Wyoming Cowboys football
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The Wyoming Cowboys football program represents the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I and have won 14 conference titles. The head coach is Jay Sawvel who is entering his first season as head coach in 2024 after previously serving as the Wyoming Defense Coordinator for the previous four seasons.
The Cowboy football program has been among the most notable of "stepping stone" programs due to the success of its former coaches. Coaches such as Bowden Wyatt, Bob Devaney, Fred Akers, Pat Dye, Dennis Erickson and Joe Tiller were at Wyoming immediately prior to gaining notoriety at bigger football powerhouses. History
Early yearsAfter struggling for much of the first half of the century, Wyoming football rose to regional power status in the late 1940s. Between 1949 and 1961, the Cowboys won the Mountain States Conference championship seven times, including four in a row under coach Bob Devaney from 1958 to 1961. After joining the Western Athletic Conference in 1962, the program added three more championships from 1966 to 1968, led by coach Lloyd Eaton .
Black 14In 1969, 14 black team members wore black armbands to a practice, intending to protest the alleged racism they had experienced at their last game with an upcoming opponent, BYU. [citation needed] Head coach Lloyd Eaton expelled them from the team, "triggering an uproar that consumed the rest of the football season and much of everything else in the tiny college town of Laramie, Wyoming."[who?][citation needed] In 2018, filmmaker Darius Monroe released a documentary short about the athletes: Black 14. The short "uses only archival footage to tell the story, mostly from local ABC and NBC affiliates in Wyoming, letting the principals – from the students, to the coach, to the school president and even the state’s governor – speak for themselves."[3] Conference affiliations
ChampionshipsConference championshipsWyoming has won 14 conference championships, ten outright and four shared.
† Co-champion Division championshipsWyoming won the Western Athletic Conference's Pacific division championship in 1996 and lost in the league's championship game. Wyoming shared the Mountain West's Mountain division championship in 2016 and lost in the league's championship game.
† Co-champion Head coaches
Bowl gamesThe Cowboys have appeared in 18 bowl games and have a record of nine wins and eight losses (9–9). Their most recent bowl appearance was a 30 - 27 overtime loss to Ohio in the 2022 Arizona Bowl. They will play the Toledo Rockets in the 2023 Arizona Bowl on December 30, 2023 for their 19th Bowl game.
StadiumsWar Memorial Stadium was built in 1950 with an original capacity of 20,000 fans; the current capacity is 29,181 after the completion of 2009-2010 stadium upgrades.[5]
It is the highest Division I FBS football stadium in the nation; the elevation of its playing field exceeds 7,200 feet (2,195 m) above sea level. The playing surface was natural grass until 2005, when infilled artificial turf was installed.
Prior to War Memorial Stadium, the Cowboys played at Prexy's Pasture, the main green of the school.[6]
RivalriesColorado StateThe Bronze Boot is awarded to the winner of the college football game between Wyoming and Colorado State Rams in nearby Fort Collins, Colorado. Laramie and Fort Collins are only about 65 miles apart. The annual game has evolved into one of the most bitterly contested rivalries in college football. The teams have waged the "Border War" over 100 times since the schools began playing in 1899, playing every year except 1901, 1902, 1906, 1907, 1918, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1943, 1944, and 1945. This is one of the oldest interstate rivalries west of the Mississippi River. Until the 1949 game, CSU led the series 30-5-5. From the 1949 game onward, Wyoming has a record of 46-29 against the Rams. The series is the oldest rivalry for both schools and the Border War has been played in three different centuries.[7] CSU leads the series 59-51-5 as of 2023.[as of?] HawaiiThe Paniolo Trophy is awarded to the winner of the college football games played between Wyoming and Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football. This rivalry started in 1979 when Hawaii joined the Western Athletic Conference conference and was played annually until 1997, shortly before Wyoming joined the newly formed Mountain West Conference. Hawaii joined the MWC as a football–only affiliate member in 2012, renewing the rivalry. Wyoming leads the series 17–11 as of 2023.[as of?] Utah StateBridger's Battle is the name for the games played between Wyoming and Utah State, the winner of which is awarded the trophy of the rivalry, a .50 caliber Rocky Mountain Hawken rifle. The rivalry started in 1903, and renewed as an annual game in 2013 when Utah State joined the Mountain West Conference. However, with divisions going away in 2023, this streak of annual meetings ended. USU leads the series 40-28-4. Other rivalriesWyoming and Brigham Young have played each other 79 times, with BYU leading the series 46-30-3. BYU was arguably[ Air Force and Wyoming have played each other a total of 61 times as of 2023.[as of?] Their proximity has made them division rivals in multiple conferences. Two-time WAC Defensive Player of the Year Mitch Donahue once said “I hated them more than CSU. They were good, fast and little. They would bite at your heels all the time.”[This quote needs a citation] In 1998, #23 Air Force defeated number #25 Wyoming to win the WAC championship 10–7. In 2012 after Air Force defeated Wyoming, former Wyoming coach Dave Christensen went on a profanity-laced tirade about Air Force coach Troy Calhoun that drew national attention and a $50,000 fine for Christensen. This is a closely fought contest, with the Air Force Academy leading the all-time series 31-27-3 as of 2023.[as of?] Notable players
Honors and awards
All-Americans
Future non-conference opponentsAnnounced schedules as of July 20, 2023.[13]
References
External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Wyoming Cowboys football. |