Wyoming high school football program totals by year

In 2011, with the addition of Cheyenne South High School, Wyoming will have 63 high schools sponsoring football programs.

But, believe it or not, 63 programs is not Wyoming’s all-time high. Actually, Wyoming’s football program peak came many years prior to that — in 1957.

That season, 65 high schools sponsored football, the all-time peak in an ever-fluctuating tally of schools willing to sponsor the sport.

The fluctuations got me thinking about putting together a list of the number of programs per season. The result of that work is shown in a couple places, including the school details list available by clicking here and also in what I have posted below.

Unlike like the school details progression list, this count DOES account for programs that took one year off.

The numbers present an interesting picture of high school football’s growth in this state. From the explosions of the 1920s (organization) and 1930s (six-man) to the dips caused by World War II and by school consolidation, you can almost track the economic history of the state by simply looking at how many high school football programs existed that year. It’s really cool to take a look at and see the trends.

1900: 0 (no indications of any games played by any high school teams)
1901: 1
1902: 1
1903: 1
1904: 1
1905: 1
1906: 1
1907: 1
1908: 6 (sudden, surprising mini-boom of the sport at HS level)
1909: 5
1910: 5
1911: 3
1912: 5
1913: 4
1914: 4
1915: 3
1916: 4
1917: 4
1918: 0 (state/national/international influenza epidemic)
1919: 5
1920: 7
1921: 18 (explosion in organized HS sports in Wyo)
1922: 26
1923: 31
1924: 36 (primary explosion slows)
1925: 33
1926: 35
1927: 37
1928: 36
1929: 31
1930: 38
1931: 39
1932: 38
1933: 36
1934: 39 (first year of six-man)
1935: 42
1936: 46
1937: 40
1938: 49 (small schools keep joining the ranks, six-man expands)
1939: 55
1940: 61
1941: 64 (six-man hits its peak)
1942: 50 (December 7, 1941, and its repercussions)
1943: 51
1944: 51
1945: 48 (bottoming out during closing days of WWII)
1946: 52
1947: 51
1948: 55
1949: 55
1950: 58 (rebounding, finding the budget/will again after WWII)
1951: 56
1952: 58
1953: 63
1954: 60
1955: 64
1956: 63
1957: 65 (all-time peak in Wyoming)
1958: 61 (reality check/first wave of school consolidation begins)
1959: 62
1960: 64
1961: 64
1962: 61
1963: 58 (first wave of consolidation ends)
1964: 58
1965: 60
1966: 60
1967: 61
1968: 62
1969: 62
1970: 61
1971: 61
1972: 63
1973: 63
1974: 63
1975: 63 (second wave of school consolidation begins)
1976: 62
1977: 61
1978: 61
1979: 61
1980: 60
1981: 60
1982: 56
1983: 58 (second wave of consolidation ends)
1984: 57
1985: 57
1986: 57
1987: 58
1988: 61
1989: 60
1990: 60
1991: 58 (ill-fated experiments with eight-man die; program and school stability takes over)
1992: 58
1993: 57
1994: 58
1995: 58
1996: 58
1997: 58
1998: 58
1999: 58
2000: 59
2001: 59
2002: 59
2003: 59
2004: 59
2005: 59
2006: 59
2007: 59
2008: 59
2009: 62 (rebirth of six-man)
2010: 62
2011: anticipated 63

Not a text-type person? Well check out this graph of teams per year:

–patrick