School: Lusk
Nickname: Tigers
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Fullmer Stadium
State championships: 1981, 1986, 1999, 2000, 2002
Times worth remembering: In Lusk’s case, that depends on the era. If you’re talking Lusk’s “big school” era, nothing can top the span from 1961-65, when the Tigers posted a pair of unbeaten seasons and went a combined 38-5-1; Lusk finished fifth statewide in 1962 with a 9-0 record and eighth in ’63 at 8-0-1. If you’re talking Lusk’s “small school” era, you can’t match what Lusk did from 1994-2002, when the Tigers went 80-8, competed in seven state championship games in eight years and won three. At one point in that stretch, Lusk won 51 consecutive regular-season games.
Times worth forgetting: There was a reason Lusk left Class A play — it couldn’t win there. The Tigers’ final eight years in Class A play (1971-78) were disastrous, as the team compiled an overall record of 8-52-1, including winless seasons in 1972 (0-8) and 1977 (0-7).
Best team: Once again, you have to pick two because of Lusk’s two eras. The best team of the early era is a close call, but the edge goes to the 1962 team that went 9-0, outscored foes 325-37 and had five shutouts. Lusk’s best team of the recent era came in 2000; that team did not give up a point in the regular season (472-13 scoring advantage for the season) on its way to a 10-0 season and a 1A-Division I championship.
Biggest win: After dropping from Class A to Class B, it took Lusk three seasons to qualify for the playoffs — but once Lusk made it, it took advantage. The Tigers wrapped up their first official state championship in 1981 with a 21-0 victory over Pinedale in Lusk, kick-starting a dynasty that racked up four more state championships for legendary coach Jerry Fullmer before his retirement after the 2004 season.
Heartbreaker: After awhile, it became a running joke: undefeated until the playoffs. That was Lusk’s unfortunate calling card in the mid-1990s, when for four consecutive years the Tigers went unbeaten in the regular season only to lose in the playoffs — three straight times in a state championship game. The toughest of those to swallow was a 9-6 loss to Moorcroft in 1996 in which the Tigers lost on a last-minute field goal after a blocked punt; Moorcroft scored all nine of its points in the fourth quarter.
School: Farson
Nickname: Pronghorns
Colors: green and yellow
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: None
Times worth remembering: The Pronghorns’ best season came in 1989, a 5-2 campaign that was one victory away from a playoff berth. The Pronghorns won four straight at one point in that season, but a 40-28 loss to Hanna — a team Farson had beaten 24-12 earlier in the season — kept them out of the playoffs.
Times worth forgetting: The 1990 season was the Pronghorns’ last gasp. After losing five games — four on the field, one by forfeit — Farson gave up the ghost. The Pronghorns forfeited their final three games and opted not to return to the field until coming back with a six-man program 2009.
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School: Goshen Hole
Nickname: Spartans
Colors: green and yellow
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: None
Times worth remembering: The four years from 1972-75 were the best in the Spartans’ brief history. In those four years, the Spartans never had a losing season and finished with a program-best 7-1 record in 1974.
Times worth forgetting: After finding some early success in the infancy stages of the school, the Spartans hit some tough times in 1969-71, suffering three straight losing seasons, including a bottoming-out 1-7 season in 1970. Only a 20-14 win over Glendo kept the Spartans from a winless season.
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School: Rozet
Nickname: Mustangs
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: none
Short history: Rozet had football just twice — a practice/sub-varsity squad in 1952 that never played an official game, and a varsity team that went 0-4 in 1953. The Mustangs’ best effort came in their final game, a 45-19 loss to Big Horn on Oct. 30, 1953, in Rozet.
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School: Snake River
Nickname: Rattlers
Colors: purple and yellow
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: None
Times worth remembering: The 3-4 2009 season, Snake River’s first in 52 years, gave the Rattlers more victories than all their other years combined. Only two victories are on the books for the Rattlers before then — a 37-0 win over Big Piney in 1952 and a 32-0 win over Farson in 1953.
Times worth forgetting: The available records have five consecutive winless seasons for Baggs — 0-3 in 1954, 0-4 in 1955, 0-2 in 1956 and 1957 and 0-1 in 1958 — before the school hung up the helmets for more than 50 years after ’58.
