Monthly Archives: July 2011

From 1962 to 1967 in all classes, and from 1962 to 1974 in Classes A and B-C, postseason football was shut down in Wyoming. No playoffs, no state championship games, nothing. Only an unsatisfying mythical championship that, in the end, was just opinion. The next several days, wyoming-football.com is taking a look at the title games and playoff brackets we missed out on in the “dead era” of the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, we examine the year 1967.

Class AA: Cheyenne Central (6-4) OR Laramie (6-3) OR Cheyenne East (7-3) vs. Powell (9-0). Central, East and Laramie all finished with 4-1 records in AA South play, all round-robining each other (East beat Laramie 14-13 but lost to Central 18-12, while Laramie beat Central 26-13). Powell did not have similar troubles in the North, plowing through the competition to finish undefeated.
Class A: Lusk (8-1) vs. Star Valley (10-0). Star Valley posted six shutouts and allowed the other four opponents only 45 combined points. Lusk had similar success in the East with a high-powered offense led by future UW quarterback Steve Cockerham; the Tigers’ only loss came in the season finale to Hot Springs, S.D.
Class B East: Tongue River (9-0) vs. Glenrock (9-0). Another classic in the making. Both the Eagles and the Herders had won every single game by at least 19 points. TR had beaten Class A Greybull by 20; Glenrock won its final four games by a combined 219-8.
Class B West: Byron (7-0-1) OR Basin (7-1-1) vs. Cokeville (7-0). A take-no-prisoners Panthers team beat all but one team on its schedule by at least 43 points. Byron and Basin, meanwhile, tied for the Northwest crown after tying their game 34-34 in one of the most controversial finishes ever. (Basin originally won 40-34 by scoring in the final minute of their game on Oct. 27, 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. No one scored and the game finished as a 34-34 tie, officially.)

–patrick

From 1962 to 1967 in all classes, and from 1962 to 1974 in Classes A and B-C, postseason football was shut down in Wyoming. No playoffs, no state championship games, nothing. Only an unsatisfying mythical championship that, in the end, was just opinion. The next several days, wyoming-football.com is taking a look at the title games and playoff brackets we missed out on in the “dead era” of the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, we examine the year 1968.

Class A: Gillette (7-1-1) OR Lusk (8-1-1) vs. Star Valley (6-2-1) OR Evanston (8-2): There would have been all kinds of tiebreakers exercised to fill out the Class A title game in 1968. In the East, Gillette and Lusk had tied 19-19 early in the season in Lusk; both squads had lost to AA teams prior to the tie, Gillette to Powell and Lusk to Laramie. Meanwhile, Evanston and Star Valley split the Class A West title after splitting with each other in the regular season (Star Valley won 7-0 in Afton; Evanston won 13-0 in Evanston). Both teams also lost conference games to other league foes, coincidentally, both on Oct. 11: Star Valley to Jackson and Evanston to Green River.
Class B East: Sundance (8-1) vs. Glenrock (9-0). Glenrock was a Class B juggernaut in ’68, with its closest victory by 19 points. Sundance’s only blemish was a 21-20 loss to Newell, S.D., in the season finale.
Class B West: Byron (9-0) vs. Cokeville (7-1). In a rare case of a regular-season meeting between these two powerhouses, Byron beat Cokeville 40-32 in Cokeville to start the 1968 season for both teams. Even so, Byron had to eke out a 14-13 victory over Basin in the season finale to win the Northwest; Cokeville’s closest victory in a season of dominance was a 40-14 whitewash of North Rich, Utah.

–patrick

From 1962 to 1967 in all classes, and from 1962 to 1974 in Classes A and B-C, postseason football was shut down in Wyoming. No playoffs, no state championship games, nothing. Only an unsatisfying mythical championship that, in the end, was just opinion. The next several days, wyoming-football.com is taking a look at the title games and playoff brackets we missed out on in the “dead era” of the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, we examine the year 1969.

Class A: Torrington (9-0) vs. Star Valley (8-1): A matchup for the ages. Torrington had mowed through its competition, including posting 93 points — a modern 11-man record — against St. Mary’s, while Star Valley became increasingly stronger after losing to North Summit, Utah, in the season opener.
Class B East: Upton (7-2) vs. Lingle (9-0-1): Upton actually lost to Lingle 7-6 in the season opener for both squads; since that game, both had overcome stumbles in conference play — Upton a loss to Midwest, Lingle a tie with Glenrock — to win their respective leagues.
Class B West: Basin (7-0-1) vs. Cokeville (8-0): One of Cokeville’s best teams ever, the winners of the mythical state title, might have had a struggle on its hands against Basin, an underrated team due to a surprising 38-38 tie against Manderson late in the season. They had one common opponent, as both teams beat Byron in the ’69 season: Cokeville 20-18 in the regular-season opener, Basin 42-22 in the regular-season finale.

–patrick

From 1962 to 1967 in all classes, and from 1962 to 1974 in Classes A and B-C, postseason football was shut down in Wyoming. No playoffs, no state championship games, nothing. Only an unsatisfying mythical championship that, in the end, was just opinion. The next several days, wyoming-football.com is taking a look at the title games and playoff brackets we missed out on in the “dead era” of the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, we examine the year 1970.

Class A: Buffalo (8-0) vs. Star Valley (9-1). Star Valley avenged a 14-6 loss to Jackson early in the season by beating the Broncs 41-0 on the Jackson turf a few weeks later. Buffalo, meanwhile, made winning the East look easy by winning every game by at least nine points.
Class B East: Upton (7-1-1) vs. Glenrock (8-1). A tie against Sundance and a loss to Midwest was not enough to prevent Upton from winning the parity-filled Northeast, while Glenrock shook off an early 7-6 loss to Lingle and rallied to win the Southeast crown after the Doggers — after a 6-0 start — lost their final two games.
Class B West: Byron (9-0) vs. Pinedale (9-0-1): Aside from a 36-28 victory over Deaver-Frannie, Byron won every one of its games by at least 38 points. Pinedale, though, was the mythical state champ, even with a 6-6 tie against Mountain View, a team Pinedale had beaten 20-6 earlier in the season, as the only blotch on the record.

–patrick