School: Manderson
Nickname: Demons
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Unknown
State championships: None
Times worth remembering/best team: The good times were few and far between for the Demons, who had just four winning seasons in 20 years of football — and none consecutively — and no playoff appearances. But if a season sticks out, it’s the 1962 season, when Manderson went 5-2-1. That team had a knack for winning close, low-scoring games and held all of its opponents to 13 or fewer points; a 7-6 loss to Byron and a 13-12 loss to Morton were the team’s only smudge.
Times worth forgetting: Although Manderson was perennially a conference doormat, the Demons typically pulled off a couple victories each season to keep interest going and opponents honest. But from 1965-68, when the Demons went 4-30-1, there wasn’t much to celebrate. The Demons weren’t bad defensively, but rarely got its offense untracked — they averaged only about 9 points per game during the first three years of that stretch.
Biggest win: What made the 1962 season special was how it started. After a 12-0 win over Meeteetse, the Demons beat Cowley 12-6 at Cowley — a game that may not have been recognized at the time as perhaps the biggest win in school history. But after that, Cowley (and the rest of the Bighorn Basin schools) never let Manderson sneak up on them again. Manderson went 0-13-1 in its final 14 games against Cowley before dropping football after 1975.
Heartbreaker: Success was never really Manderson’s calling card, but it had to hurt to go out like this. In the final game in program history, the Demons took a 70-8 beating from Deaver-Frannie. The defeat was made all the more difficult by how Manderson had improved heading into the season finale, beating Burlington 12-6 and losing to Ten Sleep 14-6 in the two previous games. But Deaver showed no mercy on the outgoing Demons, who will never have a chance to avenge the 62-point loss they took in their last outing.
It’s been a serendipitous week in my research. I kind of stumbled into some great information about the Bighorn Basin’s six-man division in 1952. The info I found eliminated three games from my missing games list: I found the location for the Byron-Meeteetse game on Oct. 3 (Byron), the location for the Deaver-Frannie-Meeteetse game on Oct. 8 (Meeteetse) and the date and location for the Byron-Meeteetse game on Oct. 24 (Meeteetse).
I also added four games to the 1952 season: Cowley’s game at Meeteetse on Sept. 26 (also added to missing games because I couldn’t find a result); Cowley’s 44-21 victory over Deaver-Frannie on Oct. 3; Deaver-Frannie’s 43-35 victory over Meeteetse on Oct. 31; and Basin’s 13-12 loss to the Worland JV on Oct. 30.
The opening week of the 1951 season also turned up a few changes. I added two games — Byron’s 28-6 victory over Colstrip, Mont., and Deaver-Frannie’s 48-12 victory over Belfry, Mont. — but added them both to the missing games list because I couldn’t pin down exact dates or locations. Conversely, the game between Cowley and Colstrip scheduled for Sept. 15, 1951, was not played and came off the database completely.
This week, I spent a bunch of time trying to knock as many games as possible off the missing games list as well as opportunistic chip-aways at the Byes Project (trying to account for every open week listed on this site). Here are some other updates I made this week.
Missing games:
Found the location for Guernsey-Sunrise’s game with the Torrington JV on Sept. 4, 1965 (it was in Guernsey).
Removed an extra game scheduled for Nov. 11, 1950, between Rock Springs and Rawlins; the game was not scheduled originally and never played.
Found the score for Douglas’ 25-13 victory over Edgemont, S.D., on Sept. 30, 1949.
Noted that the Oct. 25, 1963, game between Burlington and Morton was canceled. Morton tried to find a last-minute replacement but couldn’t do it.
Found the score for Moorcroft’s 37-12 victory over Hulett on Oct. 14, 1955.
Found the date and location and corrected the score for the Lander JV’s 36-6 victory over Morton on Sept. 25, 1952 (it was in Lander; I originally had 32-6).
Found the location for Newcastle’s game with Pine Ridge, S.D., on Nov. 11, 1952 (it was in Newcastle).
Removed an extra game between Buffalo and Riverton on Sept. 8, 1950; it was never on Riverton’s schedule to begin with.
Removed an extra game between Sunrise and Albin on Sept. 26, 1950; they played a week later than that.
Found the date for the game between Burlington and Cowley on Sept. 29, 1950.
Found the location for the game between Hanna and Saratoga on Sept. 29, 1950 (it was in Hanna).
Noted that the Oct. 20, 1950, game between Thermopolis and Basin was canceled.
Byes Project:
Added Douglas’ 34-0 victory over the Natrona JV on Oct. 1, 1955.
