Five Minute Introduction: Lusk

School: Lusk
Nickname: Tigers
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Fullmer Stadium
State championships: 1981, 1986, 1999, 2000, 2002
Times worth remembering: In Lusk’s case, that depends on the era. If you’re talking Lusk’s “big school” era, nothing can top the span from 1961-65, when the Tigers posted a pair of unbeaten seasons and went a combined 38-5-1; Lusk finished fifth statewide in 1962 with a 9-0 record and eighth in ’63 at 8-0-1. If you’re talking Lusk’s “small school” era, you can’t match what Lusk did from 1994-2002, when the Tigers went 80-8, competed in seven state championship games in eight years and won three. At one point in that stretch, Lusk won 51 consecutive regular-season games.
Times worth forgetting: There was a reason Lusk left Class A play — it couldn’t win there. The Tigers’ final eight years in Class A play (1971-78) were disastrous, as the team compiled an overall record of 8-52-1, including winless seasons in 1972 (0-8) and 1977 (0-7).
Best team: Once again, you have to pick two because of Lusk’s two eras. The best team of the early era is a close call, but the edge goes to the 1962 team that went 9-0, outscored foes 325-37 and had five shutouts. Lusk’s best team of the recent era came in 2000; that team did not give up a point in the regular season (472-13 scoring advantage for the season) on its way to a 10-0 season and a 1A-Division I championship.
Biggest win: After dropping from Class A to Class B, it took Lusk three seasons to qualify for the playoffs — but once Lusk made it, it took advantage. The Tigers wrapped up their first official state championship in 1981 with a 21-0 victory over Pinedale in Lusk, kick-starting a dynasty that racked up four more state championships for legendary coach Jerry Fullmer before his retirement after the 2004 season.
Heartbreaker: After awhile, it became a running joke: undefeated until the playoffs. That was Lusk’s unfortunate calling card in the mid-1990s, when for four consecutive years the Tigers went unbeaten in the regular season only to lose in the playoffs — three straight times in a state championship game. The toughest of those to swallow was a 9-6 loss to Moorcroft in 1996 in which the Tigers lost on a last-minute field goal after a blocked punt; Moorcroft scored all nine of its points in the fourth quarter.

Lusk team page.