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 1965.

Class AA: Cheyenne Central (9-0-1) vs. Worland (9-0). Both the Indians and the Warriors posted solid seasons in 1965. Although the Indians were more statistically dominant, the Warriors showed a ton of moxie in winning some tight ballgames late in the season.
Class A: Lusk (7-2) vs. Star Valley (8-0-1). The East was a real mumble-jumble in 1965, and no real champion emerged. Even Lusk at 7-2 had conference losses to St. Mary’s and to Torrington. Star Valley left no such drama hanging out West, as a tie with Green River late in the year was the Braves’ only non-win.
Class B East: Midwest (7-1) vs. Glenrock (7-1). In another case of a regular-season meeting helping us project a possible playoff matchup, Glenrock beat Midwest 28-26 late in the season in Midwest. Glenrock, meanwhile, lost to Tongue River, but Tongue River lost 20-12 to Midwest — in Dayton, no less — to give the Oilers the Northeast title.
Class B West: Byron (6-1) vs. Mountain View (6-1). Both teams had losses the couldn’t explain — Byron 32-27 early to a decent but not great Deaver-Frannie squad and Mountain View 19-13 at home to a fair Saratoga squad — but both teams recovered in time to win their respective conferences.

–patrick

3 Thoughts on “The playoff brackets we missed: 1965

  1. Dahl Erickson on July 6, 2011 at 11:47 am said:

    I really hope this isn’t coming across as annoying. I’ve just spent A LOT of time compiling historic stats for the school and thought maybe it would be interesting. So, hopefully this isn’t coming across as grandstanding.

    Roger Cazier led the SV ’65 team with 510 yards rushing but I always got the impression that this squad won with a lot of defense. Five shutouts in nine game, the high mark for points scored against them came in the tie with Green River (19) and North Summit, Utah (25). Outside of those two games they gave up just 19 points in those other seven games combined.

    We should go the next step on these mythicals Patrick and somehow let stat nerds or a computer simulate the game. It doesn’t change anything, sort of like that last Rocky movie 🙂

  2. Patrick on July 6, 2011 at 8:40 pm said:

    Not annoying at all. I’d rather have you chip in than not. It’s been fun for me to read the little blurbs, at least. 🙂

    There’s probably a way to run a sim, but the math needed to do it is above my head. Maybe we could just use the old WHSAA power rankings formula. Or not.

    –patrick

  3. Pingback: WHSFB HQ — The Wyoming high school football blog » Blog Archive » The greatest hits: WHSFB HQ

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post Navigation