The Shrine Bowl named its coaching staffs this week, and it was interesting to see how the groups came together.

The North squad will have some solid representation from Campbell County, as Wright’s Larry Yeradi, the head coach, picked up Gillette’s Vic Wilkerson and one of his own assistants, Doug Schrader, to help round out his staff. Riverside’s Michael McGuire (who is making the trip to Casper an annual event), Jackson’s Bill Wiley (and outgoing coach who gets a well-deserved Shrine Bowl nod on his way out) and Kaycee’s Dustin Sipe help round out the North staff.

The South staff doesn’t have any weak links, either. Head coach Jay Rhoades of Douglas pieced together a solid staff, including his own assistant, Wes Gamble, who had a ton to do with the Bearcats’ success this fall. Rock Springs’ Tony Yerkovich, Kemmerer’s Shawn Rogers and Saratoga’s Heath Hayes — all coaches who have been involved in this sport in the state for many years and who all have the respect of their coaching colleagues — join veteran Guernsey-Sunrise coach Casey Moats, who made the staff after his first year as a head football coach but earned his stripes as a longtime assistant with the Vikings.

IMHO, there isn’t a single undeserving coach in the bunch. I’ve talked to most of these guys at least once — many several times — and every single one has my seal of approval, something that’s all but meaningless to everyone but me…. but it speaks well of the Shrine Bowl that they were able to land such quality coaches for the big game.

More on the Shrine Bowl here.

–patrick

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.

Glendo Eagles team page.

I’ve mentioned Pine Bluffs before when doing site updates — how I know that I’ve under-researched the Hornets and I have yet to uncover everything about Pine Bluffs football. There are lots of reasons for that, but they really don’t matter. What matters is that I’m continuing to uncover some cool info about the purple and gold and its football history.

I put another significant dent into that research this week. I added 11 more new unique entries, including seven for the 1953 season alone, and knocked five more Pine Bluffs games off the missing games list.

Here’s what I’ve added for the Hornets:

Pine Bluffs 1953: Added a 20-0 loss to the Cheyenne (Central) JV on Sept. 15; added a 41-0 victory over the Scottsbluff, Neb., JV on an uncertain date (somewhere between Sept. 23-29, added to missing games list); added a 40-0 victory over the Laramie JV on Oct. 3; added a 12-0 victory over Morrill, Neb., on Oct. 16; added a 26-7 victory over Sterling St. Anthony’s, Colo., on Oct. 24; added a 24-0 victory over the Cheyenne (Central) JV on Oct. 29; and added a 13-0 victory over Sidney St. Patrick’s, Neb., on Nov. 6. I also found the location and date for the Sept. 11 game against Kimball, Neb. (it was in Pine Bluffs).

Pine Bluffs 1954: Added a game against the Cheyenne (Central) JV on Oct. 28 (but couldn’t find a final score and added it to the missing games list). I also added scores for the Oct. 15 game against Sidney St. Patrick’s, Neb. (Pine Bluffs won 14-2) and the Oct. 22 game against Morrill, Neb. (Morrill won 19-7). Also corrected the date for the Sept. 22 game against the Scottsbluff, Neb., JV (I originally had Sept. 24).

Pine Bluffs 1955: Added Pine Bluffs’ 26-0 loss to the Laramie JV on Sept. 15; found the location and the date for the Sept. 9 game with Kimball, Neb. (it was in Pine Bluffs); found the date for the Oct. 21 game with Morrill, Neb. (but it stayed on the missing games list for an unknown location); and added a Oct. 14 game with Sidney St. Patrick’s, Neb. (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t find the final score).

Pine Bluffs 1956: Added a game with Grover, Colo., on Nov. 2 (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t find a final score)

I also made significant progress with some Glenrock details that I had been missing:

Glenrock 1957: Knocked five missing games off the list. Found a location and a date for a 25-o victory over Huntley on Sept. 13 (I also corrected the score; I had originally listed 26-0); found the location for the Oct. 5 game against Lyman, Neb. (in Lyman, Neb.), and the Nov. 2 game against Lingle (in Glenrock); found the date and location for the Oct. 19 game against the Natrona JV (in Glenrock); found the score for the 34-0 victory over Glendo on Nov. 9.

