Kaden Anderson wasn’t born yet. Neither was Jay Sawvel. And Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman was nine months old.
But I was born and sitting with my mom and siblings in that awful stadium in Fort Collins on October 29, 1966.
Wyoming was undefeated, with the best defense statistically in the country and tough-minded Lloyd Eaton running the show.
Steve Weakland reminds us of that awful day in “A Million Cheers 100 Years of Wyoming Cowboy Football.”
Wyoming was ahead 7-3 when CSU’s quarterback bounced a lateral pass to the halfback, who hesitated as if it were incomplete, and then picked the ball up and fired it to the receiver for a 36-yard touchdown.
Wyoming would lose the game that day, 12-10, but a whole state full of fans lost its faith in right and wrong and good overcoming evil.
Let’s have our dearly departed patron saint of Cowboy football, Larry Birleffi, explain it.
“If it were planned, it was simply and clearly intentional grounding of the ball and circumvention of the rules,” Birleffi said.
The play was in the game plan (i.e. planned) according to CSU coach Mike Lude, who bragged about it after the game.
“It took a lot of practice to teach Bob how to throw the ball so it would bounce right and wouldn’t go out of control. It worked perfectly, especially when Jackson shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly picked up the ball.”
Mom cried for weeks. Fifty-eight years later, I cry whenever I think about the fact that those cheaters won.
For some inexplicable reason, Fort Collins is viewed by some as a great town, a perfect college town filled with trendy places to eat, great shopping and “craft” beer.
I have been to one game there since 1966, the year Dave Christensen got bowl eligible.
We parked in dirt and had to walk forever.
As soon as the game ended, we drove back to Wyoming to eat a great steak and drink many beverages and not give Colorado one more damn dime.
The roster of interns from the Casper Star-Tribune over more than 40 years is long and illustrious - an internationally acclaimed outdoor journalist, a Wyoming Supreme Court justice and numerous folks in various areas of policy making in Cheyenne.
But the one that gets me is the Casper girl who gave up teaching at UW for teaching the sheep.
Although I still love her, I will never get over that.
Heck, CSU Hall of Fame and former athletic director Fum McGraw’s own kids picked Wyoming over CSU. Shows they’ve got more brains than their daddy.
I don’t know if Wyoming will win Friday night.
But I do know this. I’d rather be a Cowboy one day than a cheating, smelly sheep forever.
Bring on the vulgar cheers and the nasty T-shirts. The day has come.
Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at: SallyAnnShurmur@gmail.com
