School: Meeteetse
Nickname: Longhorns
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Longhorn Stadium
State championship: 1993
Times worth remembering: The Longhorns were small-school dynamos from 1987-93, when they had winning records for six out of seven years, made the playoffs five times and won the school’s only state championship, in 1993. Combined, the Longhorns went 46-14 in those seven years.
Times worth forgetting: Football was on a tenuous perch in Meeteetse in the early 1980s. The Longhorns couldn’t field a team in 1982, and could barely patch together a schedule in 1983-85, playing both Burlington and Ten Sleep twice during the regular season to fill out the season. Then, in 1986, just as the Longhorns finally put together a full schedule, they bottomed out, losing six of their seven games by shutout in an 0-7 season.
Best team: This is a fairly easy choice — the Longhorns’ only undefeated team was also the one that won the school’s only state championship. The 1993 ‘Horns were a hard-hitting, athletic bunch (I know, I’ve seen their championship-year highlight video) that knew how to pile on points, averaging nearly 39 points per game. The strength of the team was its skill-position players, led by QB Scott Coale and RB Jason Yockey.
Biggest win: Speaking of Yockey, it was his foot that kicked the game-winning field goal for Meeteetse in the fourth quarter of its 23-20 win over Hulett for the state championship in 1993. The Longhorns had beaten the Red Devils 25-8 earlier in the season but got a much tougher test in the final. Even so, Meeteetse’s ground game saved the day, and Yockey’s 40-yarder with 1:17 to go salted away the Longhorns’ first and only title.
Heartbreaker: Less than one year removed from an 0-7 shoutout-filled season, the Longhorns were surprise hosts for the 1987 1A championship game after piling up a 7-1 record. And Meeteetse almost pulled off the upset against Cokeville in the title game. However, the Longhorns’ comeback bid came up short; after falling behind 14-0 in the third quarter, Meeteetse came up short on both conversion attempts after scoring twice and lost 14-12.

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