School: Buffalo
Nickname: Bison
Colors: gold and black
Stadium: Bison Bowl
State championships: 1979, 1983, 1996, 2004 and 2005
Times worth remembering: The Bison have had plenty of success, but nothing compares to the 27-game winning streak they produced in 2004-06. Led by a core of athletes that included five Super 25 honorees, the Bison put together back-to-back 11-0 championship seasons in 2004 and 2005, teams that many considered the best in the state regardless of classification.
Times worth forgetting: After a loss in the state championship game in 1961, the Bison hit some hard times, going 1-8 in 1962 and 1-7-1 in 1963. Both years, the only team Buffalo beat was Midwest. But, as usual for Buffalo, the streak didn’t last too long — the 1964 team went 6-2-1, and since then the Bison haven’t had a season with fewer than two victories.
Best team: The Bison team of 2005 might have been the best assembly of talent ever seen not only in Buffalo, but in any current Class 3A program. Led by the backfield of Chris Prosinski, John Camino, Kyle Cummings and Josh Smith, Buffalo was rarely challenged. The Bison’s closest regular-season win was a 25-point victory over Lander, and after rolling past Douglas and Powell in the playoffs, the Bison beat Star Valley in Afton 17-14 in the championship.
Biggest win: After losing to Mountain View in the 2A championship game in 1995, Buffalo’s only loss in a 9-1 season, the Bison earned a chance for revenge in the semifinals one year later. In what basically amounted to the state championship game, the Bison edged out the Buffaloes 9-6 in a hard-fought game at the Bison Bowl. The next week, the Bison won an anticlimactic 33-6 title game over Thermopolis, a team the Bison had beaten 35-18 earlier in the season…. But it was all set up by the win over Mountain View. It capped an 18-2 run over two years and set up the Bison’s only championship of the 1990s.
Heartbreaker: Robert Allen is a name Bison fans aren’t likely to forget. After all, it was Allen that scored all four touchdowns for Star Valley in Buffalo’s 27-22 loss to the Braves in the 1980 Class A championship, including a 90-yard kick return to open the game and the game-winning 68-yard touchdown run with about 10 minutes to go. Buffalo scored all 22 of its points in the first half and led 22-21 at halftime, but couldn’t hold off Allen and the Braves one last time.
School: Shoshoni
Nickname: Wranglers
Colors: blue and yellow
Stadium: Bailey Field
State championships: 1959 and 1985
Times worth remembering: There’s a reason why Shoshoni’s field is named after coach Harold Bailey. From 1976-87, the Wranglers didn’t have a losing season, compiling an overall record of 75-22, including a 9-1 1985 season that culminated in the Wranglers’ second state championship.
Times worth forgetting: When Bailey took over the program in 1975, he was assuming the reins of a squad that won just one game in the previous three seasons. The 1972 Shoshoni team went 1-8, but somehow it got worse. The 1973 team went 0-8-1, but somehow it got worse. The 1974 team went 0-9, and finally it couldn’t get any worse.
Best team: Led by speedy, shifty junior Orlando Cordova in the backfield, the 1959 Wranglers were rarely challenged on their way to the Class B championship. Shoshoni’s biggest win of the season came in the first game of the year, a 13-7 thriller over perennial favorite Byron; from there, only St. Stephens put up any kind of challenge before Shoshoni again beat Byron in the championship game. On average, the Wranglers won by a 31-6 score — an offensive and defensive juggernaut unlike few others seen in the low-scoring 1950s.
Biggest win: After several close calls in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Wranglers finally won a state championship for coach Bailey in 1985, beating Seton 18-7 in the 2A title game. Shoshoni trailed 7-6 late but scored two touchdowns eight seconds apart in the final minute and 20 seconds to pull away. A six-yard scoring run by Jeff Campbell gave Shoshoni the lead and a nine-yard interception return for a touchdown by Lance Bolt on Seton’s first play of its subsequent drive sealed the championship.
Heartbreaker: Finally in the playoffs, Shoshoni let its best opportunity slip away by a single point. The Wranglers, despite 6-1 records in 1976 and 1977, couldn’t make it into the postseason, but those shortcomings helped fuel an 8-0 regular season in 1978. In the Class B semifinals against Cokeville, though, the Wranglers let that work slip through their fingers in a 7-6 loss. Despite outgaining the Panthers 203-161 and despite scoring first on a 65-yard pass from Rick Pingetzer to Russ Ackerman in the first quarter, the Wranglers couldn’t convert on the extra point — and that was all the margin Cokeville needed. Cokeville blasted Lingle in the championship game the next season; Shoshoni, which lost first-round playoff games in 1980 and 1984 before winning the state title in 1985, was left to lick its wounds.
