcon?’”
His first contract was $30,000.
“I called Eli and asked him if he thought that was a good offer,” Nick said. “Eli had an electrical engineering degree, was working for Marathon Oil in Casper and making $7,700 a year. Yes, it was a good deal.”
The $30,000 salary seems minuscule in comparison to today’s exponentially high NFL salaries.
Mike McGlinchey makes almost $24 million a year as a right tackle for the Denver Broncos.
”McGlinchey makes more in a game than I did in all eight years in the NFL combined,” Nick said.
Nick grew a bit while in Laramie; he was listed at 6-5, 261 on the Falcons roster, but weighed closer to 275.
“I rode the pine my rookie year,” Nick said. “I played some special teams, punt, punt block, and kickoff return.”
One play stands out from his first year in the league, a squib kick he recovered.
“Most linemen, when they get an onside or a squib kick, just fall on the ball,” Nick said. “I turned around and lateraled it to Dave Hampton. Coach Van Brocklin played it back three or four times on Monday during our film session.”
The Falcons finished 9-5 in 1973.
In 1974, Nick started at tackle. It was the season of the players’ strike.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Nick said. “Our line coach, Duane Putnam, called and asked me if I was coming in. I didn’t. We only missed three or four games, but Van Brocklin was upset; he traded two starters.”
They finished the season 5-9, Van Brocklin was fired, and Marion Campbell took over.
The transition from small-school Wyoming football to the echelon of the NFL was a sobering one for Nick.
“I look back and I was playing Meeteetse. Then I was at Sun Devil Stadium, playing Arizona State,” Nick said. “The next thing I know, I’m in the Los Angeles Coliseum about to play the Rams.”
Nick lined up with many NFL greats of the 1970s who are still household names to National Football League fans.
“We played Dallas and I blocked Ed “Too Tall” Jones. He was tough, but he wasn’t quick,” Nick said. “The quick ones gave me trouble. Fred Dryer was quick and hard to block.”
The late Hall of Fame San Francisco defensive end Fred Dean was tough to block.
“Coach Putnam said when you put Fred Dean on the starting line and fire the gun, he’ll beat the bullet the first 10 yards,” Nick said.
He lined up with Dwight White of the Steelers, and the biggest defensive linemen he ever blocked was 6-9, 310-pound Charles Philyaw of the Raiders.
“I’d rather play against a taller, bigger guy,” Nick said. “If a quick guy gets inside, you’re beat, the only thing you can do is try to steer him into the pile. Get your hands out. Don’t let him cross your frame and put him in the pile.”
Nick was a big man for his day, but tight ends are now in the size range he played at, 6-5 and 285 pounds.
“Block and step back, move your feet, block again, do it three times and the ball is gone,” Nick said. “If you can move your feet and block, you can play. If they try to swim you, punch them in the kidneys.”
One game against the Rams stands out for Nick.
“Dryer was on me, but here comes Merlin Olson on a twist. I took my right fist and drove it into his belly. Merlin said, ‘Hey, let’s clean this up a bit.’”
Nick and his wife Pam came home to Riverton in the off-season. Nick was working with his brother Eli at Nucor Drilling.
That year, the NFL added two new teams, the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“In April 1976, we had two rigs running the Gas Hills,” Nick said. “I get a call from Marion Campbell in Atlanta. Campbell said, ‘I wanted to tell you we didn’t protect you. You’ve been selected by the Seattle Seahawks. I appreciate your effort and what you’ve done for us.’”
Two days later, he had a call from Seattle.
He and Pam had been married for four years, and now they were about to move to the opposite side of the country.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Nick said. “I didn’t feel that way at first, but after training camp I did.”
They won only two games that season. One over the other, the 1976 expansion team, the Buccaneers, and the second over his old team, the Falcons.
“If I wanted to be there next year, I had to do my best,” Nick said. “I didn’t miss a step in ’76.”
Nick started at left tackle, protecting quarterback Jim Zorn, who was left-handed.
“It was easier to see the defense, with Jim rolling out behind me to the left,” Nick said.
The league has changed dramatically since Nick played. He was introspective about the difference over the last four decades.
“Pay is the big thing. The technique is the same. The kids are quicker and as strong or stronger,” Nick said. “Money, speed, and exposure. My coaches used to say ‘Don’t gamble and don’t do coke.’”
In 1980, he left Seattle on a trade to Minnesota.
“Bud Grant doesn’t have any tackles,” Nick said. “My heart was broken. They traded me just before Labor Day after we beat the 49ers and flew home.”
Nick only played one season in Minneapolis, and his career was over.
It was a long haul from that little boy watching Johnny Unitas as a nine-year-old to playing in the same league with the legend and other legends of the game.