Glenrock 1954: Knocked two missing games off the list. Found a score for Glenrock’s 52-12 victory over Lingle on Sept. 24 and discovered the Oct. 1 game with Harrison, Neb., was canceled.

Glenrock 1951: Added the Herders’ 18-14 victory over Lingle on Sept. 26 and found the date and location for the 28-0 loss to Manville on Sept. 21 (it was at Lance Creek).

I also:

Added Hanna’s 22-12 victory over St. Mary’s on Sept. 17, 1977

Added Albin’s 27-6 victory over Melbeta, Neb., on Sept. 10, 1954 (and added it to the missing games list for a missing location)

Found the date and location for Albin’s loss to Melbeta, Neb., on Sept. 9, 1955 (it was in Albin)

In all, 14 new entries were added to the database. All these updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

But that’s not all! Here are some other updates I’ve made this week:

Coaches Project

I added almost every missing coach from the 1978 and 1981 seasons, nearly completing the Coaches Project from 1976 forward. I’m still missing one coach from 1976 forward: Glendo’s 1978 coach. Otherwise, the prior 34 years of the Coaches Project are done! I have recently made Coaches Project updates for Albin, Basin, Bow-Basin, Byron, Cokeville, Gillette, Hanna, Lander, Lyman, North Big Horn, Rawlins, St. Mary’s and Saratoga.

Also, Steve Core down in Green River has come through BIG again. He provided me a list of all of Green River’s coaches from 1943 to the early 1970s, which is where my list picked up. So, for now, I’m good to go for the Wolves’ coaching history. Thanks again to Steve for all the help he’s provided!

Other housekeeping

With the updates I added last week, I realized Lovell’s losing streak from 1959-62 had actually increased a game, from 22 to 23, while the Bulldogs’ winless streak jumped from 23 to 24 games. Those changes have been reflected on the streaks page.

–patrick

So I put up another Wyoming high school football quiz on Sporcle…. The Wyoming high school football teams ranked east to west by the location of their stadium.

Click here to play it.

Or, check out the stadiums page to study up before you take the quiz. No cheating, though! Scout’s honor.

Once again, my two most nerdy sides emerge simultaneously. 🙂

–patrick

Over Christmas break, I began compiling individual win-loss records for all the state’s football coaches from 1946 to the present. In doing so, I was able to come up with a coaching leaderboard of sorts… the coaches with at least 100 career victories.

For some reason, the list was a lot shorter than I anticipated. I guess I thought there were more coaches who “defined” programs, leading them for a long enough period to get into the 100-victory range. I guess not…. Even so, the short list is still impressive.

The table below lists the coaches who have won at least 100 football games from 1946 to the present, and it’s only for coaches’ records with Wyoming teams (any out-of-state records aren’t considered). As always, the list is limited by both time and the information to which I have access; if the coach isn’t listed with the team pages, he wouldn’t make this list. Some coaches might not make this list for that reason. Don’t consider this list full or complete. It’s just the best I can do right now.

100-victory club      
Coach Wins Losses Ties
Dayton, Todd 242 49 0
Deti, John E. 197 80 6
Deti, John R. 188 102 2
Fullmer, Jerry 174 82 0
McDougall, John 156 115 2
Eskelsen, Joel 147 81 0
Gray, Walter 140 87 0
Moon, Mike 136 79 1
Scherry, Rick 133 84 1
Hill, Art 131 92 3
Hoff, Dallas 130 94 5
Bailey, Harold 128 92 0
Mirich, Carl 123 100 1
Keith, Bruce 117 82 0
Harshman, Steve 114 64 0
Dinnel, Don 113 61 0
Fackrell, Kay 109 74 0
Petronovich, Pete 105 88 4
Bartlett, Doug 102 73 0
Smith, Ben 101 33 0
       
Almost there (90+)      
Bullington, Mark 92 19 0
Gamble, Tony 93 55 2
Miller, Barry 97 83 1
Steege, Rich 91 119 0

 

From what I can find, current Cokeville coach Todd Dayton is far and away the winningest coach in state history. Dayton, who took over the Panthers’ coaching duties in 1980, has led his team to 242 victories, including 16 state championships.

John E. Deti, aka John Senior, the longtime coach at Laramie who took over the Plainsmen program in 1944, ranks second. His career record is most likely closer to 206-86-8, with a 1944 record of 5-3-1 and a 1945 record of 4-3-1 (check out my Laramie history page to see more on the Plainsmen and their coaches). His son, John R. Deti, aka John Junior, is third all-time with 188 victories, most of those with Laramie — not a bad family legacy.

