WHSFB HQ — The Wyoming high school football blog

For the first time, wyoming-football.com has started to compile and track individual Wyoming high school football records.

The preliminary results of the individual record compilation is available here.

Currently available statistical records have been used to create the lists.

Individual records for Wyoming high school football vary greatly from school to school and from year to year. All records contained should be considered unofficial and incomplete. To submit an individual for placement among a top 10, please email site manager Patrick Schmiedt at pschmiedt@yahoo.com and include in your email any and all possible documentation to verify the record claim.

For now, individual records are limited to one season records only. Individual game records for rushing, passing and receiving yards can be submitted, but will not be posted until a representative sample can be obtained. Career records are not being tracked at this point due to their difficulty to authenticate.

Records are for 11-man football only.

–patrick

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The only perfect season in Guernsey Longhorn history had its roots in the most unexpected of places — a winless season.

From 0-7 in 1950 to 7-0 in 1951, the Guernsey squad had the most fantastic one-season turnaround any Wyoming high school football team has ever experienced.

Although the 1951 season was cut short — Guernsey was hit hard by polio, and one of the Longhorn players, Floyd Stellpflug, died the week before Guernsey was scheduled to play Huntley for the Southeast Conference’s six-man championship.

Guernsey also canceled its final scheduled game of the season against Lyman, Neb., but nevertheless finished unbeaten. The Longhorns beat Sunrise and Glenrock twice each and also beat Lingle, Albin and Manville that year; close scares against Manville (20-16) and Sunrise (25-24) nearly derailed perfection.

Guernsey’s feat has never been duplicated, although several schools have come close. In all, 28 Wyoming high school football teams have seen their winning percentages jump by at least .750 from one season to the next; 32 schools have had fall-offs of .750 or more.

And while no school has ever fallen from unbeaten and untied to winless and untied, only the Guernsey Longhorns jumped from a winless, tie-less season to an unbeaten, untied season.

(For full disclosure — Guernsey has one missing game in 1950, an Oct. 13 date with Glenrock. However, Glenrock beat Guernsey 34-6 on Sept. 15 of that season.)

Three programs, meanwhile, went the opposite direction just as fast. Those three programs went from a zero in the loss column one year to a zero in the win column the next year — Cokeville went from 9-0-1 in 1974 to 0-8 in 1975 (a .950 winning percentage decrease), Mountain View went from 7-0-1 in 1971 to 0-9 in 1972 (a .938 decrease) and Lander went from 7-0 in 1927 to 0-5-1 in 1928 (a .917 decrease). Two other programs had decreases of .900 or more in their winning percentage from one year to the next; however, Guernsey is the only program to see its winning percentage jump by more than .900 from one season to the next.

Some schools made both lists thanks to one wild swing. Cokeville had a quick bottoming out in 1975; the Panthers went from 9-0-1 in 1974 to 0-8 to 1975 back up to 6-2 in 1976. (Cokeville’s fall from 1974 to 1975 is statistically the most dramatic in state history, as lined out above.) Two other schools had astronomic rises followed by dramatic tumbles: Guernsey-Sunrise went from 2-6 in 2008 to 9-0 in 2009 back down to 1-8 in 2010, while Lander went from 2-6 in 1926 to 7-0 in 1927 back down to 0-5-1 in 1928.

Below are the schools that have either improved or fallen back by at least .750 in their winning percentage in consecutive years, with the most dramatic turnarounds listed first (minimum four games in each season):

Improvement

Guernsey, 1950-51, from 0-7 to 7-0 (1.00 improvement)

Lingle, 1989-90, from 1-7 to 10-0 (.875 improvement) (Lingle’s sudden fortune was precipitated by a move from 11-man to 9-man; Lingle returned to 11-man in 1991 and went 5-3, reaching the state semifinals)

Lusk, 1990-91, from 1-7 to 7-0 (.875 improvement) (Lusk was ineligible for the 1991 playoffs)

Big Horn, 1939-40, from 0-4 to 6-1 (.857 improvement) (1939 was Big Horn’s first season)

Powell, 1942-43, from 1-6 to 9-0 (.857 improvement)

