State championship shakeup for 1973-74

Deciding mythical state champions has always been a difficult task to do.

Unfortunately, that’s how champions were decided in Wyoming from 1962-74 in the A, B and C classes, and from every year forward until a playoff was established in 1968 for Class AA schools.

Even now, more than 30 years later, who actually won those mythical championships is subject to debate.

With that in mind, I’m making a couple changes to my state champions listing to be more consistent.

Specifically, I’m talking about the state championship teams listed for 1973 and 1974. The teams listed as champions for the A, B and C classes for those years were the champions as decided by the Casper Star-Tribune. The champions listed for other “mythical” years were the winners of the UPI statewide polls or, in the case of 1962 before the UPI poll started, the Associated Press statewide polls.

Therefore, in order to remain consistent, I’ve decided to list the mythical champions of 1973 and 1974 as the winners of the UPI poll, not the winners of the Star-Tribune poll.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that some shared championships are going away. Green River won the UPI’s Class A poll in 1973 outright from Buffalo; therefore, Green River will be listed as the mythical champ, not as sharing it with Buffalo. And for 1974, Torrington won the UPI’s Class A poll, so they  will take sole control of the mythical championship rather than sharing it with Kemmerer; and in Class B, Tongue River won the top spot in the UPI poll, so the Eagles will take sole command of the Class B mythical title rather than sharing it with Saratoga. No UPI Class C poll was ever commissioned; therefore, Deaver-Frannie’s mythical Class C title of 1974 will be going away, too.

Of course, many more teams than the one listed in my champions listing still “claim” mythical championships, and I’m not the one to tell them that those championships aren’t any less valid than they were back then. I simply want to stay consistent in which poll I chose to compile my listing, hence these changes. These changes aren’t meant to slight any teams. If only we could have had a playoff to decide it all…. but I guess it’s too late for that now. The debate remains.

For reference, here were the final polls for the years 1973 and 1974, including the Class AA poll taken after the Class AA championship game:

1974
UPI polls
Class AA
1. Cheyenne East, 9-1, 50 points
2. Rawlins, 9-1, 38 points
3. Natrona, 7-2, 32 points
4. Worland, 7-1, 20 points
5. Riverton, 5-3, 10 points
Class A
1. Torrington, 9-0, 48 points
2. Kemmerer, 8-0, 40 points
3. Lovell, 7-1, 26 points
4. Jackson, 5-4, 10 points
5. Glenrock, 5-3, 8 points
Class B
1. Tongue River, 9-0, 48 points
2. Saratoga, 8-0, 40 points
3. Cokeville, 7-0-1, 18 points
4. Basin, 6-1-1, 10 points
5. Deaver-Frannie, 8-0, 8 points

Casper Star-Tribune polls
Class A
1t. Torrington, 9-0-0, 54 points
1t. Kemmerer, 9-0-0, 54 points
3. Lovell, 7-1-0, 43 points
4. Glenrock, 5-3-0, 35 points
5t. Newcastle, 5-4-0, 33 points
5t. Star Valley, 4-4-0, 33 points
Class B
1t. Saratoga, 8-0-0, 61 points
1t. Tongue River, 9-0-0, 61 points
3. Cokeville, 9-0-1, 57 points
4. Basin, 7-1-1, 55 points
5. Guernsey-Sunrise, 7-2-0, 49 points
Class C/Eight-man
1. Deaver-Frannie, 9-0-0, 39 points
2. Cowley, 8-1-0, 34 points

1973
UPI polls
Class AA
1. Laramie, 9-1, 50 points
2. Riverton, 7-3, 35 points
3. Natrona, 6-3, 22 points
4. Cheyenne East, 6-2-1, 14 points
5. Worland, 6-2-1, 12 points
Class A
1. Green River, 8-1, 56 points
2. Buffalo, 8-1, 46 points
3. Kemmerer, 8-2, 42 points
4. Torrington, 7-2, 16 points
5. Lovell, 6-2, 14 points
Class B-C
1. Tongue River, 9-0, 50 points
2. Byron, 9-0, 46 points
3. Cowley, 9-0, 40 points
4. Pinedale, 7-2, 25 points
5. Upton, 7-1-1, 14 points

Casper Star-Tribune polls
Class A
1t. Buffalo (3), 8-1, 78 points
1t. Green River (3), 8-1, 78 points
3. Kemmerer (1), 8-2, 74 points
4. Torrington, 7-2, 59 points
5. Lovell, 5-2, 58 points
Class B-C
1. Tongue River (4), 9-0, 87 points
2. Cowley (2), 9-0, 85 points
3. Byron (1), 9-0, 84 points
4. Guernsey-Sunrise, 7-2, 70 points
5. Pinedale, 7-2, 68 points