School: Rawlins
Nickname: Outlaws
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Outlaw Stadium
State championship: 2000
Times worth remembering: The Outlaws were one of the more consistent teams in the 1950s. After dropping out of the “Big Six” in 1953, Rawlins had five consecutive winning seasons, including playoff berths in 1953, 1956 and 1957. The peak of the run came in 1953 and 1954, when the Outlaws were 8-2 and 7-2-1, respectively.
Times worth forgetting: The 21st century started so well for the Outlaws. Then, after a state championship and an undefeated season in 2000, Rawlins hit a seven-year streak of difficulties. From 2001-07, the Outlaws didn’t have any more than one victory in any season and went a combined 6-53, losing 26 times by shutout.
Best team: It’s a tossup between old school and new school. Old school, the 1947 Outlaws finished 8-0-2 and atop the statewide balloting for a mythical title at the end of the season. In 10 games, the Outlaws posted six shutouts and gave up only 33 points the entire season. New school, Rawlins’ only undefeated, untied team and only state championship in the playoff era came in 2000, the culmination of a three-year buildup to the state’s top prize. Led by running back Scott Muir, the Outlaws had one of the most efficient offenses in the state — Rawlins averaged nearly 38 points per game — and rolled past Powell in the 3A title game.
Biggest win: The 2000 title game was Rawlins’ revenge. After years of struggling, including a 1998 season in which the Outlaws went 0-8 against the exact same schedule they faced two years later, Rawlins finally had the chance to be on top. The 39-14 victory over Powell in the title game was anticlimactic, but for the team and the community, the win was cathartic — putting past seasons and three previous championship-game losses in the past.
Heartbreaker: Of Rawlins’ three championship-game losses, the first one in 1974 was the toughest to accept — because of the three, that was the one Rawlins really had the best chance of winning. The ’74 Outlaws were 9-0 heading into the championship and had won their regular-season games by an average of 29-3. But in the title game against East, the Outlaws lost two fumbles inside their own 15-yard line, leading to both of the Thunderbirds’ touchdowns in a 14-0 loss on the Outlaws’ home field. Of small consolation was the 1974 all-state team: Rawlins had eight first-team selections; no other team had more than four and East only had three.
School: Sheridan
Nickname: Broncs
Colors: blue and yellow
Stadium: Homer Scott Field
State championships: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995 and 2009
Times worth remembering: The early 1990s were Sheridan’s boom times. The Broncs won four consecutive 4A championships and five in six years, at one point winning 30 consecutive games. From 1990-93, the Broncs were 38-2. The 1991 team was ranked 23rd in the nation by USA Today — the only Wyoming team ever to obtain such a ranking.
Times worth forgetting: For nine years, from 1973-81, the Broncs never had a winning record. The team was consistently respectable, but consistently came up short in the close ones, losing 17 times by a touchdown or less. The 1981 team showed signs of a turnaround by winning its first three games, but had to forfeit two of them and finished 4-5; the 1982 team went 10-0 and won the Class AA title.
Best team: The 1991 team finished in the national top 25 for a reason — they were really, really good. The Broncs went 10-0 and were never really threatened on their way to winning the title — their closest game was the 27-8 win over Gillette in the 4A championship. The talented squad had seven all-staters, including 4A’s back of the year (Blaine Phillips) and lineman of the year (Derek Rupp). For the season, the Broncs outscored their foes 427-92. (Honorable mention goes to Sheridan’s 1953 team, which went 9-0 and gave up only 14 points the entire season on their way to the mythical state title.)
Biggest win: The Broncs’ 1990s dynasty was established only by destroying the existing dynasty — that of Cheyenne Central. The Indians had won the state titles in 1988 and 1989 and were favorites for the 1990 title, too. After all, the game against Sheridan was in Cheyenne, and Central had beaten Sheridan earlier in the season, 28-20 in Sheridan. But Paul Westika scored three second-half touchdowns for Sheridan, which held on as Central scored 27 fourth-quarter points but still came up short. Sheridan’s 35-30 victory was the first of the program’s five championships in the 1990s.
Heartbreaker: The Broncs were just seconds away from establishing a dynasty in the mid-1980s, too, but two gut-wrenching September losses kept Sheridan out of the playoffs despite 8-1 records. In 1984, it was a 20-19 loss to Laramie; in 1985, it was a 17-13 loss to Natrona. Laramie went on to win the state championship in ’84, as did Natrona in ’85, and although Sheridan won the 4A title in 1986, the two losses the previous two seasons left the Bronc faithful wondering what could have been.