Cowley, 1939-40, from 0-7 to 5-1 (.833 improvement)

Sunrise, 1937-38, from 0-6 to 5-1 (.833 improvement)

Sunrise, 1945-46, from 0-4 to 5-1 (.833 improvement)

Gillette, 1921-22, from 0-4 to 4-1 (.800 improvement) (1921 was Gillette’s first season)

Greybull, 1982-83, from 0-8 to 8-2 (.800 improvement) (this improvement coincided with Greybull’s move from Class A to Class B)

Hulett, 1956-57, from 0-5 to 4-1 (.800 improvement)

Superior, 1949-50, from 0-7 to 8-2 (.800 improvement)

Greybull, 1923-24, from 0-7 to 5-1-1 (.786 improvement)

St. Mary’s, 1971-72, from 2-7 to 10-0 (.778 improvement) (this improvement coincided with St. Mary’s’ move from Class A to Class B)

Meeteetse, 1986-87, from 0-7 to 7-2 (.778 improvement)

Moorcroft, 1958-59, from 0-4 to 7-2 (.778 improvement)

Newcastle, 1939-40, from 2-7 to 8-0 (.778 improvement)

Burns, 1988-89, from 1-7 to 9-1 (.775 improvement)

Lander, 1971-72, from 1-7 to 8-1 (.763 improvement)

Tongue River, 1961-62, from 0-4-1 to 6-1 (.757 improvement)

Cokeville, 1975-76, from 0-8 to 6-2 (.750 improvement)

Dubois, 1983-84, from 1-7 to 7-1 (.750 improvement)

Guernsey-Sunrise, 2008-09, from 2-6 to 9-0 (.75o improvement) (2009 was Wyoming’s return year to six-man football)

Hulett, 1980-81, from 0-7 to 3-1 (.750 improvement) (Hulett played a sub-varsity schedule in 1981)

Kemmerer, 1923-24, from 1-3 to 5-0 (.750 improvement) (1923 was Kemmerer’s first year)

Lander, 1926-27, from 2-6 to 7-0 (.75o improvement)

Pavillion, 1959-60, from 1-7 to 7-1 (.750 improvement)

Thermopolis, 1989-90, from 2-6 to 11-0 (.75o improvement)

Devolvement

Cokeville, 1974-75, from 9-0-1 to 0-8 (.950 decrease)

Mountain View, 1971-72, from 7-0-1 to 0-9 (.938 decrease)

Lander, 1927-28, from 7-0 to 0-5-1 (.917 decrease)

Midwest, 1991-92, from 10-1 to 0-8 (.909 decrease)

Saratoga, 1982-83, from 9-1 to 0-8 (.900 decrease)

Burns, 1983-84, from 8-1 to 0-7 (.889 decrease)

Byron, 1976-77, from 8-1 to 0-7 (.889 decrease)

St. Mary’s, 1946-47, from 4-0 to 1-8 (.889 decrease)

Guernsey-Sunrise, 2009-10, from 9-0 to 1-8 (.889 decrease)

Kemmerer, 1932-33, from 8-1 to 0-9 (.889 decrease)

Rawlins, 1999-2000, from 9-0 to 1-8 (.889 decrease)

Deaver-Frannie, 1971-72, from 9-0 to 1-7 (.875 decrease)

Meeteetse, 1993-94, from 9-0 to 1-7 (.875 decrease)

Ten Sleep, 1939-40, from 6-1 to 0-6 (.857 decrease)

Basin, 1939-40, from 5-1 to 0-6 (.833 decrease)

Pine Bluffs, 1944-45, from 4-1 to 0-4 (.800 decrease)

Riverton, 2004-05, from 8-2 to 0-8 (.800 decrease)

Sheridan, 1946-47, from 8-0-2 to 1-8 (.789 decrease)

Big Horn, 1968-69, from 7-2 to 0-7 (.778 decrease)

Cokeville, 1969-70, from 8-0 to 2-7 (.778 decrease)

Greybull, 1996-97, from 7-2 to 0-7 (.778 decrease)