Outside of Cokeville and coach Dayton, the state’s winningest active coach is Natrona’s Steve Harshman, who has won 114 games in 19 seasons leading the Mustangs. It’s no surprise Harshman is where he is — he’s been at his post longer than any other active coach in the state, execpt for Dayton. Time-wise, Hulett’s Steve Colling is third (Colling has led the Red Devils for 18 seasons and has 70 career victories), but victories-wise it’s Southeast coach Mark Bullington that’s closest to Harshman (and Dayton, of course) with his 92 victories in 11 seasons with the Cyclones.

The records for all coaches aren’t posted anywhere on the site yet, as I’d like to get a few more coaches’ names banked before I post anything more official-looking. But, for now, it’s fun to look at what I’ve got.

–patrick

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.

Thanks to the folks at the Wyoming High School Activities Association, as well as my own detective work on the microfilm, I’ve added names for about 100 seasons to the Coaches Project.

The WHSAA hooked me up with their archive of old statewide directories, allowing me to find my missing coaches for every school in the years 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993. I am still missing some coaches for 1978 and 1981, years for which the WHSAA didn’t have directories in their file… but even so, this hook-up gave me a ton of names and helped me complete a huge gap in my research. Thanks!

For what it’s worth, I believe I have obtained every coach’s name from 1976 to the present — the past 34 years of Wyoming football — except for the following:

1978 coaches for Basin, Bow-Basin, Byron, St. Mary’s, Cokeville, Hanna, Lander, Lyman, North Big Horn, Saratoga and Glendo, as well as the first name for coach Bujol in Gillette.

1981 coaches for Basin, Bow-Basin, Byron, St. Mary’s, Hanna, Lyman, Saratoga and Rawlins.

With the cumulative efforts of my work on microfilm and the work I did at the WHSAA, I’ve added coaching updates for the following 32 teams: Basin, Bow-Basin, Byron, Cokeville, Cowley, Deaver-Frannie, Encampment, Farson, Gillette, Glendo, Greybull, Guernsey, Guernsey-Sunrise, Hanna, Lander, Lingle, Lyman, Manderson, Moorcroft, Morton, North Big Horn, Pavillion, Rawlins, Saratoga, St. Mary’s/Seton, St. Stephens, Sunrise, Ten Sleep, Thermopolis, Tongue River, Torrington, Wind River. Check out those individual team pages and check the list of missing info to see the updates and what still needs to be done.

Also, Greybull native Steve Core, now in Green River, also hooked me up with some Greybull coach names. Those have now been posted. Thanks to Steve for that info!

More stuff on coaches later this week.

–patrick

Knocked 32 games off the missing games list, added 13 more new entries and corrected a pair. Yeah, it’s been a busy time.

Most of what’s been updated lately is games from small southeast corner schools, mostly Guernsey and Sunrise. I’ve come across old microfilm of the Guernsey Gazette and have been using that to fill in a bunch of missing information. I’d say somewhere close to one-half of the games on the missing games list from the 1950s are (or at least were) games involving small southeast corner schools.

I also chipped away at the Byes Project and found a few new games that way, as well.

Anyway, here’s the list of stuff that’s updated:

Took the following games off the missing games list:

Found the location for three Sunrise games in 1962: the Sept. 14 game with Guernsey (Guernsey); the Sept. 21 game with Chadron, Neb., Assumption (Sunrise); and the Oct. 3 game with Huntley (Huntley)

Found the date for the Sept. 7, 1962, game between Hanna and Lingle

Found the location for the Sept. 2, 1960, game between Newcastle and Belle Fourche, S.D. (it was in Belle Fourche)

Found scores for two Guernsey losses in 1959: 42-0 to Glenrock on Sept. 11, 1959 and 24-13 to Huntley on Sept. 25

Found the location for the Sept. 11, 1959, game between Pine Bluffs and Galeton, Colo. (it was in Pine Bluffs)

Found the score for Sunrise’s 20-0 victory over Huntley on Oct. 30, 1959

Removed a game between Chugwater and Guernsey on Oct. 17, 1958; Chugwater didn’t have a team that season