School: Laramie
Nickname: Plainsmen
Colors: maroon and yellow
Stadium: Deti Stadium
State championships: 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1984 and 1994
Times worth remembering: The entire 1960s. The Plainsmen went undefeated six times in 10 years and won mythical state titles six times. It also housed Laramie’s legendary 34-game winning streak (from 1959-63). In the sixties, Laramie went 78-12-1; half of those losses came in a 3-6 1966 season.
Times worth forgetting: In the three-year period from 2002-04, the Plainsmen won just one game — a sharp downfall for the once-proud program. The only win in that span was in the 2003 season opener, a 20-17 victory over Evanston; at one point, the Plainsmen lost 18 consecutive games.
Best team: Take your pick. Laramie has had eight undefeated teams since 1951. For one to stand out, though, it’s the 1964 team. Led by all-staters Jim House, Wes Ackerson, Lew Roney and Charlie Sanchez (and six others either on second team or honorable mention), the Plainsmen were rarely challenged, posting six shutouts on their way to a 9-0 record. Laramie outscored its opponents 306-33 — an average of 34-4. The Plainsmen garnered every first-place vote in the final UPI poll and were ranked first for eight consecutive weeks.
Biggest win: With so many state championships in tow, Laramie has a ton of memorable victories from which to choose. But the 1984 title-game win, a 57-18 thumping of Cody, has extra-special meaning. It was the first title for John R. Deti, who had taken over for his father John E. Deti before the 1977 season. John R. had huge shoes to fill, and with the win in ’84, he helped cement his place, separate from his father’s, among Wyoming’s top coaches.
Heartbreaker: Conversely, John E. Deti’s last game as coach is one that, if the coach hadn’t made his retirement intentions known before the game, might have been enough to make him quit altogether anyway. The game was the 1976 AA championship, won by Cody 41-40 in triple overtime — a game full of many big plays, twists and missed opportunities. One last championship for the “Gray Fox” was denied by a missed extra point in the third OT.
School: Basin
Nickname: Bobcats
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: None
Times worth remembering: In a four-year stretch from 1972-75, the Bobcats won at least seven games every year, including a 9-0 campaign in 1972. Combined, the team went 30-5-1 in that stretch, culminating with a conference championship and a playoff berth in 1975, the first year state playoffs returned for the small schools.
Times worth forgetting: After re-earning admittance into Class A play in 1949, the Bobcats did more than just struggle. They cratered, failing to win a game for three consecutive seasons. In 1951, the final year of Class A conference play, the Bobcats went 0-9, failing to come within 30 points of any of their conference foes. Not surprisingly, this ended up being Basin’s final year in Class A; the team dropped to Class B play the next year.
Best team: Basin had two undefeated teams in its history, the 7-0-1 team in 1969 and the 9-0 team in 1972, but the lack of a tie gives the nod to the ’72 squad. That year, the Bobcats proved they could win close games, including a pair of road wins — a 32-26 victory over Byron and a 26-22 victory over Dubois — to close out the season.
Biggest win: Greybull had long treated Basin like a pesky little brother. The two teams, despite being separated by only eight miles, rarely played each other, but in 1975 the Buffs decided to try their luck. Bad move. The Bobcats won 12-6 in overtime, winning the south Big Horn County rivalry for the first time since 1939, and for the last time in school history. Greybull repaid Basin the next year, winning 67-6.
Heartbreaker: The 1975 Class B semifinal loss to Pinedale, a 6-0 overtime loss, is the kind that haunts people long after it’s finished. Four times during the game, the Wranglers produced goal line stands to keep Basin off the scoreboard and force the game into overtime. The fact that Pinedale went on to win the Class B championship, beating Saratoga in the title game the next week, makes this loss all the tougher to take.
