In case you missed it, the 2024 season starts on Friday — well, technically Thursday with a couple scrimmages, and then Friday with the first count-’em games of the year.
In the first week of the season, it’s hard for games to stand out. We just don’t know enough about the year to say which games are “big” ones (as if they aren’t all big, right?). Occasionally, though, the start of a season is marked by a highly anticipated game, one that everyone knows from the outset could make or break a season, or at minimum set its direction.
Here are 10 such games, in chronological order, where the season opener was one that everyone knew was going to be bigger than usual:
1956: Laramie 40, Cheyenne Central 7. The finish of the 1955 season came with controversy, as Laramie won a disputed 18-14 game against the Indians, who claimed “timing irregularities” in Laramie gave the Plainsmen the advantage (and, oh, Cheyenne players fought an official on the field). The game decided the AA title, as Laramie finished second in the polls (behind Class A champ Worland) and Cheyenne finished third. So when they faced off to start the 1956 season, the Plainsmen wanted to leave nothing to chance. They didn’t, as Larry Bowman scored four times in an absolute rout. Eventually, Laramie won its third consecutive AA title, finishing 8-1; Central finished 5-3 and as Class AA runners-up, with two of its three losses to Laramie.
1968: Byron 40, Cokeville 32; 1969: Cokeville 20, Byron 18. Both Byron (7-0-1) and Cokeville (7-0) had finished the 1967 season undefeated, and they finished second and third, respectively, in the final Class B rankings at the end of the season behind Tongue River. With that in mind, the two teams scheduled a home-and-home for the 1968 and 1969 seasons, with Byron heading to Cokeville in 1968 and Cokeville making the trip north to Byron in 1969 in games sure to be decisive statewide for eight-man bragging rights. In both seasons, the season opener helped decide the eventual Class B champion. In 1968, Byron came back from a 25-7 deficit to win 40-32 as the Eagles outscored the Panthers behind four touchdowns from Rick Tanner. By the end of the season, Byron was 9-0 ranked first, tying with Glenrock in the final UPI poll for state champion; Cokeville didn’t lose again and finished third in the rankings at 7-1. In the rematch one year later, the Panthers eked out a two-point victory. The victory was the start of a historic 1969 season in Cokeville where the Panthers went 8-0; Byron only lost one more game the rest of the season, in the finale against Basin, and finished 7-2.
1973: St. Mary’s 18, Glenrock 6: The 10-0 Gaels and 9-0 Herders split the 1972 Class A championship in the final polls, with Glenrock winning the AP poll and St. Mary’s the UPI poll — and the other team finishing second in both. When the 1973 season opener came around, a lot of pride was on the line for two teams that would have preferred to be an outright champion the year before. Months of what-if talk culminated in Glenrock, where the Gaels sapped all the air out of the matchup by taking an 18-0 lead in the first half and then holding on to win. It didn’t change the 1972 results, but it did give the Gaels temporary bragging rights.
1975: Basin 30, Tongue River 24, 2OT: The Eagles entered the 1975 season on the momentum of two consecutive 9-0 seasons, but they knew they couldn’t take the season opener against the Bobcats for granted. After all, the year before, Basin’s only loss in a 7-1-1 season came against Tongue River in a 15-8 slugfest. The rematch lived up to the hype, as the Bobcats won in double overtime with Mike Dellos’ three touchdowns leading the way. Basin eventually reached the first modern version of the Class B playoffs at 7-2; Tongue River finished 5-3 and out of the playoff bracket.
1990: Meeteetse 29, Hanna 7. As Class 1A nine-man went through a transitional year in 1990 — the first year of a five-class system in Wyoming and the second year of nine-man football — a couple things were clear. First, Hanna was the defending champ and had enough firepower to contend again. Second, Meeteetse had been one of the state’s most consistent winners in the late 1980s, and with the preseason No. 1 ranking, that trend was expected to continue into the 1990s. The Longhorns made more good on their potential than the Miners did on the momentum of their trophy, as Chris Miller’s two second-half touchdowns put the Miners away for good. With the victory, Meeteetse set the standard for the rest of the classification to follow. The Longhorns stayed ranked No. 1 all season but lost to eventual champion Lingle in the semifinals; Hanna recovered from a 1-3 start to win its final four games but missed the playoffs after a loss to — get this — Lingle left them out of the playoff chase.
2003: Natrona 48, Rock Springs 6. After back-to-back 11-0 seasons and consecutive Class 5A championships, the question circling throughout the 2003 offseason was simple — is the Tigers’ run over? Natrona emphatically answered that question in the season opener: Yes. The Mustangs jump-started an undefeated season of their own by ending the Tigers’ 22-game winning streak behind three touchdowns from Scott Cogdill. Rock Springs rebounded to finish 6-4 and make the 5A semis, but the Tigers haven’t won a state title since; Natrona won Class 5A’s title that year.
2005: Buffalo 45, Lander 20. Everyone knew the Buffalo Bison of 2005 were something special, long before the first snap of the season. By season’s end, the Bison had back-to-back 11-0 seasons, a trio of Super 25 players and maybe the best/worst original season highlight rap ever. However, the preseason thinking was that if anyone could give the Bison trouble, it just might have been the Tigers, the team Buffalo beat in the 2004 Class 4A championship. Actually, a 25-point Buffalo victory was one of the closer games the Bison had; the Tigers were still ranked by season’s end but finished 5-4.
2017: Glenrock 12, Greybull 7: It doesn’t happen often — No. 1 vs. No. 2 in a season opener. But that’s what we got in Class 2A in 2017, when the Herders and the Buffs staged a classic season opener as both teams fought for early supremacy of a tight classification. The game was a rematch of the 2016 2A semifinals when Greybull upset Glenrock in Converse County before falling to Big Horn in the championship. The hype faded, though, as Greybull eventually lost in the 2A quarterfinals while Glenrock fell to Mountain View in the 2A title game that year.
2022: Pine Bluffs 34, Shoshoni 26: In the most talent-filled and anticipated season of nine-man football since its return in 2020, this season opener between the defending champion Wranglers and upset-in-the-semifinals Hornets was a huge one — well, as huge as a non-conference season opener can get, anyway. The Hornets staked an early lead and held off the Wranglers as they tried to rally. This game was a precursor of what was to come, as both teams held up their ends of the bargain in their respective conference schedules and throughout the playoffs. They met again a couple months later in Laramie in the 1A nine-man championship game, with Pine Bluffs winning 33-27. Shoshoni’s only two losses in its title defense season were to the Hornets.
What game are you most looking forward to for the start of the 2024 season? And, looking back, what season openers stand out to you in retrospect from any season? Leave your thoughts in a comment below; I’d love to hear from you.
–patrick