From 1962 to 1967 in all classes, and from 1962 to 1974 in Classes A and B-C, postseason football was shut down in Wyoming. No playoffs, no state championship games, nothing. Only an unsatisfying mythical championship that, in the end, was just opinion. The next several days, wyoming-football.com is taking a look at the title games and playoff brackets we missed out on in the “dead era” of the 1960s and 1970s.
Today, we examine the year 1964.
Class AA: Laramie (9-0) vs. Sheridan (6-3). This may have been one of the most monumental mismatches in state title game history, if it had actually happened. Laramie was a juggernaut; Sheridan won its two close games with conference rivals Worland (12-6) and Natrona (14-13) to eke out the North title. Oh, and Laramie just happened to beat Sheridan 59-0 on Oct. 23, 1964, in Laramie.
Class A: Gillette (9-0) vs. Evanston (9-0). Both squads were defensive-minded: Gillette shut out its first five opponents and gave up just 39 points all season, while Evanston shut out six of its foes and allowed only 20 total points in its nine games. The first one to score may have won.
Class B East: Upton (5-4) OR Tongue River (7-1) vs. Glenrock (7-1-1). The 1964 season was the last of the hodgepodge Northeast B conference schedule, which is good because neither Upton nor Tongue River lost to a B Northeast team and they didn’t play each other. Oddly enough, Glenrock’s one tie came courtesy of a third B Northeast team (Moorcroft); the Herders’ one loss came via St. Stephens.
Class B West: Pavillion (5-1-1) OR Byron (7-1) OR St. Stephens (6-2) vs. Mountain View (5-0-1). The Northwest was split into two divisions in 1964, one north and one south, but being in the same division did not guarantee that your team played every team in the division. Byron won the north, even with a 13-7 upset loss to Manderson. In the south, Pavillion’s lone tie and lone loss both came courtesy of the Lander JV and St. Stephens, which was transitioning to Class A, had two losses to Class A schools Lovell and Jackson. However, the schools did not play each other. Mountain View, meanwhile, didn’t have to worry about ties after winning the Southwest title even with a tie with Hanna on its record.
(Note: Class B in 1964 was the final year of disorganized conference play, which is also why it is the last year that there is no mythical champion for the classification. Once conferences became more formally organized around 11-man in 1965, as schools transitioned away from six-man and eight-man, state polls became possible. Hence some of the multiple options posted here. This is the final year that possible Class B pairings will be listed; the disorganized conferences that existed in 1963 and 1962 make piecing together a possible playoff slate all but impossible.)
–patrick
Patrick, I was the single wing tialback on the ’64 Evanston team. Gillette was higher in the polls, but we played the much tougher schedule including two “AA” Rock Springs and Rawlins; beat them easily and beat Star Valley twice that year; a feat in it’s own especially at Star Valley. As I recall Parker, our coach, asked to play Laramie any where at seasons end and got turned down.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for checking in. I think that a Gillette-Evanston title game would have been fun to watch that year. That’s part of the reason why I posted all of these — it’s really too bad that a playoff system was not in place to see these games happen! Oh, well. I guess that gives us something to debate, 40-some years later…. 🙂
–patrick