School: Kelly Walsh
Nickname: Trojans
Colors: green and yellow
Stadium: Harry Geldien Stadium
State championships: 1972, 1980 and 1981
Times worth remembering: KW had 10 consecutive winning seasons from 1975-84, and back-to-back championships in 1980 and 1981 were the Trojans’ crowning achievement in that span. The 1980-81 teams were a combined 19-1; the 1982 and 1983 teams followed up with consecutive 7-2 seasons, although neither team reached the state title game.
Times worth forgetting: Back-to-back 0-8 seasons, an overall 16-game losing streak, from 1997-98 was by far KW’s toughest stretch. Only three of those 16 games were decided by fewer than 10 points. The 1997-98 seasons were part of larger difficulties for the Trojans, who played in the “Toilet Bowl,” reserved for the last-place teams in the two 4A conferences, five consecutive times from 1996-2000.
Best team: You want flash and dash? Try the KW team from 1980, which featured future UW Cowboy Allyn Griffin and future MLB star Mike Devereaux and outscored opponents, on average, 33-8. You want consistency? Go for the 1981 squad, which shut out six of its final seven opponents and finished on the right side of an average score of 25-3. The slight nod goes to the ’81 team, which is KW’s only undefeated team in school history.
Biggest win: There aren’t too many big-game wins for KW — only five playoff wins in 46 years — but the Trojans are 3-0 in title games. The biggest of those came in 1980, the first year KW won an Oil Bowl and a state championship in the same season. The Trojans beat Rock Springs 20-7 in Rock Springs for the state championship a week after beating Natrona 28-13 in the Oil Bowl to secure the spot in the title game.
Heartbreaker: How about the first Oil Bowl in 1965? Playing without any seniors, the Trojans stuck right with Natrona for nearly four quarters and appeared to take the lead after a 70-yard punt return for a touchdown by Frank Wojtech. But officials ruled Wojtech stepped out of bounds at midfield, KW couldn’t score, and thus began a series of Oil Bowl heartaches.