School: Greybull
Nickname: Buffaloes
Colors: blue and yellow
Stadium: Buffaloes Stadium
State championships: 1960
Times worth remembering: From 1960-62, the Buffs were the team everyone had to watch. The 1960 team went 10-1-1 and won the school’s only state championship. The 1961 team had an 8-0 regular season and was the top-ranked team in the state — regardless of classification — before a shocking loss to Buffalo, a team Greybull beat in the final week of the regular season, in the first round of the playoffs. In 1962, the Buffaloes went 8-0 and finished second to Laramie in the final statewide poll to decide a mythical state champion.
Times worth forgetting: Few schools have had the problems Greybull has had in maintaining success. The Buffs set the unofficial state record for consecutive losses with 35 from 1978-82, and also lost 29 straight from 1996-2000 and 27 straight from 1963-67. Eighteen of the 35 losses in the state record-setter were by shutout, but the 2000 season, in which the Buffs were outscored 288-6, was probably the toughest to get over.
Best team: Although the 1960 team was led by one of the best players in Wyoming history — future CFL star Tom Wilkinson — the 1962 team was probably Greybull’s best. Aside from a 19-7 win over Riverton, Greybull won every game by at least 20 points and didn’t allow any opponent more than seven points in any single game. Of the 11 first-team all-state positions in Class A, five went to Greybull players, an unheard-of ratio for that time. Six other players made second-team or honorable mention all-state.
Biggest win: When a school has but one state championship, the biggest win in school history seems pretty obvious. But the 1960 championship victory, a 14-7 win over Evanston, was not nearly as big as the two games the Buffaloes had to win the previous week to simply reach the title game. After tying with Lander for the Bighorn Basin championship, the Buffs beat the Tigers 33-7 in a Tuesday playoff for the right to play Buffalo four days later in the Class A semifinals. In that game, Greybull tied Buffalo 14-14 but advanced by winning the overtime period — setting the stage for the school’s only title-game victory to date.
Heartbreaker: There are a couple painful regular-season overtime losses that Greybull has suffered — a 22-14 loss to Lovell in 1987 and a 12-6 loss to Evanston in 1977 — that not only ruined the Buffaloes’ undefeated seasons, but also kept them out of the playoffs, as well. However, the 19-15 loss to Burns in the 1983 title game, which came after Greybull broke its 35-game losing streak in the season opener, is a tougher one to swallow. The Buffaloes not only missed out on the championship, but they haven’t been back to the title game since.
School: Glendo
Nickname: Eagles
Colors: maroon and white
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: 1957
Times worth remembering: Glendo had seven consecutive winning seasons from its championship season in 1957 to 1963. The 1957 championship season was the best of the run, a 9-1 campaign that ended with a shutout win over Tongue River in the title game; the 1959 team was also solid, going 4-1-1 (in the games for which I can find results).
Times worth forgetting: The end was long and painful for the Eagles, who didn’t win more than one game for six consecutive seasons before ending the program after an 0-7 season in 1979. In those six years from 1974-79, the Eagles won just three games, lost 43 and tied one.
Best team: The championship squad of 1957 had to fight — not only for the championship, but for the right to play in the title game. A 15-13 loss to Lingle in the regular season left the Eagles tied for the Southeast conference championship, forcing them to play Glenrock in a tiebreaker for the right to play in the state championship. So, just four days before the title game, the Eagles beat the Herders 24-13 in Douglas. Later that week, Glendo beat Tongue River 20-0 for the state’s first eight-man championship.
Biggest win: While the playoff win over Glenrock and the championship-game victory over Tongue River rank high, another victory during the 1957 season might have been even more important. One week after the loss to Lingle, Glendo had to face Pine Bluffs — a team that had tied Lingle 19-19 earlier in the season. The Eagles had no troubles, though. They blasted the Hornets 55-13, regained their confidence and were never challenged again on the way to the title.
Heartbreaker: The details of Glendo’s 1959 season are still a little fuzzy, but know this — Glendo tied Lingle 6-6 in the season finale. Lingle went to the playoffs, while Glendo didn’t. One way or another, that tie kept Glendo, which went 4-1-1 in games for which I could find results, from making the playoffs. Take that for what it’s worth.
