Pine Bluffs names new coach

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Former assistant coach Will Gray has been named the new head football coach at Pine Bluffs.

Gray was an assistant coach with the Hornets for four years, working with the backfield, and he called Pine Bluffs’ plays last season. A 2003 graduate of Glenrock High School, Gray played quarterback at Black Hills State.

Gray confirmed his hiring in an email Monday.

Few schemes will change with Gray leading the team, he said.

“If we can progress on the defensive side of the ball we should be able to find success,” he wrote.

The hiring was approved by the Pine Bluffs school board last month. Gray also teaches social studies at Pine Bluffs.

Gray replaces Dale Gilbert, who had led the Hornets for the past four years. Gilbert compiled a 13-20 record as head coach.

The Hornets have made the playoffs each of the past two years but lost to Cokeville in the first round both times.

Pine Bluffs is the third school in Laramie County that will have a new head coach next fall. Cheyenne South hired Terry Pugh last week, while Burns is looking to replace longtime coach Bill Fullmer, who announced his resignation last month.

KGWN-TV had previously reported the hiring.

–patrick

Updates: 1894 to 1919; St. Stephens, Cowley and University Prep

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The last major historical update I think I will ever make — the span of seasons from 1894 to 1919 — has been made. In all, 189 additional games have been added to the database. All the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

Finding these 189 games was some of the toughest research I have ever done, especially when you consider the format of late 19th and early 20th century newspapers. Locating games was at times like hunting for a tiny needle in a huge haystack. I make no claim that the 189 games I have uploaded are a complete list of the games played from 1894 to 1919; it’s just the best I can do right now with what I have available.

What now? Well, now I continue to fill in the holes where I have information missing. The missing games list and the Coaches Project are good places to start. I’m also attempting to verify all bye weeks listed here and have got a nice jump on that research, as well.

In short, this is not the “end.”

In addition to the years 1894 to 1919, I also fixed a mistake I noticed for St. Stephens — I corrected the Eagles’ record in 1964 to 6-2, not 5-2 as I had listed — and took some names off the Coaches Project list for Cowley and University Prep.

All of the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

–patrick

Greybull tabs Heinemeyer as head coach

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Greybull has named Josh Heinemeyer as its head football coach.

Heinemeyer, 29, a social studies teacher in Greybull, takes over for John Cundall, who resigned in March after leading Greybull for seven seasons. Heinemeyer was named head coach on Tuesday.

Heinemeyer was previously an assistant wrestling coach in Greybull. He also was the offensive coordinator at Beach (N.D.) High School before coming to Greybull three years ago.

In a phone interview Thursday, Heinemeyer said he would try to mold Greybull’s offense to fit the personnel, but also said he would like to try to open up the Buffs’ offense to include more passing sets.

“We are just going to do our best to install a pretty new system in a short amount of time,” he said.

Greybull is a combined 17-5 in the past two seasons, reaching the Class 2A semifinals each of the past two years. Heinemeyer said he wanted to “try to keep the ball rolling” and continue the Buffaloes’ success of the past couple years.

Heinemeyer played at the college level at two small colleges in Wisconsin — Lakeland College and Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

The only other position known to be open in Wyoming is the position in Burns. If you know of any other openings or changes in the Wyoming high school football coaching ranks, you can post a comment here or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick

South names Tracy Pugh head coach

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Cheyenne South has named Tracy Pugh as head coach for its first varsity season.

Pugh takes over for Scott Noble, who led the Bison’s sub-varsity squads last fall.

To hear a KFBC Radio interview with Pugh, click here and follow the link on the right side of the page. To see KGWN-TV’s story on the hiring, click here.

–patrick

Wyoming high school football, 1895 to 1919: It’s what you call a “hodgepodge”

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The time prior to World War I is a confusing one for Wyoming high school football. Few schools played the sport with any consistency. Schools occasionally fielded teams for a year or two, then disappeared. Even schools that fielded teams had trouble developing consistent schedules.

In the end, what we see is a hodgepodge of starts and stops. In all, at least 10 schools fielded teams prior to World War I, but only two schools had teams with any consistency.

Here is a quick look at the schools that fielded teams prior to 1918:

Five schools I didn’t think had teams prior to World War I: Fort Washakie, Lander, Douglas, Wheatland, University Prep.

Douglas: The Bearcats started in 1908 and also played in 1909, then went away for a few years. Douglas also fielded teams again in 1913 and 1914, and then gave it up again. The Bearcats came back for good after the war.
Lander: Like Douglas, Lander started in 1908. The Tigers also played in 1910. And that’s all I’ve found for Lander prior to the Tigers’ restart in 1922.
Fort Washakie: I found games between Lander and Fort Washakie in 1910; it’s all I’ve found (so far) for the school prior to 1926.
Wheatland: Wheatland’s “official” start was 1912. The Bulldogs also fielded teams in 1913 and 1914, but put away the pigskin after that season and waited until after the war to come back.
University Prep: Prep played games in 1908 and 1909, then gave it up before restarting its program in 1920.

