WHSFB HQ — The Wyoming high school football blog

Through various sources, I’ve put together this list of former Wyoming high school players who played at least one down of a regular-season game in the NFL. The college they attended is in parentheses. Check out this list; hopefully I accounted for everyone, but if I missed someone, let me know by leaving a comment below….

By the way, it’s little Greybull up in the Bighorn Basin that leads all Wyoming high schools with three NFL players. Cheyenne Central is second with two.

Anyway, here they are:

Nick Bebout, Shoshoni (Wyoming): After three years in Atlanta, the offensive tackle started 54 games in four seasons for the expansion Seattle Seahawks before winding up his career with Minnesota in 1980.
Don Bracken, Thermopolis (Michigan): In an eight-season, 99-game career in the NFL with Green Bay and the Los Angeles Rams from 1985-93, Bracken punted 461 times, averaging 39.9 yards per punt.
John Burrough, Pinedale (Wyoming): Burrough played 89 games with three teams, notching 4.5 sacks in his time with Atlanta, Minnesota and St. Louis from 1995-2002.
Jim Crawford, Greybull (Wyoming): Crawford, who led the NCAA in rushing yards in 1956, had a combined 1,574 rushing and receiving yards and seven touchdowns in his five-year career with the Boston Patriots from 1960-64.
Win Croft, Lovell (Utah): The guard played 20 games in the NFL, 11 with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1935 and nine with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1936.
Boyd Dowler, Cheyenne Central (Colorado): A two-time Pro Bowl selection at wide receiver, Dowler caught 474 passes for 7,270 yards and 40 touchdowns in 11 seasons with Green Bay and one with Washington from 1959-71. The owner of two Super Bowl rings, Dowler was also the Packers’ punter for three seasons.
Troy Dumas, Cheyenne East (Nebraska): Dumas played in 15 games over two seasons with Kansas City and St. Louis, registering one career sack as a linebacker.
Dennis Havig, Powell (Colorado): Havig, an offensive guard, played in 79 games with Atlanta, Houston and Green Bay from 1972-77, starting 13 games at right guard with the Falcons in 1975. He was part of the NFL All-Rookie team in 1972.
Jerry Hill, Lingle (Wyoming): In nine seasons with the Baltimore Colts, Hill scored 25 touchdowns and pilled up 2,668 rushing yards and 970 receiving yards. A Super Bowl champion in his final season, 1970, Hill is one of only two NFL players to have played six-man football in high school.
Brett Keisel, Greybull (BYU): In six full seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, including four as starting defensive end, Keisel has tallied 14.5 sacks and five fumble recoveries. The two-time Super Bowl champion has a combined 237 tackles in his career, through 2009.
Lee Kizzire, Greybull (Wyoming): A fullback, Kizzire played in seven games for Detroit in 1937, carrying seven times for 20 yards.
Dewey McConnell, Laramie (Wyoming): McConnell played in nine games for Pittsburgh in 1954, snagging three interceptions on defense and one pass on offense.
Clint Oldenburg, Gillette (Colorado State): An offensive lineman, Oldenburg played in two games for the New York Jets in 2007.
Brady Poppinga, Evanston (BYU): Poppinga started for three years in Green Bay’s linebacking corps, notching more than 200 tackles and two interceptions in five seasons through 2009.
J.J. Syvrud, Rock Springs (Jamestown, N.D.): Svyrud, a linebacker, played in one game for the New York Jets in 1999.
John Wendling, Rock Springs (Wyoming): In three seasons with Buffalo from 2007-09, Wendling notched 21 tackles and also snagged one interception.
Don Westbrook, Cheyenne Central (Nebraska): In five seasons with New England (1977-81), Westbrook caught 23 passes for 393 yards and three touchdowns and also averaged 15.3 yards per kick return.
Willie Wright, Riverton (Wyoming): Wright played in nine games for the Phoenix Cardinals in 1992.