Added Deaver-Frannie’s 20-8 victory over Meeteetse on Oct. 12, 1951.
Coaches Project: Updates for Albin, Byron, Cowley, Deaver-Frannie, Hanna, Powell, Saratoga, St. Mary’s, Superior and Thermopolis. I also made the decision to accept two initials as sufficient in place of a first name for identification; many newspapers in the 1940s and prior did not identify many people, especially high school football coaches, by their first names. Whenever possible, I’ve used the first name in place of the two initials, but in several cases I’ve decided to let the two initials be enough (despite a ton of searching).
–patrick
School: Cokeville
Nickname: Panthers
Colors: black and orange
Stadium: Panther Field
State championships: 1978, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2003
Times worth remembering: Pick ‘em. Cokeville’s success — 16 state championships in a 21-year span from 1983-2003 and 17 titles overall — makes the Panthers the pinnacle of consistent success. But perhaps the Panthers’ best stretch came from 1986-91, when the program put together six consecutive state championships and won 26 consecutive games at one point.
Times worth forgetting: Cokeville has had its struggles, too. The program’s toughest times came in 1964 and 1965, as the Panthers went a combined 0-12-1. Every loss the Panthers suffered was by at least 12 points.
Best team: Again, pick ‘em. Cokeville has had 12 undefeated teams in school history, but the team that stands out more than any is the team from 1989. That year, Class 1A became exclusively a 9-man division, and Cokeville opted up to Class 2A play to stick with its 11-man program. The change did nothing to stop Cokeville’s run of championships, as they went 10-0 and blasted the two best teams 2A had to offer in the playoffs, both on the road — Greybull 35-11 in the semis and Burns 46-0 in the championship.
Biggest win: Again, pick ‘em. All 17 championship-game victories have added a little bit more to Cokeville’s mystique. If any one stands out, it’s No. 17, a 14-13 win over Southeast in 2003 secured only after Nathan Fiscus made an open-field tackle on Alan Moore on the Cyclones’ two-point conversion try in the final moments of the fourth quarter.
Heartbreaker: The Panthers were one yard away from the 2006 1A championship, but the 19-yard field goal attempt Cokeville tried on the final play of the game went wide. Cokeville lost 14-12 to Guernsey after losing a 12-0 lead; the Panthers gave up a safety in the fourth quarter for the final margin and also had a touchdown negated on a holding penalty in the final quarter.
A couple quick updates to post here. New additions for the Coaches Project for Big Piney, Cokeville, Hanna, Pinedale, Reliance, Snake River and Superior; check out those individual team pages to see those updates.
I also made a couple updates. I noted the Oct. 17, 1952, game between Pinedale and Baggs (Snake River) was canceled. I also corrected the location for Star Valley’s game with Bear Lake, Idaho, on Sept. 9, 1983; it was in Montpelier, not Afton.
–patrick
As many frequent readers of this blog might know, I’m putting together a book about Wyoming high school football. With any luck (like finding a publisher and some help) the book will be out in about a year-ish. That said, I’m putting together a crew of the state’s most talented writers to share some of the history of Wyoming football. I’ve got most of the big ideas down pat (keep watching this blog and you might catch hints about what those are), but I’m looking for a range of interesting moments to help fill the book. Here is a short list I put together in about 10 minutes of some interesting moments I want to be SURE to include in the book. In no particular order (roughly by time but not really), they are…
* The Heart Mountain internment camp team in 1944-45. In two years, the Eagles lost just one game. Every win Heart Mountain had came by shutout…
* The introduction of six-man into Wyoming (see this post for more on that).
* The nation’s first lighted high school football game, Midwest, Wyoming, November 1925. Casper beat Midwest 20-0.
* Probably the most messed-up story ever, that of Richard “Dick” Doyle. While working the chains during the Big Piney-Pinedale game on Oct. 21, 1947, the 18-year-old Doyle was killed by 14-year-old George Smith, who stabbed Doyle in the heart with a three-inch pocket knife. Doyle died before he could be taken off the field.
* The Byron Eagles’ long win streak, one that reached more than 40 games in the late 1940s and early 1950s. I’m still digging up the info on this one…
* The final game of the 1955 season between Laramie and Cheyenne Central. Laramie won 18-14 on its home field to claim the Class AA championship, but Cheyenne filed a protest claiming “timing irregularities” gave Laramie an unfair advantage. Two Cheyenne players also punched and tackled an official after he ejected a Cheyenne player. Although the protest was eventually tossed, the timekeeper that day, Edwin Hitchcock, died just days after the game due to a heart attack.
