Five Minute Introduction: Burns

School: Burns
Nickname: Broncs
Colors: orange and black
Stadium: Bronc Stadium
State championships: 1983 and 2008
Times worth remembering: After languishing for most of the mid-1980s, the Broncs came into their own in the 1989, going 9-1 on their way to a runner-up finish in Class 2A. The next year, the Broncs went 7-2 and made the playoffs in 1A. Together, those two years were part of five consecutive non-losing seasons, the longest such streak in the program’s history.
Times worth forgetting: It took a while for Burns to get the hang of this football thing. It wasn’t until the Broncs’ third full season in 1970 that they earned their first victory — Burns lost 21 times and tied once before beating Goshen Hole on Oct. 9, 1970. It took another four years for Burns to earn its first winning season.
Best team: The 2008 team did something no other team in Burns’ history has done: go undefeated. The Broncs were favorites from August, and after beating Southeast by nine in the season opener, didn’t win another game by fewer than 20 points for the rest of the season.
Biggest win: Burns was filled with seniors in its championship season of 1983 — four of them were all-staters, including Milward Simpson Award finalist David Petsch — so the Broncs were going for broke. Anything less than the championship would have been a disappointment for the Broncs. That’s why the 19-15 victory over Greybull in the 2A title game that year was so important. The team cashed in on its potential and earned the program’s first championship on its home field.
Heartbreaker: Heading into the 2A championship in 1989, the Broncs were rolling. They had won nine in a row and had earned home-field advantage for the title game against Cokeville. But the optimism barely lasted past the opening kickoff, as the Panthers throttled the Broncs 46-0 in the title game. It took Burns 16 years after that loss to win another playoff game.

Burns team page.