Laramie, 1979-80, from 8-1 to 1-8 (.778 decrease)

Natrona, 1985-87, from 10-0 to 2-7 (.778 decrease)

Wheatland, 1966-67, from 8-1 to 1-8 (.778 decrease)

Worland, 1997-98, from 7-2 to 0-8 (.778 decrease)

Greybull, 1977-78, from 8-1 to 1-7 (.764 decrease)

Cody, 1987-88, from 6-2 to 0-8 (.750 decrease)

Hulett, 1961-62, from 7-0 to 2-6 (.750 decrease)

Jackson, 2007-08, from 11-0 to 2-6 (.750 decrease)

Manville, 1947-48, from 6-0 to 1-3 (.750 decrease)

Powell, 1923-24, from 8-0 to 1-4-1 (.750 decrease)

Southeast, 1980-81, from 9-0 to 2-6 (.750 decrease)

–patrick

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The plan was outlandish — a new state, carved from the sections of three existing states.

Pieces of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana, together, would meld to form Absaroka, the 49th of the United States.

In 1939, a group of dreamers drew up their plans for the new state in the “capital” of Sheridan. The group, led by Sheridan’s A.R. Swickard, the self-proclaimed “governor” of the new state, drew borders for a 49th state that encompassed the region’s needs and identity: independent, self-resolved, frustrated with federal intrusion, separate from the identity of the states from which they were drawn.

The proposed state would have encompassed parts of 24 counties from northern Wyoming, western South Dakota and southeastern Montana. The entirety of northern Wyoming, from Yellowstone and Teton parks across along its southern border to Thermopolis, Kaycee and Newcastle, would have been part of Absaroka. Those areas would have joined the of the Black Hills area and surrounding counties of South Dakota, including Rapid City, and a chunk of ranch and coal lands, mostly along the Powder River basin and along the east side of the Bighorn Mountains, from southeastern Montana.

Proposed state of Absaroka. First published in The Sheridan Press, 1939. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The new state had a good start — a “governor,” license plates, even a beauty queen. But the practical implications of seceding 60,000-plus square miles of land into a new state far outweighed the idea, and Absaroka remained in the brain rather than on the map. However, the idea had served its purpose, mostly as a message to state and federal legislatures that went something like, “Pay attention to us!”

While the state of Absaroka never got much past the theoretical stage, now, almost 75 years removed from the Absaroka proposal, I thought it might be fun to look at what Absaroka’s creation would have meant for the high school sports programs in the new state, as well as what it would have meant for Wyoming’s remaining schools.

In all, 58 current high schools — 27 from Wyoming, 24 from South Dakota and seven from Montana — would have been part of Absaroka. By county, those schools would have been (with current enrollments in parentheses; schools without football in italics):

Wyoming
Teton: Jackson (654)
Fremont: Dubois (58)
Park: Cody (690), Powell (480), Meeteetse (33)
Big Horn: Rocky Mountain (117), Lovell (214), Greybull (167), Burlington (80), Riverside (97)
Washakie: Worland (378), Ten Sleep (39)
Hot Springs: Thermopolis (201)
Sheridan: Sheridan (922), Tongue River (145), Big Horn (140), Normative Services (60), Arvada-Clearmont (33)
Johnson: Buffalo (345), Kaycee (51)
Campbell: Gillette (2,216), Wright (178)
Crook: Hulett (64), Moorcroft (163), Sundance (113)
Weston: Upton (85), Newcastle (248)

Montana
Carter: Carter County (Ekalaka) (38)
Powder River: Powder River County (Broadus) (112)
Rosebud: Colstrip (194), Lame Deer (125)
Big Horn: Northern Cheyenne (Busby) (80), Hardin (438), Lodge Grass (103)

