Monthly Archives: July 2024

The roster

Don Harkins	QB	Worland
Irvin Redhair	QB	Sheridan
Wayne Colvin	RB	Cheyenne Central
Carl Dir	RB	Worland
Lee Kizzire	RB	Greybull
Martin Krpan	RB	Rock Springs
Buster Long	RB	Buffalo
Harry Braisted	WR	Laramie
Ralph Cottrell	WR	Worland
John Hancock	WR	Natrona
Lewis Roney	WR	Powell
Wedge Thompson	WR	Thermopolis
Taft Harris	TE	Natrona
Ben Joyce	TE	Sheridan
Leonard Scott	TE	Natrona
Jack Astle	OL	Cheyenne Central
Oscar Erickson	OL	Cheyenne Central
John Erickson	OL	Cheyenne Central
Verle Harlow	OL	Natrona
Thomas Kassis	OL	Natrona
Tim Moynihan	OL	Rawlins
Gene Moore	OL	Natrona
Clayton Thobro	OL	Rock Springs
Roy Thompson	OL	Sheridan
Walter Bentley	DL	Natrona
Win Croft	DL	Lovell
Sam Mavrakis	DL	Sheridan
Fremont Miller	DL	Lander
Pete Sedar	DL	Natrona
Vince Smith	DL	Cheyenne Central
Ken Sturman	DL	Lusk
Herbert Gage	LB	Cheyenne Central
Lucien Moncini	LB	Sheridan
Vic Niethammer	LB	Natrona
Bob Price	LB	Natrona
Ivan Threet	LB	Lovell
Lewis Williams	LB	Laramie
Johnny Winterholler	LB	Lovell
Willis Ball	DB	Rock Springs/Sheridan
Walter Cook	DB	Natrona
Franklin “Duke” DeForest	DB	Laramie
Thurlow Doyle	DB	Sheridan
Jesse Ekdall	DB	Cheyenne Central
Fred Marble	DB	Cheyenne Central
Paul Sanders	DB	Basin
Glenn Stanton	DB	Natrona
Ken Bird	Rover	Sheridan
Ervin Cheney	Rover	Lander
Bill Albright	K	Natrona
Bill Strannigan	P	Rock Springs
Jeff Doyle	RS	Sheridan
William “Kayo” Lam	ATH	Glenrock
Earl “Shadow” Ray	ATH	Natrona

Hardest players to leave off the team: Walt McDonald and Harry Barnes (Worland); Wes Christensen (Laramie); Ken Gardner (Star Valley); Dan Sedar, Bill Logan, Lee Shrum and Stan Hendrickson (Natrona); Fay Thompson (Midwest); Hugh Crawford and Clarence Smith (Cheyenne Central).

Impressions: The first of eight all-decade teams kicks off with this combined team from the 1920s and 1930s, although I probably could have made separate teams for both decades. … This is by far the smallest of the teams, weight-wise. For players whose weights could be found, the offensive line averages only 188 pounds; the defensive line only averages 182. The offensive line is the second-smallest of any team. … Several team members were not stars in high school but flourished in college. That includes Kayo Lam, who didn’t even play high school football in Glenrock but became a star in the Colorado backfield. Two others are Rawlins’ Tim Moynihan and Natrona’s Thomas Kassis, who were mainstays in the offensive line at Notre Dame while the Irish were busy winning national championships and piling up unbeaten seasons. … Several members of Wyoming’s 1943 national championship basketball team are also all-decade selections (on this team, Shadow Ray), while Taft Harris was part of Wyoming’s 1934 national championship team, proving that athleticism goes well beyond one sport. … World War II took a notable toll on both this team and the 1940s/1950s team, but Lee Kizzire’s story deserves to be told more often.

Up next: The 1940s/1950s, Monday.

–patrick

As I’ve been hyping for several months now, the Wyoming high school football all-decade teams — followed by the all-decade tournament — is coming up quickly.

Teams will be released every Saturday, Monday and Wednesday on the wyoming-football.com blog, The HQ (where you’re at right now), working forward in time, leading up to the first game. Dates for team releases include:

• 1920s/1930s: Saturday, July 13
• 1940s/1950s: Monday, July 15
• 1960s: Wednesday, July 17
• 1970s: Saturday, July 20
• 1980s: Monday, July 22
• 1990s: Wednesday, July 24
• 2000s: Saturday, July 27
• 2010s: Monday, July 29

Rosters will include information about the players, including their high school team, the position they will play in the simulation, their number for both high school (when available) and in the simulation, their height and weight in their senior year (when available, or in a year or two before or after their senior year), and a short biography.

Unfortunately, your favorite player may have been left off the team. That said, I looked up, down, left and right for information on everyone who I thought deserved a look. I fell down so many rabbit holes while I weighed your suggestions, which I asked for several times on my Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on this site. Although I made the final decisions on all roster choices, I also sought the expertise of several former and current coaches, media and others whose opinions I value to help provide their insight and expertise. And I know, for sure, that I couldn’t catch everything or everyone. Regardless, there were some difficult choices, and I feel like even rosters of 100 players for every decade couldn’t cover the depth and breadth of talent in Wyoming in each 10-year span. Putting these teams together is one of the toughest things I’ve ever done for this site, knowing all the while that exclusions of qualified players was going to happen.

As for positions? Well, I had to use a mix of a player’s high school and college/pro experience. Some players who were running backs in high school were defensive linemen in college, or a defensive back in high school was a linebacker in college, or a quarterback in high school was a tight end in college. I tried to use high school positions, but I also wanted to put the best football players into the simulation; consequently, while most players’ high school positions are used, some college and pro positions are also used in several instances for where players will play in the all-decade tournament.

I also tried to use players’ high school numbers when I could find them for their in-game uniform numbers. If two players had the same number, I tried to use a player’s college number or, sometimes, a similar number — for example, if two players were No. 11, one might keep 11 and the other one could become 1, 17, 41… something like that. When I couldn’t find a player’s number for either high school or college, which was especially common in the early days before numbers were worn, I picked one randomly.

As for the All-Decade Tournament itself: Games will be simulated using customized rosters on EA Sports NCAA Football 25 on a PS5. Live streams (with my occasional commentary of the games; I’ll try to be entertaining) will be shown on my YouTube channel, allowing for both live watching and rewatching. Games will be streamed on the following schedule, with all games scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Mountain:

• Game 1: 2010s vs. 1970s, Wednesday, July 31
• Game 2: 1990s vs. 1950s/1940s, Thursday, Aug. 1
• Game 3: 2000s vs. 1960s, Friday, Aug. 2
• Game 4: 1980s vs. 1930s/1920s, Saturday, Aug. 3
• Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, Sunday, Aug. 4
• Game 6: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, Monday, Aug. 5
• Game 7: Semifinal, Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, Tuesday, Aug. 6
• Game 8: Semifinal, Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, Wednesday, Aug. 7
• Game 9: Seventh place, Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser, Thursday, Aug. 8
• Game 10: Fifth place, Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, Friday, Aug. 9
• Game 11: Third place: Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 loser, Saturday, Aug. 10
• Game 12: Championship, Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, Sunday, Aug. 11

Not coincidentally, the first practice of the 2024 season for Class 4A teams is Monday, Aug. 12.

This has been one of my most daunting projects for wyoming-football.com, so I hope you appreciate what comes from it. Thanks again for your support, and hopefully we’ll see you in the chat on the livestreams.

–patrick