Author Archives: Patrick

Losing is always difficult.

Losing at home, though, always seems to sting a bit more.

Losing in front of a sprinkling of fans on a road trip always seems like less of a mental train than losing on front of a stadium full of friends, family, neighbors and alums.

At times, though, several Wyoming high school football teams have struggled to win at the very place where winning is most common.

Two programs — Lander and Newcastle — put together streaks of 18 consecutive home losses, the longest in state history.

Lander’s streak ran from 1967-71. In between beating Lovell 20-0 on Sept. 29, 1967, and beating Green River 12-7 on Oct. 22, 1971, Lander actually won four games, but all four of those victories came on the road. Lander’s home losing streak ended against Green River in the Tigers’ final home game of the 1971 season, giving the squad its only victory of the 1971 season. In 1972, the Tigers went 8-1, narrowly missing a berth in the Class AA championship game.

Newcastle, meanwhile, lost 18 straight home games from 1999 to 2004. The victory that broke the streak — a 34-20 victory over Wheatland on Sept. 24, 2004 — was Newcastle’s only victory in the span of four seasons, 2002-05. However, in 2006, the Dogies turned it around to finish second in the 3A East Conference and host a playoff game.

Even so, the longest home streak without a victory belongs to Saratoga, which went 19 games (18 losses and one tie) between 1965 and 1970 without a home victory. The Panthers ended that streak in style, topping the Rawlins JV 54-0 on Sept. 19, 1970. By 1974, the Panthers had put together an undefeated season.

Those quick turnarounds should give this year’s team in Rawlins some hope.

The Outlaws’ current 15-game home losing streak is the longest active such streak in Wyoming. Rawlins’ last home win came on Sept. 5, 2008, a 7-3 victory over Mountain View.

Here is a short rundown of the state’s longest all-time and current home losing streaks:

Longest home losing streaks
All-time
Lander, 18 games, 1967-71
Newcastle, 18 games, 1999-2004
Glendo, 16 games, 1975-79
Hulett, 16 games, 1975-78
Rawlins, 16 games, 1992-95
Shoshoni, 16 games, 1971-75
Current
Rawlins, 15 games, since 2008
Tongue River, 11 games, since 2008 (two neutral-site losses not counted; no 2011 season)
Longest home non-losing streaks (includes ties)
All-time
Saratoga, 0-18-1 (19 games), 1965-70
Shoshoni, 0-17-1 (18 games), 1971-75
Basin, 0-16-1 (17 games), 1948-52

Coming tomorrow: The longest road winning streaks.

–patrick

Long before Under Armour made it trendy, Wyoming high school football teams understood the importance of winning at home.

Putting together a long winning streak is tough enough, given the short seasons and high turnover of high school football teams.

Putting together a long winning streak of only home games is tougher than that; such a streak relies on consistency of play not only from game to game, but also from year to year and sometimes from coach to coach, too.

In Wyoming, two schools have put together long home winning streaks that no other schools can claim to match.

Byron’s 30-game home winning streak from 1953-61 stands alone. The Eagles’ streak started at the end of a lackluster 1953 season in which Byron went 2-3.

Then the Eagles started to win. A lot.

Undefeated seasons followed in 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1960. In between the 1953 and 1961 seasons, the Eagles won 30 consecutive games at home. (And maybe more — three games Byron won in which the location of the game could not be determined are not included in the tallies of this streak.)

Byron’s home streak ended with the opening game of the 1962 season, a 26-0 loss to Shoshoni.

Oddly enough, Byron had at least three different coaches in the nine seasons from 1953-61.

However, those 30 games do not represent the longest streak any one Wyoming team has put together in which there hasn’t been a loss at home. Instead, that streak belongs to Natrona.

For 40 consecutive games from 1934 to 1940, the Mustangs didn’t lose a single game at home, going 37-0-3 in Casper during that stretch. Oddly enough, NC never had an undefeated team in that span; however, all the losses came on the road.

The Mustangs’ streak came to a close in the final game of the 1940 season, in which Natrona lost 13-0 to Rock Springs; after that loss, NC went 14-0-1 in its next 15 games at home. In that 1940 season, NC beat teams from four different states — Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming — at home.

Natrona, like Byron, went through three different coaches during its nine-year run at home.

However, both the Byron streak and the Natrona streak might be in danger.

Douglas has won 24 consecutive home games since 2008. If the Bearcats can sweep their home games this year and win at least one home playoff game, they will tie Byron’s all-time state record winning streak.

