After Kentucky senior Dicky Lyons Jr. (pictured here) had his college football career abruptly ended by torn knee ligaments against South Carolina, freshman Randall Cobb II asked, and received, permission to honor Lyons the rest of the season by trading his No. 18 jersey for Lyons’ No. 12.

It was a nice thing to do, but – unknown to Cobb and most UK fans – it also was fitting from a historical perspective because Cobb is, arguably, the most exciting and versatile Wildcat since Lyons’ father was wearing No. 24 from 1966-’68. (Did Lyons Jr. pick No. 12 because he hoped to be half as good as his dad? Inquiring minds want to know.)

Like Cobb, the elder Lyons was a triple-threat star who  ran, passed, and caught. But he did even more. Much more. As close to a one-man team as UK has ever had, Lyons returned punts and kickoffs, punted, and place-kicked. His last two years, at one time or another, he lined up at quarterback, tailback, fullback, and wide receiver.

Unfortunately for Lyons, however, the Cats were so bad in those days – they went 3-6-1, 2-8, and 3-7 in his varsity career – that he was never in the Heisman Trophy conversation. But if he had regrets about not going to Notre Dame or one of the other glamour programs that recruited him out of Johnny Meihaus’ program at Louisville St. Xavier High, he never mentioned it publicly.

At 6-0  and 195 pounds, Lyons Sr. was bigger than Cobb, who’s listed at 5-11 and 185 pounds. But he also lacked Cobb’s quickness and elusiveness, which hurt him in the eyes of the NFL scouts.

“He doesn’t have the talent we’re looking for,” a scout told Sports Illustrated, “and he needs football discipline because he’ll try to return a kick from the end zone and he’ll run all over the field losing big yardage to gain one yard. But how can you resist him?”

You couldn’t, for two reasons.

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First, Lyons was an incredibly fierce competitor, a trait that he passed on to his son and namesake. Even his own teammates weren’t safe when Lyons Sr. got hot. At least three times during games or scrimmage, he clobbered teammates for missing assignments or not hustling. Once, after failing to catch a pass against Georgia, Lyons was so mad at himself that he heaved the ball 20 rows into the stands. “If a guy can’t get mad,” Lyons said, “he doesn’t have any business out there.”

Second, he was Mr. Big Play. A few examples:

• As a sophomore in 1966, Lyons started both ways the last half of the season. Against Vanderbilt on Nov. 5, he connected with Dan Spanish for a 75-yard in the Wildcats’ 14-10 victory.
• A week later, Lyons returned a punt 97 yards for a touchdown – still a UK record – in a 56-18 homecoming loss to Houston.
• In the Wildcats’ 1966 finale against Tennessee, Lyons scored on a 72-yard punt return in what turned out to be a 28-19 loss.
• Against Auburn on Oct. 7, 1967, Lyons scored on a 71-yard punt return to give UK a 7-6 lead and its only TD in a 48-7 loss.
• On Oct. 21, 1967, in LSU’s Tiger Stadium, Lyons scored on a 95-yard kickoff return in a 30-7 loss. For the game, he returned eight kicks for 235 yards, including a school-record 160 yards on kickoff returns.
• In a 31-7 loss to Georgia on Oct. 28, 1967, Lyons accounted for UK’s only touchdown by running 22 yards on a fake punt for a first down, teaming up with Phil Thompson on a pass-interference play that gave UK a first down at the Georgia three, and then hitting Thompson in the end zone. Oh, yeah. He also kicked the extra point.
• A year later, Lyons caught a 92-yard TD pass from Dave Bair in a 35-14 loss to Georgia in Lexington. It’s still the second-longest passing play in Wildcat history.
• On Nov. 4, 1967 at Stoll Field, Lyons scored all UK’s points in a 22-7 win over West Virginia that even included a 33-yard field goal on his first college attempt.
• On Nov. 18, 1967, Lyons scored both UK’s touchdowns in a 28-12 loss to Florida, catching a 21-yard TD pass from Bair in the first quarter and plunged over from the one in the fourth.
• Against second-ranked Tennessee on Nov. 23, 1967, Lyons broke loose for 68 yards and a first down at the Vols’ three-yard-line, then rammed in for the TD and kicked the extra point.

During his senior year of 1968, Sports Illustrated magazine sent writer Myron Cope to take a look at Lyons against West Virginia. Here’s part of what he reported:

“While Bair, the quarterback, and (Reynard) Makin, the fullback, handled the ball on a drive to the 13, Dicky amused himself by running out fakes and blocking Mountaineers prostrate. From the 13 in, he swept end for five yards, then butted three tacklers till they yielded three more yards. Then he swung wide to his right – straight into a swarm of West Virginia tacklers. For five yards, he pushed, slithered, lunged, and, just barely, laid the ball across the goal line. ‘He may go a long while not lookin’ good and he’ll lull you to sleep,’ Carlen (West Virginia coach Jim) had said of Dicky earlier. ‘Then look out.’

“With his third-quarter touchdown, Dicky had broken the game open, and, in the fourth quarter, he put it out of reach. He carried three times from the nine to nonexistent openings, skipping through two pairs of West Virginia tacklers on a sweep, banging over tackle into West Virginia bellies, and finally sailing the last yard like an Al Oerter discus…Against a Mountaineer defense loaded to stop him, Dicky had made only one sizable run – a 20-yarder nullified by a penalty – but he had socked out 67 yards the hard way.”

Drafted by the New Orleans Saints, Lyons Sr. played a few years in the NFL before retiring and going into business there. His son was born in Metairie, La., and played four years at Holy Cross High in Louisiana. In style and attitude, both on the field and off, the resemblance to his dad was eerie.

At various times in his UK career, Lyons Jr. found a way into Coach Rich Brooks’ doghouse for having too much fun away from football. You can blame his genes. As Cope noted in his 1968 SI story, Lyons Sr. “is said to lead the Kentucky campus in parking tickets and that he is an incurable horse player who often can be found biting his nails while sweating out the race results as they come over the radio.”

Rather than resisting the idea of playing in his dad’s shadow – as Archie Manning’s son Peyton did when he turned down Ole Miss in favor of Tennessee – Lyons Jr. committed to UK early and never seriously considered another school. Throughout his career, he gave older UK fans a serious case of deja vu.

The young Lyons finished his career with 141 catches for 1,752 yards and 18 touchdowns. This season he had 33 receptions (equaling the total of the next two best receivers combined), a team-high 264 receiving yards, and two TDs. He also had 20 of the team’s 23 kickoff returns.

Now the raging question among UK fans is whether Brooks should play Cobb mainly at wide receiver, where he’ll replace Lyons Jr. as the go-to guy, or use him more at quarterback, where he’ll revive memories of Lyons Sr. among UK historians.

Most likely, Brooks will use Cobb much as Charlie Bradshaw used Lyons Sr., moving him around in different spots to keep defenses off-balance and get the ball in his hands as much as possible.

Like Lyons Sr., Cobb is Mr. Big Play. Heck, considering how poorly UK’s special teams have played, Brooks might want to consider expanding Cobb’s role even more. Now that would really be a tribute to the Lyons family.