South Dakota (South Dakota calculates enrollments on three-grade projections; numbers here reflect a calculated four-year enrollment)
Harding: Harding County (Buffalo) (67)
Perkins: Bison (49), Lemmon (107)
Butte: Belle Fourche (397), Newell (117)
Meade: Faith (88), Sturgis (701)
Pennington: Wall (87), New Underwood (96), Rapid City Christian (57), Hill City (151), Douglas (Box Elder) (696), Rapid City Central (2,056), Rapid City Stevens (1,645), St. Thomas More (Rapid City) (260)
Shannon: Little Wound (Kyle) (316), Pine Ridge (541), Red Cloud (Oglala) (209)
Fall River: Oelrichs (56), Hot Springs (269), Edgemont (43)
Custer: Custer (256)
Lawrence: Lead-Deadwood (251), Spearfish (599)

++++

If we break down the Absaroka schools to classify them, some natural classifications emerge — eight schools with more than 600 enrollment, 12 schools between 225 and 600, 16 schools between 110 and 225, and the remaining 22 schools (20 football schools) with fewer than 110. The enrollment classification divisions are strikingly similar to those that already exist in all three states.

And if we put those schools into conferences, those conferences might look a little something like this:

Class 4A East: Rapid City Central, Rapid City Stevens, Sturgis, Douglas (Box Elder).
Class 4A West: Gillette, Sheridan, Cody, Jackson.
Class 3A East: St. Thomas More (Rapid City), Lead-Deadwood, Belle Fourche, Little Wound (Kyle), Spearfish, Pine Ridge.
Class 3A West: Powell, Hardin, Worland, Buffalo, Newcastle, Custer.
Class 2A Northeast: Newell, Moorcroft, Sundance, Powder River County (Broadus).
Class 2A Southeast: Red Cloud (Oglala), Hot Springs, Hill City, Wright.
Class 2A Central: Tongue River, Big Horn, Colstrip, Lame Deer.
Class 2A West: Lovell, Thermopolis, Greybull, Rocky Mountain.
Class 1A Northeast: Faith, Harding County (Buffalo), Carter County (Ekalaka), Bison, Lemmon.
Class 1A Southeast: New Underwood, Wall, Rapid City Christian, Edgemont, Hulett, Oelrichs.
Class 1A Central: Upton, Northern Cheyenne, NSI, Kaycee, Lodge Grass, Arvada-Clearmont.
Class 1A West: Riverside, Burlington, Dubois, Ten Sleep, Meeteetse.

The conferences tend to split along the South Dakota-Wyoming border and the border along the Bighorn Mountain range, but nevertheless some interesting intermingling occurs. The theoretical Class 3A West and Class 2A Northeast draw schools from all three states; of the 12 proposed conferences, seven mix schools from at least two states.

This state would have been beset by many of the problems in the other three states today; a relatively low number of large schools and large distances between all schools would have given rise to disputes that would probably be quite similar to ones that Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota have had throughout the past 75 years.

++++

And, of course, the loss of 27 high schools to Absaroka would have been problematic to the 44 current schools still in Wyoming. The remaining schools and their current classifications — now strongly tied to the Union Pacific rail line and what is now I-80, would be something like this today:

Class 4A: Natrona, Cheyenne East, Kelly Walsh, Rock Springs, Cheyenne Central, Laramie, Cheyenne South, Evanston, Riverton, Green River.
Class 3A East: Douglas, Rawlins, Torrington, Wheatland, Glenrock.
Class 3A West: Star Valley, Lander, Pinedale, Mountain View, Lyman.
Class 2A East: Burns, Southeast, Lusk, Pine Bluffs, Saratoga.
Class 2A West: Big Piney, Kemmerer, Wind River, Wyoming Indian, Shoshoni.
Class 1A East: Lingle, Guernsey, Midwest, Rock River, Glendo, Chugwater.
Class 1A West: Snake River, Hanna, St. Stephens, Cokeville, Farson, Encampment. (Ft. Washakie and Arapaho Charter haven’t had varsity teams for several seasons.)