Here is a short rundown of the state’s best all-time and current home winning streaks:

Longest home winning streaks
All-time
Byron, 30 games, 1953-61 (three victories of unknown location are not counted)
Natrona, 28 games, 1936-40
Cokeville, 27 games, 1993-97
Sheridan, 25 games, 1920-24
Shoshoni, 25 games, 1976-81
Current
Douglas, 24 games, since 2008
Southeast, 14 games, since 2009
Longest home non-losing streaks (includes ties)
All-time
Natrona, 37-0-3 (40 games), 1934-40
Cody, 25-0-2 (27 games), 1929-35

Coming tomorrow: The state’s longest home losing streaks.

–patrick

It’s Friday afternoon, and you’re like me — you’re avoiding doing real work. Well, allow me to fill your afternoon with a look back at some of what I think is the most insightful, informational and (most important) fun stuff I’ve written here the past couple years:

In defense of Guernsey (Dec. 2, 2009)

Shutout (or shut out) for the season? Not in Wyoming. (March 26, 2010) AND Perfection and imperfection (May 3, 2011)

It’s time for Jerry Hill to get his due (April 22, 2010)

Home-field advantage in Wyoming high school football (May 28, 2010) AND Statistics and home-field advantage…. (December 1, 2010)

The “Dead Era,” 1939-47 – recognition for the unrecognized (July 29, 2010)

Top 20 games of the past 10 years (December 31, 2010)

Picking state champions: 1921 to 1925 AND 1926 to 1930 (December 16, 2010 and February 17, 2011)

Coaches with most victories — by letter (February 21, 2011) AND Winningest coaches by school (April 7, 2011)

Wyoming high school football program totals by year (June 23, 2011)

The playoff brackets we missed: 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 (June 27-July 9, 2011)

Wyoming’s top football coaches: A timeline (September 12, 2011)

10 most important football games in Wyoming state history (March 26, 2012)

Most-played football opponents for each Wyoming high school (April 16, 2012)

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And, of course, I spent more than a year writing Five-Minute Introductions for each school in the state — the basis, in part, for the book A Century of Fridays.

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I’d be ashamed if I didn’t make it clear that the work here is not done. I still have a lot of work left to do: Look at all the names I’m missing for The Coaches Project and all the games on the missing games list. If you can help me, that would be awesome! And I’ll give you all the credit for the help, because you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.

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For those of you looking for a REAL trip down my football memory lane… and an even BIGGER Wyoming football distraction… click here.

–patrick

I was prompted last week to compile some out-of-state series records to go with the in-state ones I compiled last month (see the result of that research here and here).

First, a disclaimer: Keep in mind that for all the numbers I mention below, I’m counting varsity vs. varsity games only. Games where Wyoming varsity teams played out-of-state JV or sophomore teams aren’t counted in these totals.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Wyoming has done against out-of-state foes. Total, Wyoming actually has a winning record against out-of-state teams: 1471 victories, 1416 losses, 99 ties, a winning percentage of .509.

Per state, Wyoming’s records break down this way:

Utah: Wyoming leads 120-91-2 (.568)
South Dakota: Wyoming leads 402-329-28 (.548)
Idaho: Wyoming leads 143-126-8 (.531)
Montana: tied 223-223-15 (.500)
Nebraska: Wyoming trails 370-413-18 (.473)
Colorado: Wyoming trails 205-231-28 (.472)
North Dakota: tied 2-2
Alberta: Wyoming leads 2-0
Saskatchewan: Wyoming leads 2-0
Minnesota: Wyoming leads 1-0
Texas: Wyoming leads 1-0
Kansas: Wyoming trails 0-1
(List edited from original post to show Texas series)

The state Wyoming schools have played more times than any other is Nebraska, with 801 total varsity vs. varsity contests. South Dakota is second with 759; Colorado (464), Idaho (277) and Utah (213) bring up the pack.

The most-played out-of-state series is the one between Sheridan and Billings/Billings Senior, Mont. The two Bronc squads have played 59 times, and the Billings squad leads the series 39-18-2. The two schools have not played each other since 1969.

Other out-of-state leading series are:

Nebraska: Torrington-Gering, 51 games, tied 24-24-3 (last meeting 2008)
South Dakota: Newcastle-Custer, 44 games, Newcastle trails 16-25-3 (last meeting 2011)
Colorado: Cheyenne Central-Fort Collins, 40 games, Central trails 16-23-1 (last meeting 1985)
Idaho: Jackson-Teton, 31 games, Jackson leads 16-14-1 (last meeting 2011)
Utah: Kemmerer-Rich County, 19 games, Kemmerer trails 9-10 (last meeting 2008)

For Ted.

–patrick