–patrick

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As many frequent readers of this blog might know, I’m putting together a book about Wyoming high school football. With any luck (like finding a publisher and some help) the book will be out in about a year-ish. That said, I’m putting together a crew of the state’s most talented writers to share some of the history of Wyoming football. I’ve got most of the big ideas down pat (keep watching this blog and you might catch hints about what those are), but I’m looking for a range of interesting moments to help fill the book. Here is a short list I put together in about 10 minutes of some interesting moments I want to be SURE to include in the book. In no particular order (roughly by time but not really), they are…

*  The Heart Mountain internment camp team in 1944-45. In two years, the Eagles lost just one game. Every win Heart Mountain had came by shutout…

*  The introduction of six-man into Wyoming (see this post for more on that).

*  The nation’s first lighted high school football game, Midwest, Wyoming, November 1925. Casper beat Midwest 20-0.

*  Probably the most messed-up story ever, that of Richard “Dick” Doyle. While working the chains during the Big Piney-Pinedale game on Oct. 21, 1947, the 18-year-old Doyle was killed by 14-year-old George Smith, who stabbed Doyle in the heart with a three-inch pocket knife. Doyle died before he could be taken off the field.

*  The Byron Eagles’ long win streak, one that reached more than 40 games in the late 1940s and early 1950s. I’m still digging up the info on this one…

*  The final game of the 1955 season between Laramie and Cheyenne Central. Laramie won 18-14 on its home field to claim the Class AA championship, but Cheyenne filed a protest claiming “timing irregularities” gave Laramie an unfair advantage. Two Cheyenne players also punched and tackled an official after he ejected a Cheyenne player. Although the protest was eventually tossed, the timekeeper that day, Edwin Hitchcock, died just days after the game due to a heart attack.

*  Polio. The disease wiped out a ton of games in the early 1950s and even took the lives of a few players.

*  The 1947 and 1948 Turkey Bowls.

*  The “dead era” of champions from 1939-ish to 1947.

*  Wyoming’s two games that lasted more than one day. The first came in 1951, when Greybull and Powell played to a 0-0 tie on Oct. 19, then met on Oct. 30 to play the overtime period. The OT had to be played to decide the conference champion, and Greybull officially won 2-0 by gaining more yards on five plays than Powell did on its five plays…. The other came in 1967, when Basin played Byron on Oct. 27, and Basin won 40-34 by scoring in the final minute. But Byron protested the game’s final 2 minutes, 24 seconds, the WHSAA upheld the protest, and the two teams met three days later to play the final 2:24. The game finished as a 34-34 tie, officially.

*  Cody’s 41-40 triple overtime victory over Laramie for the Class AA title in 1976. A crazy, tense game that ranks up there with Wyoming’s best ever, made all the more relevant by the fact that it was coaching legend John E. Deti’s last game on the sidelines.

*  Wyoming’s last tie game, the 45-45 shootout draw staged between Big Horn and Riverside in the 1987 season opener. The game went three overtimes, and was then called a draw by the officials. This was also Riverside’s first game in its incarnation as Riverside.

*  Speaking of Big Horn-Riverside games, how about the 2007 2A championship game when Riverside drove 99 yards for the final touchdown, then went for two (and converted) to pull out the victory?

*  Some 21st-century domination in Class 4A: Worland’s three-peat from 2001-03 and Buffalo’s 27-game winning streak from 2004-06.

*  The big changes in 2009 — the reintroduction of six-man football and the shift to Laramie for the state championship games.

Of course, the book will touch on some of the state’s great coaches: Deti and his son John R., Carl Selmer, Todd Dayton, Joel Eskelen, Art Hill, Jerry Fullmer and numerous others immediately jump to mind. And, of course, I am stringing together something about the state’s best players, including a list of those who later played in the NFL (sometime soon I’ll get around to posting that list to have y’all double-check it and see if I forgot anyone).

Are there any unique or interesting stories that stick out in your mind? Post a comment below and let’s start this discussion; I’d love to hear what some of your favorite Wyoming high school football memories are.

–patrick

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