School: Riverton
Nickname: Wolverines
Colors: maroon and black
Stadium: Tonkin Stadium
State championships: 1994, 1997, 1998 and 1999
Times worth remembering: Three championships, two undefeated seasons and a 26-game winning streak — the late 1990s were by far the peak of the Riverton program. Titles in 1997, 1998 and 1999, including back-to-back 10-0 seasons in 1998 and 1999, established Riverton as a 3A powerhouse. The Wolverines weren’t especially dominant, but they knew how to win — 10 wins in that time frame were by eight points or fewer, including all three state title games.
Times worth forgetting: Two periods were especially tough for the Wolverines: a 4-30-2 stretch from 1955-59 and a 4-29 run from 2005-08. The recent run qualifies as Riverton’s toughest, though; the late 50s teams were outscored by an average of 24.5-9.4 and won at least one game every season; the 2000s teams were outscored 30.2-8.8 on average, and had the school’s only winless season (0-8) in 2005.
Best team: Good luck trying to find some differences between Riverton’s squads in 1998 and 1999 — they were nearly equal in every facet. Both teams went 10-0 and won the 3A state championships in similar fashion, riding efficient offenses and tough defenses. The 1998 team had a 254-76 scoring edge in its 10 games; the 1999 team had a 333-85 point advantage. Both teams had six first-team all-state players, including three players who were on both (Jeff Mowry, Terry Cottenoir and Tom Vincent).
Biggest win: Few high school games will ever match the dramatic circumstances of the 1994 3A title game between Riverton and Lander. The two longtime rivals were meeting for the first time in playoff circumstances, and both were coming off road victories in the semifinals. The game itself was a tense, seesaw battle, one not decided until Corte McGuffey hit Kevin Devries with the winning TD pass in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. Riverton won the game 33-27, notching its first state football championship in the process.
Heartbreaker: Riverton’s 1973 fairy-tale ending ran into just one speed bump: Laramie. After losing the 1972 championship game to Kelly Walsh, the Wolverines came back strong again in 1973, finishing the regular season 7-2. But, for the second straight year, the Wolverines couldn’t finish the job. Laramie topped Riverton 22-7, giving the Wolverines their second consecutive championship-game loss. It was Riverton’s last best chance; the Wolverines lost decisively to Cheyenne Central in the 1979 championship game and didn’t make it back again until 1994.
School: Kemmerer
Nickname: Rangers
Colors: black and red
Stadium: Ranger Stadium
State championships: 1993, 1994, 2005 and 2007
Times worth remembering: Kemmerer has had some good times — most notably a mythical state title in the 1970s and back-to-back titles in the 1990s. But both can’t compare to the sustained success the Rangers enjoyed from 2005-08. Aside from 2006’s 5-4 campaign, the Rangers have gone 11-0, 10-1 and 10-1. The 2005, 2007 and 2008 seasons are Kemmerer’s only seasons in school history where they’ve crept into double-digit win totals.
Times worth forgetting: Even with all its success, Kemmerer has had long dry spells, too, including three losing streaks of at least 20 games apiece. But the struggles of the 1952-55 seasons, in which Kemmerer had three consecutive winless seasons followed up by a 1-7 record in 1955, is one of the roughest stretches on record. Kemmerer’s three closest losses in its 20-game winless streak, encompassing an 0-6 1952 and 0-7 records in 1953 and 1954, were by 18, 19 and 19 points. Things began to improve in 1955, but only an 18-0 victory over the Rock Springs JV saved the Rangers from yet another winless season.
Best team: While the Kemmerer teams of recent years, especially the 2005 and 2007 teams, are among the school’s best, the Rangers’ best squad was probably the 1974 team that went 9-0 and split a mythical state championship with Torrington. The ’74 Rangers outscored their opponents 309-35 and gave up just eight points in their final six games.
Biggest win: Even with home-field advantage in the 1993 semifinals, Kemmerer couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable with its opponent, the Lovell Bulldogs. After all, Lovell had beaten Kemmerer 20-15 on a neutral field just two weeks prior to the semifinals. But the Rangers didn’t flinch and beat the Bulldogs 17-14, paving the way for the first of Kemmerer’s state championships. And in the 1994 season, Kemmerer beat Lovell twice — once in the regular season and then again in the semifinals — to win state again.
Heartbreaker: Kemmerer has suffered a few tough losses along the way, but none was tougher to figure out than the one that happened in the 1996 quarterfinals. The Rangers were their conference champions and had home-field advantage and were pegged as one of the top teams in 2A (Kemmerer’s only loss during the regular season was to Rich County, Utah). The first-round matchup with 1-6 Newcastle looked like a warmup to a potential semifinal against Thermopolis. But the Rangers couldn’t hold onto a 26-13 lead and gave up two late touchdowns. Newcastle advanced with a 27-26 victory — a win that still ranks as one of the greatest playoff upsets in Wyoming’s history.