Two schools I knew had history prior to World War I, but I knew it was murky: Buffalo and Natrona.

Buffalo: Buffalo started fielding teams in 1916, but often played only one or two games a season due to difficulties in scheduling.
Natrona: NC’s play has been spotty at best; I have the Mustangs with teams in 1908, 1909 and 1912 prior to “starting” in 1919.

Three schools I knew had deep histories that extended prior to World War I: Sheridan, Cheyenne Central, Laramie.

Sheridan: The Broncs started in 1909, but didn’t play any interscholastic games that year. Sheridan’s first official year came in 1910 and the Broncs have had a program ever since.
Laramie: Laramie fielded teams in 1901 and 1903, then gave it up (near as I can tell) until 1908. The Plainsmen also gave up football in 1913 and 1914 and also didn’t play in 1918 due to the worldwide flu epidemic. Their start? I think it’s 1895. At least that’s the earliest Laramie game I’ve found so far.
Cheyenne Central: The only thing that has stopped Cheyenne is the flu, which wiped out the 1918 season. Otherwise, the cherry and black have played at least one game every year since 1904. However, I have yet to find games for Cheyenne prior to 1902.

Here is a year-by-year look at which teams played in which seasons prior to 1920, to the best of my knowledge (so far):

1919: Buffalo, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Natrona, Sheridan.
1918: No games, influenza epidemic (I have seen Sheridan records claiming a 10-0 loss to Billings in 1918, but for the life of me I cannot find it)
1917: Buffalo, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1916: Buffalo, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1915: Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1914: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Sheridan, Wheatland.
1913: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Sheridan, Wheatland.
1912: Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Natrona, Sheridan, Wheatland.
1911: Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Sheridan.
1910: Cheyenne Central, Fort Washakie, Lander, Laramie, Sheridan.
1909: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Laramie, Natrona, University Prep.
1908: Cheyenne Central, Douglas, Lander, Laramie, Natrona, University Prep.
1907: Cheyenne Central.
1906: Cheyenne Central.
1905: Cheyenne Central.
1904: Cheyenne Central.
1903: Laramie.
1902: Cheyenne Central.
1901: Laramie.
1900: No indications of any teams.
1899: No indications of any teams.
1898: No indications of any teams.
1897: Laramie.
1896: Laramie.
1895: Laramie.

I have not found any games for teams prior to 1895. Yet.

As for the results of the games themselves: I will be uploading 1895 through 1919 sometime after I move. I am in the process of moving back to Casper and won’t have the computer for a few days….

–patrick

Perfection and imperfection

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A little more than a year ago, I wrote this post about teams going either scoreless or un-scored-upon for an entire season. I noted that, in Wyoming, it hadn’t happened in either case since 1946.

But, since the time I wrote that post, I have completed research back to 1920 and can now say that there were indeed teams who weren’t scored upon all season — and there were teams who didn’t score for entire seasons.

I can also say the list of the un-scored-upon is much shorter than the list of the scoreless. In fact, my list of un-scored-upon teams only numbers two since 1920: Byron in 1939 and Heart Mountain in 1943.

Both come with asterisks.

Byron’s 1939 season is listed here on a technicality: I can’t find final scores for two of the Eagles’ games that year. In the five game results I know, Byron was 5-0 and outscored its opponents 123-0. But I have yet to find final scores for a game scheduled on Sept. 30 with Meeteetse and for a game scheduled on Oct. 5 with Deaver-Frannie. I don’t even know for sure if those games were played. Here is the Eagles’ schedule and results for the season as I have them posted on the Byron team page:

1939 (5-0) Coach: Malcolm LeSueur
S14/1939 Burlington 0 Byron 12 NWDN
S21/1939 Deaver-Frannie 0 Byron 20 LC/NWDN
S23/1939 Byron 32 Meeteetse 0 CE/NWDN
S26/1939 Byron 19 Ten Sleep 0 CTH/NWDN
S30/1939 Meeteetse Byron
O3/1939 Byron 40 Burlington 0 CTH/LC
O5/1939 Byron Deaver-Frannie
O27/1939 Basin Byron not played BRR

The other team to go an entire season without allowing a point is the Heart Mountain squad from 1943. This was the first year that the Heart Mountain Japanese internment camp played football against other schools, and with the anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States at the time, it was difficult to find teams willing to come to the camp and play (the football team was not allowed to leave the camp to play games). Nevertheless, in the team’s three games in 1943, the Eagles went 3-0 and didn’t allow a point, outscoring their three foes 38-0. In fact, the Eagles also shut out their first three opponents in 1944 before falling 19-13 to Natrona in the only loss in program history in a game that ended both the 1944 season and the camp’s interscholastic team. Here is the Eagles’ 1943 season as seen on their team page:

1943 (3-0) Coach: Ray Thompson
O1/1943 Worland 0 Heart Mountain 7 CTH/NWDN
O9/1943 Red Lodge (MT) 0 Heart Mountain 25 CTH/HMS
O23/1943 Lovell 0 Heart Mountain 6 CTH/HMS

