The late 1960s were a crazy time in the southeastern corner of Wyoming. Goshen Hole, the precursor to what is now Southeast, started its program in 1966, and Burns followed a year later. I spent a big portion of this week trying to track down more information on the first seasons of these two programs and found a couple games to update.

I added two games to Burns’ first season, both losses to the Pine Bluffs JV squad — 27-20 on Oct. 3 and 41-26 on Oct. 18. (These two losses extended Burns’ winless streak in that span to 24 games, a change updated on the streaks page.)

I also found the score for Goshen Hole’s 54-19 loss to Harrisburg, Neb., on Sept. 30, 1966, knocking it off the missing games list in the process.

My research also turned up two more new games, courtesy of the Byes Project. I added Huntley’s 33-6 loss to Lyman, Neb., sometime between Sept. 12-16, 1967 (added to the missing games list because I couldn’t pin down a date or a location) and Midwest’s 32-7 victory over Glendo on Sept. 3, 1965.

I also took care of two missing games for Saratoga’s 1955 season. I found the score, date and location for Saratoga’s 18-12 loss to the Rawlins JV on Oct. 4 and the score for Saratoga’s 13-0 loss to the Laramie JV on Oct. 13.

Coaches Project: I didn’t add any new coaches, but I did fix a couple discrepancies where I had two coaches coaching at two different schools in the same season.

I updated Green River’s coach in 1969; it was Chuck Shelton, not Jerry Hart. I had Jerry Hart listed as coaching in both Green River and Star Valley in 1969, so I double-checked and Hart was in Afton while Shelton had the reins in Green River.

I also ran into this problem with Rand Klatt, who I had listed as coaching both Pinedale and Hulett in 1965. I double-checked, and Klatt was in Pinedale that year. So now I’m looking hard to find out who Hulett’s coach was in 1965. So far, no luck. If you know, leave a comment below!

Basketball: I have updated the scores I was missing for the state basketball tournaments in 1923, 1925, 1929 and 1930. The years 1925, 1929 and 1930 didn’t need much research done for them, but 1923 had to be built up and researched basically from scratch. The year 1924 still need some additional research, but I hope to have that completed within the next couple weeks. We’ll see…. Click here to see this side project, every score from every state basketball tournament (except, obviously, for 1924).

–patrick

School: Moorcroft
Nickname: Wolves
Colors: green and white
Stadium: Wolves Field
State championship: 1996
Times worth remembering: The Wolves won four consecutive conference championships from 1993-96, and culminated the run with the school’s only state championship. The Wolves put together seasons of 8-1 in 1993 and 1995 and 10-0 in 1996, and even with a 3-5 season in 1994 still won the conference championship.
Times worth forgetting: It took quite a while for the Wolves to reach the speed of high-school football. After adopting the sport in 1952, it took (according to games results found so far) five years for Moorcroft to win its first game. In that span from 1952-58 (with available results), the Wolves were 1-22, including a 1956 season in which the Wolves didn’t take the field due to a lack of bodies. Of course, in 1959, the Wolves made up for all that by advancing to the state championship game….
Best team: The 1996 Wolves did two things no other Moorcroft team has ever done — they went undefeated and they won the state championship. The Wolves, led by three-time all-stater Shawn Dowdy, proved throughout the season that they knew how to both dominate inferior teams and frustrate good ones.
Biggest win: Clearly, again, the nod has to go to 1996. The 9-6 title-game victory over Lusk provided enough excitement to last for 10 championships. Kyle Workman nailed the winning 30-yard field goal with 41 seconds remaining, a kick set up by a punt block just a couple minutes before. Moorcroft scored all nine of its points in the fourth quarter and kept the Tigers out of the end zone, giving up just two first-half field goals.
Heartbreaker: The Wolves were one of the best teams in the state in 1982. Led by Rock Mirich, the Wolves posted an 8-0 record in the regular season, holding every single opponent to eight points or fewer, but couldn’t get the job done once they reached the playoffs. Playing the first home playoff game in school history, the Wolves jumped out to a 20-0 lead but lost to Saratoga 28-20 in overtime. After Mirich ran back the opening kickoff of the second half 95 yards for a touchdown, the Wolves crumpled, and Saratoga’s David Jones scored three times in the second half to help crush Moorcroft’s perfect season.

Moorcroft team page.

A week from today (Saturday), the 37th annual Shrine Bowl will be played in Casper. Practice starts today, with the teams’ annual trip to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City coming Sunday and Monday.

The official site for the Shrine Bowl, wyoshrinebowl.org, lists this year’s rosters for the North and South teams. I don’t think either team has an edge on paper; they both possess talented players who have the ability to play several spots and make big plays.

It’s worth noting that, including last year’s 3-3 “tie,” every Shrine Bowl since 2003 has been decided by 10 points or less. I see much the same sort of game shaping up this year.

The South team leads the all-time series, but just barely: 17-16-3.

If you want to see some Shrine Bowl records, click here.

Practices will go Tuesday through Friday in Casper, with the game set for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Cheney Alumni Field in Casper.

(And, as a former Midwest Oiler, I have to quickly recognize Midwest’s Kyle Redding, the first Midwest player to be selected for the Shrine Bowl in about 20 years… Nice job, Kyle!)

–patrick

As I shared earlier this spring, I am working hard to fill in some missing info for some of the smaller schools in the Bighorn Basin. The past couple weeks, I’ve really concentrated on 1953 and 1954 and have a bunch of new updates to show for it.