School: Star Valley
Nickname: Braves
Colors: maroon and yellow
Stadium: Braves Field
State championships: 1961, 1980, 1982, 1992, 1993, 1995 and 1996
Times worth remembering: Few schools have sustained success like the Braves, but two eras really define the program. From 1961-67, the Braves had five undefeated seasons, including unbeaten streaks of 35 and 26 games, and finished a combined 56-7-3 in the seven seasons; throw in 1968-72 seasons, and Star Valley went 94-14-5 in 12 seasons. Then, from 1990-98, the Braves went 74-16 and won four state championships in the span of five years. Star Valley competed in eight state championship games in the ‘90s.
Times worth forgetting: Finding smudges on Star Valley’s records is difficult. But most of the 21st century has not been up to the Braves’ high standards. In the six seasons from 2003-08, the Braves have had four losing seasons, including a school-worst 1-7 mark in 2004.
Best team: Star Valley has plenty of great teams from which to choose, but the 1967 team stands out because of how utterly dominant it was. The ’67 Braves went 10-0 and outscored their opponents 442-45. They had six shutouts and broke 50 points in each of their final four games. That sort of domination still wasn’t enough to win a mythical state title, though; the Braves finished second in the final Class AA-A voting behind Powell, the school’s highest final ranking of the 1960s.
Biggest win: Star Valley’s 49-0 victory over Buffalo in the 1961 Class A championship had implications far beyond Afton. For the Braves, it was the school’s first championship and it capped an 11-0-1 season, the school’s first undefeated season. But the game itself was one of the big reasons used when the Wyoming High School Activities Association suspended football playoffs; the claim was that travel distances and weather were greater factors in the Bison’s loss than the Braves were. So, for 14 years, teams below the Class AA level didn’t have playoffs. Star Valley built a 1960s dynasty despite the lack of playoffs, and every other Class A school in the state breathed a sigh of relief knowing they didn’t have to go to Afton in November to challenge that dynasty.
Heartbreaker: For all the Braves’ success, they’ve had some heartache, too — Star Valley lost the 1975, 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2005 state championship games by three points or less apiece. Each one carries its sting, but the 2002 title game is the one that stands out because it’s the one Star Valley had the most statistical dominance. Even though the Braves out-gained Worland in that game by 100 yards, two blocked kicks by Worland in the second half — one a punt in the third quarter that set up Worland’s game-tying touchdown, the second a block of a 23-yard field goal in the fourth quarter — shifted the game to Worland. The Warriors won 17-14 in overtime. The game also marked the second consecutive year that Star Valley beat Worland in the regular season, only to lose to the Warriors in the state championship game.
School: St. Mary’s/Seton
Nickname: Gaels
Colors: blue and white
Stadium: Okie Blanchard Stadium
State championships: None
Times worth remembering: For years, St. Mary’s struggled against a Class A schedule, but after dropping to Class B in 1972 the Gaels finally found success. Their first year in Class B was their best — in 1972, St. Mary’s went 10-0 and had five shutouts on their way to the mythical state championship.
Times worth forgetting: From 1960-71, St. Mary’s never had a winning season. Consistently the whipping boys for teams like Torrington, Gillette and Lusk, the Gaels struggled throughout the 1960s, culminating with back-to-back 0-8 seasons in 1968-69. Those 16 losses were part of a bigger 21-game losing streak. The program’s official bottom came in the last game of the 1969 season, a 93-6 loss to Torrington that set a state record for most points allowed in an 11-man game.
Best team: Although the 1972 team went unbeaten, the single best team might have been the Seton team from 1985, which went 8-3 and lost to Shoshoni in the 2A championship game. Consistently tough defensively, Seton never gave up more than 18 points in any game — that being the 18-7 loss in the title game. The team had four first-team all-staters, a mark topped that year only by champion Shoshoni’s five.
Biggest win: The game that really needed to happen in 1972 — the one that would have pitted St. Mary’s against Glenrock for the mythical state title — never happened. But in the first game of the 1973 season, the Gaels traveled north to face the Herders in what basically amounted to a grudge match. It was the only game the two teams played against each other in the 1970s and, even though the teams were different, it still meant plenty to those players and coaches who were subject to the debate following the end of the 1972 season in which both teams finished unbeaten and claimed mythical state titles. St. Mary’s won 18-6, and put to rest — even if only in their own minds — the debate about which program might have won if the teams had played about 300 days prior.