The scoreless teams? Well, there were numerous teams that went entire seasons without scoring a point between 1920 and 1945. The list also includes the only program to go two consecutive seasons without a score: Gebo in 1934 and 1935. Of teams that played more than one game in their seasons, scoreless teams include:

University Prep 1920 (0-4, outscored 121-0, first season after more than 10 years without a program)
Riverton 1922 (0-3, outscored 175-0, first season in program history)
Sundance 1924 (0-2 with one missing game, outscored 61-0, first season in program history)
Lingle 1926 (0-6, outscored 181-0)
Newcastle 1928 (0-2, outscored 142-0)
Valley 1928 (0-2, outscored 22-0)
Superior 1928 (0-2-2 with one missing game, outscored 19-0)
Manderson 1928 (0-4, outscored 176-0)
Lander 1928 (0-5-1, outscored 52-0)
Gillette 1929 (0-3-1, outscored 95-0)
Basin 1931 (0-6, outscored 135-0)
Gebo 1934 (0-6-1, outscored 135-0)
Gebo 1935 (0-4-1, outscored 81-0)
Buffalo 1935 (0-7, outscored 192-0)
Guernsey 1938 (0-5-1, outscored 75-0)
Sunrise 1940 (0-2, outscored 13-0, but probably played more games than this)

Upton’s 1938 team may also make the scoreless list. That season, the Bobcats went 0-6; they were outscored 152-0 in five games and also lost to Custer, S.D., but the score for that game has not been located yet.

Special note (results prior to 1920): Although scoreless or un-scored-upon seasons were much more common prior to 1920 due to shorter seasons and limited opponent pools, one team should be mentioned from this era: the 1917 Sheridan Broncs. That seasons, the Broncs put up perhaps the most dominating stretch of games ever put together by a Wyoming team. That season, Sheridan went 7-0 and outscored foes by a total of 300-0 — an average of almost 43-0 per game. It is the only verified complete (more than five games) season in state history in which a team has gone unbeaten, untied and un-scored-upon.

Sheridan’s 1917 results: Defeated Buffalo 96-0; defeated Billings, Mont., 7-0; defeated Buffalo 77-0; defeated Billings Poly, Mont., 22-0; defeated Miles City, Mont., 13-0; defeated Billings Poly, Mont., 7-0; defeated Worden, Mont., 78-0.

Season results from 1900 to 1919 will be posted soon.

–patrick

Wyoming-football.com is on Twitter: @wyomingfootball

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Follow developments faster than the speed of blog! We’re on Twitter now. You can follow wyoming-football.com @wyomingfootball. It will probably be more active during the season, but don’t wait until then to get on board!

–patrick

Updates: Lovell, Lingle, Byron

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Some quick missing games updates from another round in the library:

Found the score for Lovell’s 33-6 loss to Billings Central, Mont., on Oct. 21, 1954

Found the score for Lingle’s 64-28 loss to Harrison, Neb., on Oct. 12, 1951

Found the score for Byron’s 36-13 victory over the Cody sophomores on Oct. 10, 1946

Byron’s victory was part of a long winning streak for the Eagles, now with 26 verified games. However, according to reports from that era, the streak actually pushes into the 40s and is probably Wyoming’s longest — but, thus far, only 26 games have been accounted for.

All of the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

As an aside, research (going backward) has been “completed” through 1903. The only schools I can find with teams in this era are Cheyenne (Central) and Laramie, and I have run into years — especially with Laramie — where I can’t find any evidence of a team existing. That makes the research go fast (only searching for two schools) but also go slow (looking for something that may not even be there). Now that I am finished with grad school, my research should pick up quickly over the next week or so. Maybe even “done.”

–patrick

Burns’ Fullmer retires

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After 38 years in coaching — including the past 17 as the head football coach at Burns — Bill Fullmer is retiring.

Fullmer compiled a 58-79 record as head coach of the Broncs, a run that included a state championship and the only undefeated season in school history in 2008 (11-0). A native of Lingle, Fullmer has tallied more victories on the Burns sideline than any other coach in school history.

Fullmer confirmed his retirement in an email Tuesday.

Fullmer is also the activities director at Burns and has previously served on the board of directors of the Wyoming High School Activities Association. As of now, Fullmer said he plans on keeping the AD job at Burns but will retire from teaching and coaching.

Fullmer’s career has included stops at Sioux County, Neb., where he was the head coach for football, basketball and track for three years, Eastern Wyoming College and Newcastle. He has spent the past 27 years in Burns, including 17 as head football coach.

With 17 years of head coaching experience, Fullmer was the fourth-longest tenured active coach in the state. Only Cokeville’s Todd Dayton, Natrona’s Steve Harshman and Hulett’s Steve Colling had been the head coaches at their respective schools longer than Fullmer.

Fullmer is the sixth head coach in Wyoming to step down this offseason. New coaches have been hired at Rock Springs, Green River, Kelly Walsh and Torrington, while the head coaching position at Greybull remains open. Cheyenne South, which will play its first varsity season in 2011, is also searching for a head football coach.

Know of any other coaching changes in the state? Post a comment below or email me at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

–patrick