I worked pretty hard to come up with the all-decade teams you’ve seen here the past few weeks. That said, even my knowledge is limited, and I’ve had some help the past couple weeks in expanding my expertise about Wyoming high school football.
That help came from you.
And that’s awesome — because, ultimately, that’s what I want more than anything, a community of people who can talk about high school sports in Wyoming.
To that end, here are five specific players I’ve learned more about in the past couple weeks via our communities, mostly on Facebook but also on Twitter and on comments on this site, as well as some more exploration on my part. I’m not saying these players would have made the all-decade teams, but they definitely deserved more consideration on my end; at minimum, they should have made the “toughest to leave out list.” While it sucks that I missed out exploring their histories my first, second, third, fourth and 50th times through looking at all that Wyoming high school sports have to offer, I do want to acknowledge them here. In no particular order, they are:
Ron Stewart, Glenrock, 1968: I already added Ron on an addition to my 1960s post, but I feel he also deserve special mention here. He scored 36 (!) touchdowns his senior year as the Herders went a combined 26-1 his final three years. Stewart was killed in action in Vietnam.
(By the way, this led me down a rabbit hole of war casualty exploration. The only other all-state football players I could find among the 120 Vietnam casualties from Wyoming were Worland’s Ray Krogman and Hanna’s Bill McAtee. I also explored the same idea using World War II deaths from Wyoming and found one all-state choice from 1940-45 (Natrona’s Bill Bentley) among those listed from Army and Army Air Force deaths and Navy, Marines and Coast Guard deaths. I say this knowing that all those who died deserve honoring, not just the football ones, and not just the all-state ones.)
Dan Melinkovich, Rock Springs, 1933: Originally from Tooele, Utah, Melinkovich finished high school at Rock Springs and was a first-team all-stater in 1933 — Rock Springs’ first such honoree. He was then a multi-year starter at left halfback for Gonzaga back in the day when the school had football. Incidentally, Dan’s brother George was a first-team all-America choice at Notre Dame; however, from what I can find, George only played at Tooele.
Quentin Skinner, Laramie, 1986: An all-state lineman for the Plainsmen in 1986, Skinner started at Air Force but made his hay at Wyoming, where he was a starter on the offensive line for three years for the Cowboys in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Danny Watson, Riverton, 1980: In an era when two-time all-state running backs were rare, Watson was the exception. He also saw time with Wyoming’s backfield.
Julius Davenport, Rock Springs, 1993: Many, many new friends came to Davenport’s defense on Facebook after the 1990s team was published, with a depth unlike any other player across all eight teams. That’s worth a mention, at least.
I’m getting ready for my 21st year of covering Wyoming high school football — the first at the Gillette News-Record, the next four at the Casper Star-Tribune, and the last 15 (mostly) here. I’ve invested now thousands of hours (no exaggeration) looking at Wyoming’s high school sports history. The fact that I’m still learning new things is just continuing proof of the richness of what’s out there to learn. So, by all means, let’s keep talking about and sharing about those whose trips through life took them onto the courts and fields in Wyoming high schools. I’m enjoying the journey, and I hope you are, too.
–patrick