School: Lander
Nickname: Tigers
Colors: green and black
Stadium: Bill Bush Stadium
State championships: 1948
Times worth remembering: Lander was a tough team to beat in the mid-1990s, finishing second three years in a row at Class 3A from 1993-95. Tack on 1996, and the Tigers were 31-9 over a four-year span. However, all three championship games were away from Lander, and the Tigers lost all three.
Times worth forgetting: Lander has had its prolonged periods of down time, but the short bursts of struggle are nothing compared to the 1950s, where Lander never had a winning season. The closest the Tigers came were 4-5 seasons in 1953 and 1959; the span included back-to-back one-win seasons in 1956 and 1957.
Best team: Lander’s only undefeated team, and its only state championship team, earns these honors by default. The 1948 Tigers finished 10-0 and punctuated the season by blasting Green River 42-6 in the championship game. Led by running back George Bozanic, the Tigers eked out some tough victories during the conference season, but knew they could always rely on their defense, which gave up more than 13 points only once. What made the season even sweeter was that it seemed to come out of nowhere; Lander had finished 3-5 in 1947.
Biggest win: A year after losing to county rival Riverton in the state championship, the two teams met up again in the 1995 3A semifinals in Riverton. Just four days after qualifying through a California playoff series, the Tigers beat the Wolverines 35-28 in Riverton to secure their third consecutive berth in a state championship game.
Heartbreaker: Of course, to set up the revenge factor in 1995, the Tigers had to lose in 1994. In one of the greatest games in Wyoming football history, Lander lost to Riverton 33-27 in front of a capacity crowd — and in the final two minutes. The Tigers had leads of 24-19 and 27-25 but couldn’t hold them.