With so few schools, it’s interesting to consider that Wyoming may have not split to four classes. Instead, Wyoming may have gone the way of North Dakota and stuck with two classes — big schools and small schools — with four conferences each. If that were the case, maybe Casper would have actually gone to three high schools a couple years ago (or, most likely, three decades ago). … Nevertheless, as it is now:

Class A: Northeast: Natrona, Kelly Walsh, Douglas, Glenrock, Wheatland. Southeast: Cheyenne East, Cheyenne Central, Cheyenne South, Laramie, Torrington. Central: Lander, Riverton, Green River, Rock Springs, Rawlins. West: Star Valley, Evanston, Mountain View, Lyman, Pinedale.
Class B: Northeast: Midwest, Lusk, Glendo, Guernsey, Lingle. Southeast: Burns, Pine Bluffs, Southeast, Chugwater, Rock River. Southwest: Hanna, Encampment, Snake River, Saratoga, Kemmerer, Cokeville. Northwest: Big Piney, Farson, Wind River, Wyoming Indian, Shoshoni, St. Stephens.

++++

Three other implications to consider:

* In Absaroka, Gillette — halfway between the “capital” of Sheridan and the state’s biggest city, Rapid City — becomes the default site for state tournaments. The “Gillette Events Center,” a facility capable of handling indoor football championships as well as basketball state tournaments, opens in the late 1980s and is the showcase jewel of Absaroka high school sports.

* In Wyoming, Casper is deemed “too far north” for state tournaments and state basketball and wrestling stay in Laramie. In retaliation, the Natrona County schools petition to join the Absaroka High School Activities Association — the AHSAA — but the appeal is denied thanks to a strong Gillette lobbying effort.

* Casper’s consolation prize, though, is the annual Wyoming-Absaroka Shrine Bowl football game and the Wyoming-Absaroka all-star basketball series, which draw huge crowds annually because they’re held on the same weekend in the same city. Fans can watch both and players, if chosen, can participate in both. Gillette tries to bid for the games but is defeated thanks to a strong Casper lobbying effort.

Absaroka was never more than the plan of few overenthusiastic Sheridan County residents in the late 1930s. Even so, it’s fun to think “what if…” and consider just how different our sports scene would be — both in Absaroka and Wyoming — if this outlandish plan had been less outlandish and more plan.

–patrick

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After the 2012 season, the top 10 list of Wyoming high school football coaches in terms of total victories has a new member.

Natrona coach Steve Harshman is now tied for eighth all-time on the victories list. The Mustangs went 12-0 in winning the Class 4A title, and Harshman jumped from 11th to eighth on the list in the process.

Coincidentally, Harshman, with 146 career victories, is now tied with his former high school coach, Dallas Hoff, for eighth all-time.

Harshman has been the head coach at Natrona since 1991.

Of course, current Cokeville coach Todd Dayton still tops the all-time list. He has 272 victories through the end of the 2012 season.

The list, through the end of last season:

–patrick

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Year-by-year conference standings have been added to the records available here at wyoming-football.com.

Conference standings are available back to 1967, although not all years between then and now are available. Regular-season power ratings are also available for the 2001-08 seasons.

To see the conference standings that are available, check out the results by year page.

–patrick

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A film of the 1954 Class A championship game between Worland and Torrington has been digitized and posted online — and it’s pretty sweet.

The video, posted by RT Communications at rtcom.tv, can be viewed on this page (although the direct link to the file may be necessary on some browsers/systems).

Worland won the game 32-7, but as the film shows, the game was close until the fourth quarter. Both teams ran variations of the single wing offense.

The video was apparently posted in September, but I just now got around to noticing it. RT Communications has numerous other historical Worland football games posted on its website, including the 2002 4A championship game against Star Valley.

–patrick

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Many people are caught by surprise when I mention that Wyoming-football.com has the results of every state basketball tournament game listed on the website, as well.

Although the basketball results don’t paint as complete a picture as the football results do (the basketball results are state tournament only), they do allow us to see how teams who qualified for state finished their respective seasons.

With the basketball regular season starting this week, I’d like to go a bit deeper, though, and find the record of every Wyoming state basketball champion.

I have the records of all state champions since 1999, but prior to that it gets a little (OK, a lot) shaky.

One of the reasons I want to do this is to have a little fun in the offseason with this blog. I’d like to post, for example, every undefeated state champion the state has ever had. In all, I have the records for 14 girls basketball teams and 13 boys teams that have finished a season unbeaten (updated 11-28-12; thanks to Cory Griffith for his help with the Lusk info!). But I know the list is incomplete.