* Polio. The disease wiped out a ton of games in the early 1950s and even took the lives of a few players.
* The 1947 and 1948 Turkey Bowls.
* The “dead era” of champions from 1939-ish to 1947.
* Wyoming’s two games that lasted more than one day. The first came in 1951, when Greybull and Powell played to a 0-0 tie on Oct. 19, then met on Oct. 30 to play the overtime period. The OT had to be played to decide the conference champion, and Greybull officially won 2-0 by gaining more yards on five plays than Powell did on its five plays…. The other came in 1967, when Basin played Byron on Oct. 27, and Basin won 40-34 by scoring in the final minute. But Byron protested the game’s final 2 minutes, 24 seconds, the WHSAA upheld the protest, and the two teams met three days later to play the final 2:24. The game finished as a 34-34 tie, officially.
* Cody’s 41-40 triple overtime victory over Laramie for the Class AA title in 1976. A crazy, tense game that ranks up there with Wyoming’s best ever, made all the more relevant by the fact that it was coaching legend John E. Deti’s last game on the sidelines.
* Wyoming’s last tie game, the 45-45 shootout draw staged between Big Horn and Riverside in the 1987 season opener. The game went three overtimes, and was then called a draw by the officials. This was also Riverside’s first game in its incarnation as Riverside.
* Speaking of Big Horn-Riverside games, how about the 2007 2A championship game when Riverside drove 99 yards for the final touchdown, then went for two (and converted) to pull out the victory?
* Some 21st-century domination in Class 4A: Worland’s three-peat from 2001-03 and Buffalo’s 27-game winning streak from 2004-06.
* The big changes in 2009 — the reintroduction of six-man football and the shift to Laramie for the state championship games.
Of course, the book will touch on some of the state’s great coaches: Deti and his son John R., Carl Selmer, Todd Dayton, Joel Eskelen, Art Hill, Jerry Fullmer and numerous others immediately jump to mind. And, of course, I am stringing together something about the state’s best players, including a list of those who later played in the NFL (sometime soon I’ll get around to posting that list to have y’all double-check it and see if I forgot anyone).
Are there any unique or interesting stories that stick out in your mind? Post a comment below and let’s start this discussion; I’d love to hear what some of your favorite Wyoming high school football memories are.
–patrick
The Coaches Project is coming along well. I’ve recently made additions to the coaching lists for Basin, Big Horn, Byron, Clearmont, Cokeville, Dayton, Deaver-Frannie, Gillette, Greybull, Hanna, Hulett, Jackson, Lander, Lingle, Manville, Moorcroft, Ranchester, Rawlins, Reliance, Riverton, Sundance, Superior, Thermopolis, Torrington and Worland. Check out those individual team pages to see the changes.
Take a look at the Coaches Project list to see what I’m still missing… and to see if you can help! For 1960 forward, I’m only missing a 11 coaches from eight schools: Arvada-Clearmont’s coach in 1962, Cokeville’s coach in 1975, Cowley’s coach in 1963, Deaver-Frannie’s coach in 1970, Goshen Hole’s coach in 1966, Huntley’s coaches for 1965 through 1968, Superior’s coach in 1961 and Worland Institute’s coach in 1961. The 1950s and 1940s are a bit more spotty, and anything prior to 1936 needs lots of help. Anyway, check it out and see if you can connect any missing years with some names.
I also knocked two games off the missing games list. I found the missing score for Cowley’s 62-37 loss to Lodge Grass, Mont., on Oct. 1, 1954 and the score for Byron’s 31-0 victory over Cowley on Sept. 26, 1947.
–patrick
School: Huntley
Nickname: Cardinals
Colors: red and white
Stadium: unknown
State championships: None
Times worth remembering: Huntley’s three best seasons were its first three. From 1951-53, the Cardinals went 14-8 and made their only playoff appearance, a semifinal berth earned in the program’s first season, 1951. From 1954-69, the Cardinals only had one more winning season.
Times worth forgetting: The span from 1957-60 was the Cardinals’ toughest. With a winless season in 1957 kicking off the stretch, Huntley went 4-30 in five seasons.
Best team: The 1951 team was the only team to make the playoffs in Huntley’s 19-year program history, so they take the title by default. That team went 5-3.