For 1954, I added 10 new games to the database, including five for Meeteetse and three for Deaver-Frannie. Meeteetse’s five added games included a 25-0 loss to Byron on some day between Sept. 7-13 (added to the missing games list because I couldn’t find the exact date or a location), a 20-6 victory over Burlington on Oct. 6, a 19-14 victory over the Cody JV on Oct. 14, a 43-31 loss to the Lovell JV on Oct. 20 and a 18-14 victory over the Cody JV on Oct. 28. For Deaver-Frannie, I added a victory over the Worland Institute on Oct. 15 (and added it to the missing games because I couldn’t find a score or a location), a 37-12 victory over Burlington on Oct. 22 (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t pin down the location) and a 36-18 loss to Cowley on Oct. 29. I also added a game between Lovell and Billings Central, Mont., on Oct 21 (added to the missing games list because I couldn’t find a score) and Byron’s 19-18 victory over the Lovell JV on Nov. 9 (added to the missing games list because I couldn’t find a location).

Digging into the 1953 season gave me four new games, all involving Deaver-Frannie. I have added Deaver-Frannie’s 37-0 victory over the Worland Institute on Oct. 3 (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t find the location), Cowley’s 21-20 victory over Deaver-Frannie on some day between or including Oct. 8-10 (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t find the exact date or a location), Deaver-Frannie’s 39-6 victory over Burlington on some day between or including Oct. 14-17 (and added it to the missing games list because I couldn’t find an exact date or a location) and Cowley’s 32-26 victory over Deaver-Frannie on Oct. 23.

I also explored Saratoga’s 1950 season but turned up more questions than answers. One game was added — the Panthers’ 21-13 loss to Pinedale on Sept. 22 — but two other games scheduled for Saratoga that season didn’t fit the rest of the state. Saratoga had a game scheduled with Lyman on Oct. 13, but Lyman played Farson that week; Saratoga also had a game scheduled with Hanna on Oct. 20, but Hanna played Reliance that day. Both of those games are staying off the database for now but are noted here.

Jackson’s 1951 season also saw a couple additions: a 14-6 loss to Green River on Oct. 16, and a game with Soda Springs, Idaho, on either Oct. 19 or Oct. 20 (added to the missing games list because I couldn’t find a date or a result).

Other additions

Added Wheatland’s 20-13 victory over the Laramie JV on Sept. 26, 1952.

Added  St. Mary’s 26-20 loss to the Laramie JV on Oct. 19, 1955.

Missing games

Found the location for the Oct. 18, 2008, game between the Hanna JV and Midwest (it was in Hanna).

Found the score of Ten Sleep’s 44-6 loss to the Belfry, Mont., JV on Oct. 20, 2007.

Found the date for the Sept. 5, 1981, game between the Evanston JV and Mountain View.

Found locations for two Hanna games in 1956 — the Oct. 9 game with Baggs (in Hanna) and the Oct. 19 game with Encampment (in Encampment).

Found the score for the Huntley-Albin game on Oct. 6, 1954 — a 33-33 tie. (This game also moved into fifth place all-time on the scoring records list on the list of highest scoring tie games.)

Found the score of Upton’s 28-20 victory over the Rapid City, S.D., JV on Oct. 17, 1957.

Also, for consistency’s sake, I removed two canceled games, one between Ten Sleep and Fort Washakie scheduled for Sept. 20, 2008, and the other between Burlington and Meeteetse scheduled for Oct. 20, 1989. Fort Washakie and Burlington didn’t have teams in those particular years.

All the updates have been made on all the relevant pages.

Coaches Project: Updates for Big Horn, Big Piney, Buffalo, Byron, Cowley, Encampment, Greybull, Huntley, Morton, Powell, Reliance, St. Mary’s, Snake River, Sunrise, Superior, University Prep. Check out those updates on those teams’ pages, and click here to see what else I’m missing.

–patrick

School: Burlington
Nickname: Huskies
Colors: orange and black
Stadium: Husky Stadium
State championships: 1992 and 1994
Times worth remembering: Led by lineman Mike Aagard — now the team’s coach — and all-everything star Justin Hopkin, the Huskies were a team to be feared in the early 1990s. Burlington went 8-1 on its way to the championship in 1992, then after a brief dip to 4-3 in 1993, the Huskies returned to the top in 1994 with a perfect 8-0 season. Both times, Burlington beat Hulett in the championship game.
Times worth forgetting: It can’t get much worse than what happened to the Huskies in the late 1980s. After a winless season in 1988, Burlington didn’t field a team in 1989. By 1990, the Huskies were back, but still struggled on the field until turning in their state championship season in 1992.
Best team: The Husky squad of 1994 was the only team in school history to go undefeated. With Hopkin, Aagard, Brandon Preator and a host of others, the Huskies were only occasionally challenged — their closest game of the season was the 36-20 win over Hulett in the state title game.
Biggest win: To get to the 1992 9-man title game, the Huskies had to pick up a 26-20 road win in the semifinals over East Conference champion Big Horn. It was a winnable game from the start — Burlington had beaten Big Horn 20-19 earlier in the season on the Rams’ home field — and the win in the playoffs help assure the Huskies of their success. And after Hulett upset Dubois on the other side of the bracket, Burlington rolled to the title, setting the stage for sustained success.
Heartbreaker: In both 2004 and 2005, Burlington had its hopes for a state championship crushed in ways no team should have to endure – on the final play of the game. Both times, Guernsey-Sunrise played the role of the crusher. In ’04, the Vikings won 24-21 in overtime on Shawn King’s field goal; in ’05, David Castle caught a touchdown pass as time expired as the Huskies lost 25-22.

Burlington team page.

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