School: Midwest
Nickname: Oilers
Colors: maroon and silver
Stadium: Oiler Field
State championships: 1979 and 1991
Times worth remembering: The Oilers’ best teams came in 1979-80, when Midwest won 17 consecutive games, a pair of Powder River Conference championships and a Class B state title. In that two-year span, the Oilers outscored their opponents by an average of 31-9. The 1979 title, won by defeating Big Piney 33-8, was the first state title for the Oilers.
Times worth forgetting: It’s hard to overlook the struggles of the 21st-century Oilers, who have had their most successful seasons playing sub-varsity schedules. The period from 2003-07 was especially tough, as Midwest went 5-32, posting three of those five wins in that time over Wyoming Indian. In those 37 games, Midwest broke into double digits only six times. The 2003 Oilers scored only 14 points all season; in 2007, the Oilers only scored six points.
Best team: No one can claim they didn’t see the 1947 Oilers coming. After finishing 8-1 in 1946, with the only loss 27-26 to Douglas, Midwest reloaded in 1947 and proved to be one of the best teams in the state regardless of classification, finishing 7-0-1. The strength of the 1947 team was its defense – the Oilers gave up just 25 points all season and won five games by shutout. However, at the end of the season, coach John Bays made it public his team was not interested in playing in the postseason and dismissed an idea to play Natrona in the postseason “Turkey Bowl.”
Biggest win: The game the locals still recall best is the 1991 9-man championship, and not just for the football. By 1991, the oil boom had gone bust, and Midwest was a town trying to capture the few stray remnants of pride it had remaining. The 1991 Oilers gave the town its pride back. And winning the way they did — in a 6-0 defensive struggle against Big Horn, the team that had busted the Oilers’ hopes so many times back in the 1980s — the town once again had that glimmer of hope that had all but faded. It was the Oilers’ last hurrah — the team missed the playoffs for the next 17 years — but it also gave the town one last thing on which to hang its hard hat before the extraction industry bottomed out soon afterward.
Heartbreaker: The Oilers of 1985 and 1986 were as good as any team in Midwest’s history. But neither one made the playoffs. In 1985, Midwest went 6-2, beating every team in the 2A Powder River Conference, but losing to the two 1A schools in their own conference — including a 14-12 gut-wrenching loss to Big Horn in the season finale — kept them out of the playoffs. In 1986, the Oilers were even better, posting a 7-0 record before again facing Big Horn in the regular-season finale. Again, it was the Rams that won — this time 21-14, in overtime — and because of how 1A playoff qualifying worked at the time, with the No. 4 seed rotating between three conferences, the 7-1 Oilers stayed home for the playoffs.
School: Meeteetse
Nickname: Longhorns
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Longhorn Stadium
State championship: 1993
Times worth remembering: The Longhorns were small-school dynamos from 1987-93, when they had winning records for six out of seven years, made the playoffs five times and won the school’s only state championship, in 1993. Combined, the Longhorns went 46-14 in those seven years.
Times worth forgetting: Football was on a tenuous perch in Meeteetse in the early 1980s. The Longhorns couldn’t field a team in 1982, and could barely patch together a schedule in 1983-85, playing both Burlington and Ten Sleep twice during the regular season to fill out the season. Then, in 1986, just as the Longhorns finally put together a full schedule, they bottomed out, losing six of their seven games by shutout in an 0-7 season.
Best team: This is a fairly easy choice — the Longhorns’ only undefeated team was also the one that won the school’s only state championship. The 1993 ‘Horns were a hard-hitting, athletic bunch (I know, I’ve seen their championship-year highlight video) that knew how to pile on points, averaging nearly 39 points per game. The strength of the team was its skill-position players, led by QB Scott Coale and RB Jason Yockey.
Biggest win: Speaking of Yockey, it was his foot that kicked the game-winning field goal for Meeteetse in the fourth quarter of its 23-20 win over Hulett for the state championship in 1993. The Longhorns had beaten the Red Devils 25-8 earlier in the season but got a much tougher test in the final. Even so, Meeteetse’s ground game saved the day, and Yockey’s 40-yarder with 1:17 to go salted away the Longhorns’ first and only title.