Here is my list to this point, in reverse chronological order broken down by gender:

Girls
Snake River 2012 (28-0)
Tongue River 2005 (23-0)
Douglas 2005 (26-0)
Big Horn 2001 (26-0)
Burlington 1998 (24-0)
Mountain View 1998 (24-0)
Tongue River 1997 (22-0)
Lyman 1995 (23-0)
Gillette 1991 (23-0)
Lusk 1991 (22-0)
Lusk 1990 (21-0)
Riverton 1984 (23-0)
Rock Springs 1980 (24-0)
Lander 1978 (24-0)

Boys
Snake River 2012 (28-0)
Big Horn 2011 (28-0)
Thermopolis 2004 (25-0)
Cheyenne Central 1991 (23-0)
Torrington 1987 (23-0)
Southeast 1981 (22-0)
Glenrock 1978 (23-0)
Mountain View 1977 (24-0)
Lusk 1969 (23-0)
Goshen Hole 1967 (23-0)
Cheyenne Central 1962 (27-0)
University Prep 1961 (25-0)
St. Stephens 1960 (28-0)

I’m also compiling an unofficial list of state basketball champs who finished the season with losing records. So far, I’ve only found two: St. Stephens boys in 2004 (11-17) and Pine Bluffs girls in 1994 (10-12).

Eventually, I do want the records of ALL state championship-winning teams, but being in Wyoming does limit my ability to research this much. … Nevertheless, it’s a project that’s been on the backburner for awhile and I wanted to put it out there to share.

First of all — do any readers out there know of any undefeated state champions that aren’t on the lists above? Post a comment below, and if you can, link to some documentation (scan of a newspaper article, for example, or a link to a site where I could verify a record). If you don’t want to post, you’re always welcome to email me information at pschmiedt@yahoo.com.

Conversely, if you happen to know the record of a state champ I have listed without a record, feel free to let me know (with as much documentation as you can provide to verify). Even if they weren’t undefeated, I would eventually like to know the records for all the state championship teams. First, double check to make sure I don’t already have the record listed, and then let me know!

Thanks!

–patrick

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The 14 men who have pulled off the feat are not well known in the Equality State.

Even to fanatics of Wyoming high school football, the names are for the most part unfamiliar.

Wayne Jacka, Duard Davids, Alven Thorson, Harry McGee and 10 other coaches, though, did more in one football season in Wyoming than many coaches have ever been able to do.

Those 14 coaches, in their one season coaching in Wyoming, led their teams to undefeated seasons — and then left, ending their Wyoming football coaching careers forever unbeaten.

What some of these men did after leaving their coaching position has been lost to history. What others did is downright remarkable.

Of the 14 coaches who led their Wyoming school to an undefeated season, only to step down at the end of the year, Jack Johnson and Del Wight are two of the most decorated.

Wight, who led Worland to a 9-0 season in 1965, didn’t stay in the high school ranks for long. He was a defensive coordinator for several major college programs, including North Dakota from 1969-71, New Mexico from 1972-76, Washington State from 1982-85, Wyoming from 1986-90 and San Diego State in 1993. He also coached at Fresno State, Northern Iowa and Kansas. He was also a coach in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Argonauts and the ill-fated Las Vegas Posse. To get there, though, after his 1965 stint in Worland, he moved to Pocatello, Idaho, and was the head coach at Pocatello High for awhile before heading into the college ranks.

Johnson, meanwhile, led Torrington to a perfect 9-0 season in 1969 but left for Montana soon afterward. In the Big Sky State, he became legendary. Leading Great Falls CM Russell High School, Johnson is Montana’s all-time winningest high school football coach and is one of the winningest active coaches in the nation with 341 career victories entering this season. He’s a member of the national high school coaches hall of fame and coached both CFL legend Dave Dickenson and NFL flameout Ryan Leaf in high school.

The 12 other men who coached their teams to perfect records in their one year as the head coach of a Wyoming football team — and their exploits either before or after their one year as head coach, when known — are posted below:

Earl Campbell, Kemmerer, 1924: 5-0 (No information available.)