Biggest win: Huntley’s biggest win was probably a combination of its first two. With no reputation and no tradition, the Cardinals won their first two games in program history by a combined 98-0 (50-0 over Albin and 48-0 over Lingle), which gave the program immediate legitimacy.
Heartbreaker: For as good as it started, the 1951 season ended with bitter disappointment in the playoffs. After taking a 20-7 lead, the Cardinals watched as Hanna scored 20 fourth-quarter points to rally for a 27-20 victory and a berth in the state 6-man championship. Huntley had a 308-190 yardage edge and had 10 first downs to Hanna’s four, yet stayed at home — not only for the ’51 championship, but for the remainder of the program’s history.
Pat Fackrell takes over in Evanston (Uinta County Herald)….
There have been a couple other coaching changes in the state this year, including Rawlins and Jackson. Has anyone else heard of any other coaching changes?
–patrick
With the time period I’m exploring right now, it only makes sense that I’m also finding my interest in the roots of six-man football being piqued, as well.
The late 1930s and early 1940s were an amazing time for the development of six-man football in Wyoming. The six-man game, of course, started in 1934 in Chester, Neb., the brainchild of coach Stephen Epler. The first six-man game was played on Sept. 26, 1934, and by the late 1930s the game had spread across the Midwest states — including Wyoming.
Actually, the game didn’t take long to cross the eastern border from Huskerland. The Moorcroft Chamber of Commerce page references Moorcroft beating Gillette in Wyoming’s first six-man game in 1934 — the year of the game’s introduction. I haven’t dug into finding out more about this game yet, but you can bet I will soon…
Anyway, the six-man game really took off, and by 1941, more than 30 teams in the Equality State were playing the sport. In fact, in 1941, some of the smaller schools in the southeastern corner (Yoder, Veteran, Chugwater, Hawk Springs, Huntley and LaGrange) organized a TOUCH six-man league. LaGrange beat Chugwater 7-6 in the championship game that year… but Hawk Springs was so intrigued by the game that the Hawks actually suited up and played a couple full-contact games that season (they lost to Glenrock, one of the best six-man teams in the state that season, 20-16, then later lost again to the Herders 25-0 and to Albin on Armistice Day).
This research also turned up something interesting: a school in Fort Washakie. I didn’t know Fort Washakie had a high school before the current incarnation of Fort Washakie Charter, but apparently it did. I don’t know much about the school — the team was generically referred to as the Indians, their colors were never listed and photos of the team never appeared, so if you know more about the Fort Washakie school, let me know.
Who was all involved in this? Well, by 1941, Byron, Cowley, Deaver-Frannie, Burlington, Meeteetse, Manderson, Ten Sleep, Worland Institute (the boys school), Shoshoni, Pavillion and Fort Washakie out of the Northwest; Big Piney, Pinedale, Lyman, Reliance, Superior, Snake River, Saratoga, Encampment, Farson and Hanna out of the Southwest; Arvada, Big Horn, Dayton, Ranchester, Clearmont, Moorcroft and, sometimes, Upton out of the Northeast; and Glenrock, Manville, Glendo, Burns, Carpenter, Pine Bluffs, Albin, Guernsey and Hawk Springs out of the Southeast, were playing six-man with some form of regularity.
Then, on Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor happened, and America reorganized its priorities, nearly snuffing out six-man in Wyoming for good. Many small schools postponed play for the duration of the war, or played seasons in which travel restrictions limited the squads to one or two games for the entire season. The programs in Fort Washakie, Carpenter and Hawk Springs didn’t survive past the war; the others came back, eventually, but only a select few survived intact in either six-man or 11-man forms through to today.
There are a couple reasons I am so interested in six-man’s history. One is pretty clear: Six-man football came back to Wyoming in 2009. The new classification has renewed my interest in digging into the archives. Second, it seems like every time I find something, it leads me somewhere else. The intertwining paths these schools followed are pretty amazing. Third, as I work backward, I keep searching for indications that I’m coming close to the end of this research… and if I can get to 1933, I can probably come close to closing the history on 30-some Wyoming football programs… and that gets me jazzed. 🙂
Anyway, here are some more six-man linkages:
Click here for a story from American Profile with a reference in the comments section to the six-man winning streak record Byron set back in the day (and how it was broken by some school in South Dakota)
Click here for a historical six-man page with copies of some of the original news articles from 1934
Click here for a Sublette.com page that references Pinedale’s first six-man game in October 1938
–patrick
WHSAA opens football title games to bids (Casper Star-Tribune). … WHSAA made the right decision (Wyoming Tribune Eagle).
–patrick