Heartbreaker: Less than one year removed from an 0-7 shoutout-filled season, the Longhorns were surprise hosts for the 1987 1A championship game after piling up a 7-1 record. And Meeteetse almost pulled off the upset against Cokeville in the title game. However, the Longhorns’ comeback bid came up short; after falling behind 14-0 in the third quarter, Meeteetse came up short on both conversion attempts after scoring twice and lost 14-12.
School: Wheatland
Nickname: Bulldogs
Colors: blue and yellow
Stadium: Bulldog Stadium
State championship: 1984
Times worth remembering: The Bulldogs under Bill Pentland saw more success in the mid-1980s than ever before. In Pentland’s first season, 1982, the ‘Dogs hosted the state title game; they won the 3A title in ’84 and came up four points short in the ’87 title game. From 1982-89, Wheatland was a combined 48-24, and the three title game appearances the Bulldogs had in that era are the only three Wheatland has had in program history.
Times worth forgetting: The success of the 1980s was sweeter for the Wheatland faithful because of all of the problems the Bulldogs had in the 1970s. From 1974-79, the Bulldogs went a combined 4-45-2. All four of the Bulldogs’ victories in that span came over lowly Lusk, which was playing its final years in Class A before dropping to Class B. Wheatland also struggled with continuity at the top, as four different coaches led the team in those six seasons.
Best team: With a new coach leading a team coming off a losing season, the 1966 Bulldogs didn’t look like the type of team that’d be capable of chasing a state championship. But Wheatland put together close victory after close victory (its first four victories were by a combined 26 points, with no margin larger than eight) and emerged with an 8-1 record. The Bulldogs’ only loss was a 37-32 heartbreaker to Torrington; even so, Wheatland finished seventh in the final statewide poll and were second to unbeaten Star Valley among Class A teams in the final statewide tally.
Biggest win: The 1984 championship game, a 35-21 victory over Evanston, is the one folks still talk about over coffee in Platte County. The similarities between Wheatland and Evanston were odd — both teams were 8-1 and both teams came into the championship game thanks to one-point victories in their respective regular-season finales. But in front of the home fans, the Bulldogs gained a 15-point lead, lost it, then pulled away late in the fourth quarter on touchdowns by Larry Herman and Duncan Irvine.
Heartbreaker: Despite being heavily favored to beat Powell in the 1987 3A championship, the Bulldogs’ potent running game was frustratingly slowed down by the Panthers’ defense in a 7-3 loss. Powell’s Jason Sleep, though, ran crazy, notching 212 yards – 131 more than all the Bulldogs combined – and scored the game’s only touchdown set up by a successful fake punt in the third quarter.
School: Cowley
Nickname: Jaguars
Colors: maroon and white
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: 1950 and 1955
Times worth remembering: From 1972-75, the Jags went a combined 32-3, including a 9-0 season in 1973. But in a convoluted time in Wyoming football, Cowley’s four-year stretch is largely forgotten. The team played eight-man football, a division of high school football that largely ignored at the time. The 1975 team couldn’t qualify for the playoffs (no sanctioned eight-man division), while the teams in 1972-73 could never crack the top of the polls because the Class B eight-man teams were placed into the same poll as the Class B 11-man teams. Cowley finished second to Tongue River in the 1973 poll and was eighth in the final Class B 1972 poll despite an 8-1 record.
Times worth forgetting: There aren’t very many black marks on the Jags’ records — they won almost 60 percent of their games from 1951-76. If there has to be a rough patch, it came in 1957-60, when Cowley went 2-4, 1-5-1, 4-4 and 1-5-1 again.
Best team: With apologies to the ’55 championship team, the nod goes to the undefeated team from 1973, which finished 9-0 and made a habit of obliterating foes. The closest game all season was a 48-22 win over Deaver-Frannie in the season opener; the Jags never scored fewer than 54 points the rest of the season and never gave up more than 20, winning by an average score of 60-11.
Biggest win: After falling short in the playoffs for three consecutive years, including a pair of losses in state championship games, Cowley finally broke through in 1955. The Jags won their conference, beat Dayton in the semifinals, then topped Pinedale 58-38 in the state’s six-man title game. The championship was the second official title in school history — and the only one the Jags got to win in front of their “home” fans, winning the title in Lovell.
Heartbreaker: The Jaguars won the northern Bighorn Basin title in 1961, but needed to beat St. Stephens, winner of the southern division, to qualify for the state championship game. St. Stephens won the game 33-20 in Lovell and earned the right to play in the title game; Cowley never again qualified for the playoffs before ending its football program after the 1976 season.