Longtime Southeast football coach Mark Bullington, who was on the Cyclones’ sidelines for more than four decades as both the head coach and as an assistant coach, died on Wednesday morning.
Bullington had been diagnosed with cancer and had been undergoing treatment for the past couple years. This past week, Bullington went to Nebraska to spend his final days with family.
A native of Hyannis, Nebraska, where he graduated high school in 1975, Bullington started his coaching career in Lyman, Nebraska, in 1979. He moved across the Wyoming/Nebraska border to Southeast in 1982. He taught and coached in Yoder for more than four decades, coaching football, wrestling, and track and field. In that time, he was head football coach for 25 years, winning nine state championships, including four straight from 2006-09. He retired after the 2023 season with 172 victories, good for sixth all-time in Wyoming.
He was selected for the Wyoming Coaches Association’s hall of fame in 2023.
For more on Bullington’s coaching career, check out this Torrington Telegram article from last year.
Bullington was a graduate of Chadron State College, where he played football and wrestled. He married his wife Kerry (Pomeroy) of Fort Laramie in 1979.
Services are pending.
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That’s the news story. The personal one is that Mark Bullington was among a handful of coaches in my 20 years around football who always made me feel special — a feeling I’m certain he recreated across his career with most anyone who had the chance to spend more than 30 seconds talking with him.
It only really took that long with him to understand why he engendered such appreciation from his players and from opposing coaches. As a coach and a source, he was always open, transparent, helpful and appreciative. Our best conversations were off the record.
I’ll miss his surprise texts — usually when Southeast won when I didn’t predict it — and his ability to break things down so even I could understand it. He accepted both winning and losing with grace, even though he didn’t lose much.
Cancer cut short what should have been a long and enjoyable retirement. This holiday season, consider a donation to the cancer research nonprofit group of your choice.
–patrick