Heartbreaker: The school’s only berth in an official state championship game ended in disappointment, as the 1985 Seton squad lost to Shoshoni 18-7 in Cheyenne. The 1985 season was the school’s first trip to the playoffs, and after a 7-6 upset of Moorcroft in the semifinals, Seton looked like the team of destiny. The Wranglers crushed those hopes, though, and the Gaels made the playoffs only one more time before the program ended after the 1990 season.
School: Gillette
Nickname: Camels
Colors: purple and gold
Stadium: Camel Stadium
State championships: 1998, 2000, 2006 and 2008
Times worth remembering: Gillette wouldn’t be the perennial power it is today without the ramp-up that occurred in the mid-to-late 1990s. From 1997-2000, the Camels went 34-5 and won a pair of state championships, establishing the groundwork for Gillette’s success in the 21st century.
Times worth forgetting: The jump from Class A to Class AA was especially hard on the Camels. After making the jump in 1971, Gillette lost 18 consecutive games, finally breaking the streak with a 7-0 win over Sturgis, S.D., to start the 1973 season. The Camels also beat Sheridan in 1973 to gain its first AA league win, but also got shut out in its final five games of that season, ending the three-year stretch from 1971-73 with a record of 2-24-1.
Best team: The Camels of 2000 were a rare mix of talent and timing. Gillette only had two “close” games in its 10-0 title run — a 13-9 win over Broomfield, Colo., and a 28-7 victory over Laramie in the championship game — and won its other eight games by at least 31 points. The Camels had six shutouts and outscored their foes by an average of 38-3. In fact, Gillette scored more than twice as many points in its first game (62) as its opponents did all season (30).
Biggest win: Ask the folks around Gillette, and they’ll tell you that none of the championships were as good as the first. The 14-7 win over Laramie in the 1998 4A title game — and the eventual winning touchdown catch by Josh Oster in the third quarter — was worth the wait. It was the Camels’ first official championship, but not its last; since then, Gillette has won three more state titles.
Heartbreaker: For as good as the 1998 title was, it could have happened a year earlier if not for a 10-7 loss to Sheridan in the 4A semifinals. The top-seeded Camels had beaten Sheridan 42-23 in the Energy Bowl earlier in the season, but never got their offense rolling in the playoff matchup. Still, Gillette had a chance to send the game to overtime, but Jesse Swan’s 38-yard field goal attempt with 29 seconds sailed just wide – by most estimates by less than a foot.
School: Rocky Mountain
Nickname: Grizzlies
Colors: brown and yellow
Stadium: Grizzly Stadium
State championships: 1992, 1995, 1997 and 1998
Times worth remembering: After a series of struggles, the Grizzlies finally came into their own in 1992 and started one of the state’s great dynasties. In the eight seasons from 1992-99, the Grizzlies were a combined 71-6, including 38-1 from 1995-98, and won four state titles.
Times worth forgetting: The combination of three storied programs — Byron, Cowley and Deaver-Frannie — didn’t get off to the best of starts. The first three years of Rocky Mountain High School, from 1983-85, the Grizzlies went 3-5, 0-7 and 1-7.
Best team: There’s plenty to choose from when it comes to Rocky Mountain, but the 1998 team stands out from the rest. That season, Rocky won every game by at least 18 points (the 34-16 midseason victory over Burlington was the Grizzlies’ closest game) and scored at least 32 points in every game. The average score? 47-14. Rocky had eight first-team all-state selections and a pair of CST Super 25 first-team picks.
Biggest win: Although Byron, Cowley and Deaver-Frannie had distinguished records on their own, it took 10 years for Rocky Mountain to fuse the talent from the three communities into one cohesive unit. That’s partly why the 10-7 victory over Wind River in the 1992 championship — the first for Rocky and the 12th for the three communities — was so important. Kenny May scored the winning touchdown for the Grizzlies in the fourth quarter, letting loose a celebration years in the making.
Heartbreaker: As noted, the Grizzlies went 38-1 from 1995-98. And it’s the one loss that’s still somewhat haunting. The 34-20 loss to Moorcroft in the 1A-DI semifinals in 1996 was the end of an 18-game winning streak, and after the loss the Grizzlies went on to win 28 in a row. Moorcroft was no fluke — the Wolves were undefeated in ’96 and won the state title — but, for Rocky, losing was. And if the Grizzlies could have found a way to win that Saturday in Byron, who knows how long that winning streak could have gone?