Found the score and corrected the date for Guernsey’s 33-0 victory over Lyman, Neb., on Oct. 22, 1958 (originally had Oct. 24)

Found the location for two Sunrise games in 1957: the Sept. 20 game with Lyman, Neb. (Lyman) and the Oct. 11 game with Chugwater (Chugwater)

Found the date and corrected the location for Guernsey’s game with Chugwater on Oct. 18, 1957 (it was in Guernsey, not Chugwater)

Found out the Nov. 1, 1957, game between Sunrise and Pine Bluffs was canceled

Removed a scheduled game for Sept. 14, 1956, between Guernsey and Albin that was not played (Albin didn’t field a team that year)

Found scores for three Glendo games in 1956: a 47-7 loss to Lingle on Sept. 21, a 26-14 victory over Guernsey on Oct. 10 (had originally listed it on Oct. 12), and a 21-7 victory over Huntley on Oct. 19

Found the score for Sunrise’s 38-6 victory over Chugwater on Oct. 9, 1956

Removed scheduled games between Moorcroft and Hulett on Oct. 5, 1956, and Moorcroft and Sundance on Oct. 9, 1956 (Moorcroft did not field a team that season)

Found the score for Glenrock’s 20-0 victory over Pine Bluffs on Oct. 26, 1956, and deleted an extra entry for the game on Oct. 19, 1956

Rectified the end of Guernsey’s 1956 season: Noted that Guernsey won its Nov. 2 game over Huntley by forfeit; noted that Guernsey lost its Nov. 9 game to Lyman, Neb., by forfeit, and removed an extra entry for a game against Huntley on Nov. 14

Added a pair of losses for Upton in 1955: A 26-0 loss to Spearfish, S.D., on Sept. 9 and another 26-0 loss, this one to Edgemont, S.D., on Sept. 23

Found a score for Glendo’s 18-6 victory over Guernsey on Oct. 14, 1955

Found a score for Sunrise’s 13-7 overtime victory over Huntley on Oct. 28, 1955

Found a score for Upton’s 12-0 loss to Edgemont, S.D., on Sept. 11, 1953

Added the following games:

Two for Pine Bluffs in 1959: a 32-12 victory over Sidney, Neb., St. Patrick’s on Sept. 18 and a 20-18 victory over Glendo on Sept. 25

Two for Pine Bluffs in 1958: a 34-12 loss to Sidney, Neb., St. Patrick’s on Oct. 24 and a 12-6 loss to Sterling, Colo., St. Anthony’s on Sept. 19

Lovell’s 14-6 loss to Hardin, Mont., on Sept. 9, 1960

Hanna’s 35-19 victory over Guernsey on Oct. 20, 1962

Pavillion’s 27-0 loss to the Lander JV on Sept. 17, 1963

Two for Pinedale in 1967: a 55-7 victory over the Jackson JV on Oct. 21 and a 25-14 loss to Pavillion on Oct. 27

Burlington’s 28-6 victory over Morton on Oct. 26, 1962

Sunrise’s 21-0 victory over Pine Bluffs on Sept. 21, 1956

Glenrock’s 39-6 victory over the Natrona JV in late October 1956 (also added it to the missing games list for the missing date and location)

The snowed-out game between Tongue River and Sundance on Oct. 25, 1957

Other corrections:

Corrected the date for the Oct. 14, 1966, game between Glendo and Guernsey-Sunrise (had originally listed Oct. 18)

Noted Glendo’s forfeit victory over Guernsey on Nov. 1, 1957 (originally had it as just canceled, but the Longhorns actually had to forfeit this one in the conference standings)

—————————————–

More updates soon, including big changes and updates for the Coaches Project.

–patrick

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.

With some of my spare time this week, I jumped into the Coaches Project and found out some more names. Basin, Seton, Ten Sleep, Saratoga, Hanna, Lander, Lyman, North Big Horn, Byron and Encampment all had names added for various years, most in the 1980s. Check out those individual team pages to see the updates.

Also, the 1944 season is about an hour away from being completed. The 1945 season is done and ready to go…. I hope to have the 1940s compete by May, then work back from there this summer. I hope to reach 1920 by this August, but we’ll see. From there, I’ll post the years to the site as time allows, although I’m still not completely sure of my summer schedule yet.

–patrick

Post Navigation