Duard Davids, Byron 1967: 7-0-1 (As a student, Davids went to North Gem High in Idaho and then Utah State, graduating from USU in 1962. He is retired now and, from what I can tell, lives in Seattle.)

Royal Huckins, Torrington 1943: 5-0 (Huckins only coached Torrington’s last five games of the 1943 season, and the Trailblazers finished 6-1 that season. That year, he took over for Wes Evans, who was called to fight in World War II. Huckins played college football at Northern Colorado; what he did after coaching Torrington is unknown.)

Wayne Jacka, Sunrise 1931: 6-0 (According to 1940 Census records, Jacka lived in Cimmaron, Kan., that year. I think he’s from Kansas, although he may have also lived in Colorado for awhile, and it appears he died in the early 1980s.)

Jack Johnson, Torrington 1969: 9-0

Charles Marlowe, Laramie 1916: 3-0-3 (No information available.)

Harry McGee, Reliance 1945: 6-0 (McGee had been at Superior High as a commerce teacher prior to coming to Reliance. He may have also lived in Big Piney, although I’m not sure about that.)

Bob Pratt, Ten Sleep 1961: 5-0 (No information available.)

Leo Sherman, Sheridan 1911: 4-0 (No information available.)

Grant Smith, Cowley 1955: 4-0 (I think Smith may have been from Cowley.)

Alven Thorson, Glenrock 1940: 5-0 (Thorson died in 2009 at age 100. He had moved to Seattle in 1952 and taught at Ballard High School. He also apparently worked for a time with the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association. He received his M.A. in Education from UW in 1946. He also apparently lived in Billings for a time in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was originally from Milan, Minn.)

John Whatcott, Byron 1958: 9-0 (From what I can gather, Byron was the first stop for Whatcott after graduating from Utah State, where he was a star running back for the Aggies. He soon moved back to Utah — he was head coach at Logan High in 1963 — and eventually became an athletic director at Pine View High School in St. George. From what I can tell, he still lives around the St. George area.)

Del Wight, Worland 1965: 9-0

Harry Wiley, Manderson 1924: 4-0 (No information available.)

If you have any information you can share about these one-stop-in-Wyoming wonders and what they did either before or after their perfect season in Wyoming, I would love to hear it! Email me or post a comment below.

It’s also interesting to note that, since Johnson left for Montana in 1969, this one-season perfection and evacuation hasn’t happened again. And with the coaches of all the remaining undefeated teams in the state having at least one year of head coaching experience under their belts in Wyoming, it won’t happen this year….

–patrick

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For the first time, you can get your hands on a Wyoming high school football preview magazine that fully covers every team in the state.

Wyoming-football.com coupled with idahosports.com this summer to produce the Wyoming Sports Preview Guide. The magazine has full preview stories, schedules and key players for every team in the state, from Class 4A to six-man. It is the most complete preview you will find anywhere.

In addition to print distribution across the state (it’s free!), the magazine is also available online.

I would like to thank all the coaches statewide in Class 3A, Class 2A and Class 1A who I contacted over the summer for their help. Of the 52 coaches I contacted, 51 got back to me. (The Class 4A stories were done by others, so I can’t speak to that, but having seen the finished product, Class 4A fans have plenty to be excited about, too.)

As the first run at such a project in Wyoming, we did hit a couple snags, but I am ultimately pleased with the final product. If you see a stack in your town, pick up a copy of the Wyoming Sports Preview Guide, or check it out online right now. With your support, this magazine can become an annual project.

–patrick

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I have two cool new additions to the site to share with you:

First, thanks to High School Football Database and Ex-Preps.com, I now have a complete listing of Wyoming’s all-time All-America choices. The listings cover several teams dating back to 1947; if a team isn’t listed, it’s because Wyoming has never had a player chosen for that team.

Second, I have added playoff scoring records to the scoring records page. It’s interesting to note that last year’s six-man quarterfinal game between Midwest and Ten Sleep, won by Midwest 80-52, is the highest-scoring combined playoff game in state history. To see the other records, check out the listings.

–patrick

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